Silent Saturday (Holy Saturday) fits well with this week’s theme of “unexpected.” The disciples certainly did not expect to feel the way they did on that Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. They were blindsided by Good Friday (because they didn’t pay attention!), and Easter, of course, hadn’t happened yet.

A friend, strong Christian, whom I love and respect, wrote this one Lenten season:

Celebrating our Lenten journey to the empty cross and tomb of our Risen Lord and Savior! 

I appreciate his faith and enthusiasm, but I think he’s rushing things. We probably ought to give a bit more thought to a cross and tomb that were NOT empty. Jesus hung on the cross for hours and died. The tomb was occupied. “He descended into hell. The third day he rose…”

But this isn’t the third day, it’s the second day.

It’s hard to find a picture of Jesus in the tomb as I have posted below. Most tomb pictures are empty. We want to jump straight to the resurrection. But there was a period of time when Jesus was dead. His followers knew he was dead. No one expected the resurrection. They had no thought of his coming back. It was over.

I just found this painting: The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb by Hans Holbein the Younger. It’s said that Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky saw the whole story of redemption in Holbein’s painting of the dead Jesus. See this article by Hardin Crowder.

How were the disciples feeling? Afraid?

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. (John 16.31, ESV, emphasis mine)

Despondent?

They said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. (Luke 24.19 – 21, ESV, emphasis mine)

Sit with it a little while today.

PS An article in Christianity Today, Before Christ Rose, He Was Dead, reminds us of this truth while analyzing its theological and liturgical aspects. Here’s a sample from the introduction to the article:

The question of God’s presence in mortality is central to a significant, but seldom recognized, day in the church’s yearly calendar. Holy Saturday is that odd day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday during which Jesus Christ—life himself!—lay dead in a tomb…The church has had little difficulty fixing its attention on the dying of Christ, and even less difficulty on the rising of Christ, but the being dead of Christ has found relatively little expression in its theology and liturgy. Holy Saturday, however, has an integrity of its own. If the church can attune its ear to its frequency, so easily drowned out by the dominant tones of Good Friday and Easter, it may be able to hear a profound word about human living and dying between the Cross and the Resurrection.

A really unexpected day. Despite the Isaiah 53 prophecy, which the disciples should have been familiar with, and all of Jesus’ forecasts, the disciples weren’t ready.

Then all the disciples left him and fled. (Matthew 26.56, ESV)

Some even argue that Judas’ betrayal was a misguided attempt to force Jesus into behaving like a conquering king and overthrowing the Romans. But of course that wasn’t Jesus’ plan.

That didn’t stop Peter from swinging into action:

And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26.51 – 54, ESV)

After a mock trial, interviews with the Roman governor Pilate, it happened, as we all know:

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” (Matthew 27.33 – 37, ESV)

I can’t do better than a B.C. comic by Johnny Hart:

• Cave man #1: I hate the term “Good Friday.”
• Cave man #2: Why?
• Cave man #1: My Lord was hanged on a tree that day.
• Cave man #2: If YOU were going to be hanged on that day, and he volunteered to take your place, how would you feel?
• Cave man #1: Good
• Cave man #2: Have a nice day.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2.24, ESV)

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5.8, ESV)

Continuing our theme of “unexpected,” today is the day we remember the Last Supper, which opens like this:

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13.1 – 5, NIV)

Here’s Jesus:

• Knowing the Father has put all things under his power
• Knowing that he had come from God
• Knowing he was returning to God

He knew who he was, where he had come from, and where he was going. Therefore:

He washed the disciples’ feet!

Wow. That’s unexpected. Peter certainly didn’t expect it:

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” (John 13.6 – 8, NIV)

But there’s another unexpected lesson:

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13.12 – 17, NIV)

A strong lesson in servanthood.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10.45, NIV)

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. (2 Corinthians 4.5, NKJV)

We find ourselves thinking about “unexpected” this week. And here’s an unexpected lesson on prayer from an unexpected stimulus:

Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21.18 – 22, NIV)

Wow. Where to start? It’s unexpected that Jesus would curse a fig tree. Maybe we remember that the fig tree is a symbol of the nation of Israel and Jesus is pretty put out with Jews right now, especially their leadership.

“When I would gather them,” declares the LORD, “there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.” (Jeremiah 8.13, ESV)

And the prayer lesson is unexpected, too.

Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21.21 – 22, NIV)

What to do with these two verses? The prosperity gospel people have built a whole industry around them. But “it” doesn’t seem to work for most of us. That is, unless none of us has “enough faith.” It works, but we don’t know how to work it?

