Holy Saturday is a sad day. The Messiah is dead. Everyone is grieving. The apostles are feeling hopeless. How could it have ended this way? Mary is crying for her lost Son. Yes, she always knew in her heart that He was borrowed, that He belonged to God and that one day He would need to return to His Father, but she never imagined that she would have to witness the crucifixion of her beloved Son.
As we mourn the death of Jesus, we are joined by a young woman that is also mourning but for a very different reason. Hannah is sad because she is barren. Hannah lived 1100 years before the birth of Jesus. She was married to a man named Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives. Penninah had a lot of children. Elkanah loved Hannah but she was completely distraught because she couldn't bear children. And Penninah would taunt her at every opportunity. It sounds so familiar. All this jealousy and competition among the wives. It's a good thing that in our culture we don't need to deal with this issue. Husbands have one wife and that is enough.
It's no wonder that Hannah was so sad to the point that she cried all the time and she would not eat. Hannah was so distressed that she made a vow to the Lord. If the Lord answered her prayer and gave her a male son, she would offer her son to the Lord. God did answer Hannah's prayer with a son. She named him Samuel. And Hannah lent him to the Lord all the days of his life.
How would you feel if you had to leave your son in the temple, at a very young age, and only get to see him once a year? Even though Hannah made the promise, I'm sure when the time came her motherly instincts took over and it must have been very difficult for her to part from her son. I remember vividly the day I had to leave my two boys in college and when my daughter left to England to study abroad. All three times I left with a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes. And I knew that I would see them again in a short time. So I cannot fathom what Hannah must have been feeling on the day she left Samuel on the temple. She left him with God because she had promised God that if He gave her a son she would give him back to God. And as difficult as that must have been, she rejoices because she is so grateful for the son that God sent her and because she has so much faith in God's plan for her son. Samuel would become one of the greatest prophets of Israel.
This is the same type of faith that we saw in Abraham and the same type of faith that we see in Mary when she also has to struggle with the separation from her Son. Even though all along she knew that Jesus was the Son of God, He was also her Son, her only Son, her beloved boy. When the day came to give Him back, a sword pierced her heart, and on this Holy Saturday, we grieve with Mary. And we pray that soon we can rejoice, as Hannah was able to rejoice.
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