Readings for Holy Saturday

 

Episodes

• A Guard is Placed at the Tomb (Matthew 27:62–66)
• Darkness Prevails among the Nephites (3 Nephi 9–10)
• Jesus Goes to the Spirit World and Organizes His Work There (1 Peter 3:18–19, 4:6; D&C 138)

For devotional ideas for this day, see Greater Love Hath No Man. 300–301.

The Herdioan Family Tomb west of the Old City and below the King David Hotel gives an idea of what a rich tomb of the Second Temple Period would have looked like. In Joseph of Arimathea's borrowed tomb, the body of Jesus was buried.

Selected Texts and Translations: Matthew 27:62–66; 1 Peter 3:18–19, 4:6; D&C 138:11–23, 30–39

Matthew’s short treatment of the guard and seal placed upon the tomb is unique in the Gospel narratives. Although it is sometimes seen in the polemical context of the Matthean community’s struggle with emerging Rabbinic Judaism in the period immediately after the destruction of the temple in a.d. 70, there is no need to doubt its basic historicity.[1] The letter of 1 Peter deals largely with the alienation and growing persecution that early Christians felt in the face of broader pagan society; the two short excerpts presented here are part of a larger discussion on how Christians should respond in the face of such hostility (3:13‒4:19). As noted above, D&C 138 is a Latter-day vision in October 1918 to Joseph F. Smith, which was placed at the end of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1978.

See the discussion in Greater Love Hath No Man, 196–204.

Matthew

27

⁶²On the next day, which was the day after the preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered before Pilate, ⁶³saying, “Sir, we remember that this imposter while he was still alive say, ‘After three days, I will be raised.’ ⁶⁴Accordingly, order that the tomb be made secure until the third day, so that his disciples not come, steal the body, and tell the people, ‘He was raised from the dead!’ Then the last deception will be worse than the first.” ⁶⁵Pilate said to them, “Take a guard. Go, make it as secure as you can.” ⁶⁶So, after they went, they made the tomb secure with the guard, setting a seal on the stone.

 

1 Peter

3

 ¹⁸For even Christ suffered once for sins, a righteous man for the unrighteous, to bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh yet made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which he, having gone among the spirits in prison, preached ²⁰to those who had once been disobedient while God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared in which a few people—that is just eight souls—were brought safely through the water.

4

 ⁶For this reason the gospel was preached even to the dead, so that they might be judged in the flesh as humans are but live in the spirit as God does.

 

Doctrine and Covenants

138

 ¹¹As I pondered over these things which are written, the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great. ¹²And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality; ¹³And who had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer’s name. ¹⁴All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. ¹⁵I beheld that they were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand. ¹⁶They were assembled awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world, to declare their redemption from the bands of death. ¹⁷Their sleeping dust was to be restored unto its perfect frame, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh upon them, the spirit and the body to be united never again to be divided, that they might receive a fulness of joy.

¹⁸While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful; ¹⁹And there he preached to them the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance. ²⁰But unto the wicked he did not go, and among the ungodly and the unrepentant who had defiled themselves while in the flesh, his voice was not raised; ²¹Neither did the rebellious who rejected the testimonies and the warnings of the ancient prophets behold his presence, nor look upon his face. ²²Where these were, darkness reigned, but among the righteous there was peace; ²³And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell.

³⁰But behold, from among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to fall the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead. ³¹And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the acceptable day of the Lord and proclaim liberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would repent of their sins and receive the gospel. ³²Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets. ³³These were taught faith in God, repentance from sin, vicarious baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, ³⁴And all other principles of the gospel that were necessary for them to know in order to qualify themselves that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. ³⁵And so it was made known among the dead, both small and great, the unrighteous as well as the faithful, that redemption had been wrought through the sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross.

³⁶Thus was it made known that our Redeemer spent his time during his sojourn in the world of spirits, instructing and preparing the faithful spirits of the prophets who had testified of him in the flesh; ³⁷That they might carry the message of redemption unto all the dead, unto whom he could not go personally, because of their rebellion and transgression, that they through the ministration of his servants might also hear his words. ³⁸Among the great and mighty ones who were assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father Adam, the Ancient of Days and father of all, ³⁹And our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God.

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[1] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 1235.