Maybe we should try putting it into practice whether we understand it or not. After all, it’s not the only time Jesus said it:

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16.24, ESV)

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15.7, ESV)

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15.16, ESV)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14.12 – 14, ESV)

We introduced the theme of “Unexpected” yesterday observing that Jesus’ death should NOT have been unexpected. Isaiah 53 is clear, and Jesus told the disciples what would happen. I confess, I started thinking about unexpected when I read a lovely essay by Amanda Jenkins, wife of Dallas Jenkins of The Chosen. Here’s the essay in its entirety:

We’re more than halfway through the Journey to Holy Week: our 40-day rewatch of all 40 episodes of the show. And at every turn, Jesus does something unexpected:

He sends out disciples to heal, exorcise demons, and share His message…and He creates unlikely duos in the process. Simon and Judas. Big James and Little James. Simon Z for “Zealot” and Matthew the ex-tax collector…Two men who, prior to following Jesus, were on opposite ends of the political spectrum. (I’ll bet you can imagine what that sort of pairing would look like today.)

He wields the power of God, but power goes out from Him when an outcast touches Him. A woman, no less. 

He preaches to thousands for hours on end, filling their hearts and minds and then their stomachs when He feeds 5,000-plus people with only five loaves and two fish…

He sends His disciples to Capernaum by boat, but doesn’t go with them. Instead, He walks on the water to meet them, unhindered by sea or storm or a seething Simon. 

Because time and again, Jesus works in unexpected ways.  

He doesn’t choose powerful or well-connected people; He chooses rebels, misfits, and those who are misunderstood and under-qualified by society’s standards. 

He could’ve healed the world’s wounds with a word. Instead, He calls the disciples to partner with Him (and each other) to change the world. 

He could’ve moved unencumbered through the crowds. Instead, He stops to heal people, including the bleeding woman, and He honors her by saying, “Your faith has made you well” (Matthew 9).

He could’ve fed the hungry crowd by raining down manna from Heaven—after all, He’d done it before (Exodus 16). Instead, He performs a miracle with a little boy’s lunch. 

He could’ve ensured smooth sailing. Instead, He walks on water, proving to His disciples (and to us!) that He is peace in the midst of chaos. 

Indeed, God accomplishes the impossible by way of the ordinary. He’s never overwhelmed by the odds or short on resources or frightened by rough waters. Instead, He turns scarcity into abundance, confusion into calling, and chaos into order. 

Which means, if you feel misplaced, overlooked, or underqualified, know that you are chosen and equipped by the One who repeatedly does the unexpected. 

…expect the unexpected, since that’s where Jesus likes to be. – Amanda Jenkins, wife of Dallas Jenkins, producer and co-writer of The Chosen

A good word: “chosen and equipped by the ONE who repeatedly does the unexpected.” Here’s what Jesus told the disciples in the Upper Room right before the crucifixion:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15.16, ESV)

As we move through Holy Week, I’ll try to write some relevant blogs about this crucial period. Let’s begin with the unexpectedness of it all. Most of Jesus’ followers were expecting a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans. As late as after the resurrection, right before the ascension, the disciples were expecting as much:

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1.6, ESV)

We’ve already seen how, in Isaiah 53, with breath-taking clarity, Isaiah predicted a suffering and dying Servant. Jesus himself tried to make it clear:

[Jesus and his disciples] went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. (Mark 9.30 – 32, ESV)

So his death and resurrection shouldn’t have been unexpected, but it was. Moreover, the disciples should have been used to unexpected. As The Chosen has Jesus saying to Peter when Jesus chose Matthew the tax collector to be one of his followers: “Get used to different.“

Speaking of The Chosen, Amanda Jenkins has written a lovely essay on Unexpected, which I’ll share tomorrow. Stay tuned.

It might have looked something like this, as depicted in The Chosen, Season 5, Episode 1.

This is what the cheerers were thinking about:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9.9, ESV)

Jesus as king…having salvation. Matthew quotes it:

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” (Matthew 21.1 – 11, ESV)

But Jesus doesn’t cleanse Jerusalem of Romans! Instead, he cleanses the Temple of “robbers” supporting a corrupt sacrificial system:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21.12 – 13, ESV)

Then the “blind and the lame” who aren’t even allowed in the Temple come, and Jesus heals them. (See Matthew 21.14)

He’s then challenged (as usual) by the religious leaders:

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. (Matthew 21.15 – 17, ESV)

And that’s it. We enter into Holy Week.

This post might not mean what you think the title suggests. Sure, there is ugly behavior, but that’s not what this is about. I publish this blog daily. That’s every day! If I waited for perfection, I’d be lucky to crank out one blog a year.

