Sleep is the great equalizer.

The greatest to the least of us sleep. Every day. Young, old, black, white, educated or not, we spend about one third of our days unconscious.

This is Holy Saturday. On this day, the church remembers Jesus sleep in the grave that Saturday so long ago.

And perhaps that’s one of the reasons why we sleep every night: to remember that we too will one day sleep in the grave, waiting in the grave for our resurrection from the sleep of death.

So on this Holy Saturday, as you go off to sleep tonight, remember that as you will rise from natural sleep on Sunday morning, so the Easter that we celebrate tomorrow is a guarantee of your rising from death one day.

And likewise remember that for Jesus’ disciples those many years ago, this was the lowest time of their lives, when their Lord lay dead in the tomb. So for you, when all human hope seems gone, Easter is coming. God has not given up on you or given up his watch over you. Trust in that mercy. Easter is coming.