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Welcome to Westminster Abbey's Lent and Easter reflections.

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On Holy Saturday, we begin with the Gospel according to Matthew,

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chapter twenty-seven, verses fifty-seven to sixty-six.

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When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea,
named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus.

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He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;

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then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.

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So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth
and laid it in his own new tomb,

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which he had hewn in the rock.

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He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb
and went away.

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Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there,
sitting opposite the tomb.

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The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation,

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the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said,

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‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive,
“After three days I will rise again.”

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Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day;

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otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people,

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“He has been raised from the dead”, and the last deception
would be worse than the first.’

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 Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers;
go, make it as secure as you can.’

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So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure
by sealing the stone.

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Today is a day of stillness.

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One ancient sermon text for Holy Saturday begins,

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‘What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth,
a great silence, and stillness,

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a great silence because the King sleeps;

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the earth was in terror and was still,

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because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who
were sleeping from the ages.

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God has died in the flesh, and the underworld
has trembled.’

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On this day, Jesus lies in the tomb.

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There is a real death, and a real burial.

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That is part of the point and we need to
sit with the reality for a moment.

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This is what sin does.

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But there is a long tradition that on this day, hell was harrowed,
destroyed, plundered.

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God’s love for us and for our salvation goes this far:

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it goes beyond any boundaries which limit or separate.

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In fact, in this new creation of Easter,

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we see that the barriers between God and humanity,
life and death, no longer exist.

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Today, the invisible silent work of Christ’s ministry somehow continues,
as the reweaving of life and death takes place.

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‘The underworld has trembled’, that sermon text tells us.

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It has trembled because death, through this death, shall die.

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Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,

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who on Holy Saturday lay in the tomb and so hallowed the grave to be
a bed of hope for all who put their trust in thee:

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grant us such sorrow for our sins, which were the cause of thy passion,

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that when our bodies lie in the dust, our souls may
live for ever with thee.

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Who livest and reignest, world without end.

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Amen.