My friend Pam Mashburn posted a piece on Facebook the other day. I don’t know if she wrote it or copied it, but it’s worth the reminder:

One of the biggest growth killers in business isn’t competition.

It’s hesitation.

The website that’s 90% done but never launched.

The ad campaign that sits in drafts for weeks.

The video you almost posted… but didn’t.

The new service you keep “refining.”

(and yes, I’ve been guilty of all these things!)

But meanwhile, someone else with half the polish is out there executing — learning, adjusting, winning.

Perfection feels productive.

Action actually is.

In business, momentum beats mastery.

Data beats opinions.

And progress compounds.

Launch it.

Post it.

Sell it.

Test it.

You can optimize once it’s moving. You can’t scale what doesn’t exist. [Or, as I’ve heard many times: “You can’t steer a parked car.”]

What’s one thing you’ve been “perfecting” that really just needs to go live?

I knew a guy who would have an idea for a software product. Then he would spend months…or years coding, refining, adding…but never shipping because it was never “finished.” The closing picture of Pam’s post says it all:

Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go… (Joshua 1.2, ESV)

That’s when Peter stood up and…spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight…” (Acts 2.14, MSG – Peter didn’t have time to polish a sermon!)

We need to catch some highlights from Isaiah 60, and that will be our last look at Isaiah until after Holy Week.

First is a prediction of light:

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60.1 – 3, ESV)

The first sentence forms the lyrics for another marvelous number from Handel’s Messiah.

The rest is a litany of the Great Reversal. Israel will be persecuted, but the nation will rise. Here’s a sample:

The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age. You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. (Isaiah 60.14 – 16, ESV)

And the last verse is another promise that Navigators have claimed for their ministries. We invest in people, help them grow to maturity, and send them out to do the same. The result is:

A little one shall become a thousand, And a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time. (Isaiah 60.22, KJV)

I love this video demonstrating the power of small beginnings:

When I showed it to my Navigator mentor Skip Gray, his immediate response was to quote Isaiah 60.22 (above).

I’ve been relearning Psalm 103 in my scripture memory program, and I confess, I’ve never paused to think much about “slow to anger:”

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Psalm 103.8, ESV)

Slow to anger. On March 20, 2026, Christianity Today published an essay by Thomas Anderson: Urgency Is Not Faithfulness. It’s worth the read in its entirety, but here are a few snippets after he opens with the tendency for churches and Christian leaders to feel the need to say something about the issue of the day, whatever that issue might be.

One then begins to realize the clock is not really measuring time; it is measuring suspicion. I have watched thoughtful, Bible-reading, Spirit-seeking Christians reduce the work of discernment to the speed of a news cycle. I have done it myself. I have mistaken urgency for obedience, letting the clock tell me when to speak and the crowd tell me what to say. But one day, I opened my Bible to Exodus 34 and met a God whose behavior, by his own description, is slow...one of the first things God says about himself is that he is slow to anger.

…The Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama spent years sitting with that same realization and arrived at a conclusion I find disarming. “Love has its speed,” he wrote. “It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. … It goes on … at three miles an hour.”

I’ve written about the three mph ministry before. And, I’ve quoted Koyama before (but didn’t remember). Anderson continues:

Three miles an hour is the pace of a human being walking down a road. Nazareth to Capernaum is roughly 26 miles. At that pace, it takes a bit more than a full workday to make the trek. Jesus has walked that path. But he was rarely in a hurry in all his journeys. He stopped for interruptions. People reached out and touched his cloak. A stranger called his name from the roadside, and he healed. Koyama called this the three-mile-an-hour God

…Patience is a discipline. It should not be mistaken for passivity, cowardice, or the absence of conviction. It is simply the refusal to let the person who provokes determine the speed of the response. Said another way, it is the decision to burn at the right moment, in the right way, for the right reason. The hot take rewards immediacy and treats reaction as courage.

…Most of us know about the story of the woman who was caught in adultery and dragged before Jesus (John 8:1–11). The crowd had gathered. The religious leaders wanted a verdict from Jesus, and they wanted it quickly.

The urgency was manufactured, designed to force a quick answer under pressure. Condemn the woman and appear righteous, or show mercy and appear soft on sin. But Jesus just bent down and wrote in the dirt. The Gospel writer never tells us what he wrote. Commentators have wondered for centuries. But the silence may be the point. When Jesus finally spoke, the words were simple: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone” (v. 7).

It’s a good word…to churches, to ministry leaders, and to the rest of us. James was clear:

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1.19, 20, ESV)