This is the day after the Crucifixion and the day before the Resurrection, as depicted by the featured photo. Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, and little would have been done on this day. As you can read below in accounts from each of the Gospels, the Pharisees are worried about the body of Jesus being stolen. Pilate gave the order to have the tomb and it was secured by a guard and a seal was placed on the stone.
The body of our Savior was wrapped in linen along with spices and perfume, as was the Jewish burial custom of that period.
The sadness of the day before was very evident and they didn’t know the miracle that was to take place when “then came the morning”!
Matthew 27:62-66
The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
Mark 16:1
Jesus Has Risen
16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.
Luke 23:56
56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
John 19:40
40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.
Pastor Ed Boston 