Saturday

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Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb … He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance … Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb (Matthew 27:58-61).

Don’t skip past this day.  Yes, spring is upon us and there are chores to be done.  The pandemic appears to be receding (let us pray), hope of a return to the kind of lives we knew more than a year ago is growing, Easter is tomorrow ---

But don’t skip past this day. What were Jesus’ disciples doing on this day twenty centuries ago?  Sitting with the death of Jesus.  Sitting in the overwhelming reality of death.  

It was the Sabbath.  It had begun at sundown the night before, immediately following the hurried burial of the body of Jesus.  This morning, regardless of the weather, spring birdsong, the incipient greening of the earth, all they knew was a vast bleakness.  Jesus was dead.  Hope had been murdered, promises capriciously canceled.  It was like Moses had led the people to the banks of the Sea, only to turn everyone around and head back into slavery in Egypt.  “We thought he was the one … but now we know better.”

The Good News makes room for grief.  This past year has had “deaths” of many kinds, from the deaths of those we love, to the smaller but no less real kinds of death: the death of jobs, of marriages and friendships, of proms, graduations, weddings and everything else that just wasn’t able to survive the pressures of politics and culture wars, pandemic and public health, and all the forms of injustice that continue to haunt and oppress the world.

Take some time today to just sit with the death of Jesus, to re-enter the reality of all that you hoped for and depended upon coming to a horrific end.  Sit with the “deaths” you have experienced over the past year and more.  You’re not “wallowing,” you’re not being morbid, you are facing and steering into the pain of a world where Death just always seem to win out in the end.  Following the one who cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus did not attempt to steer around Death; he headed straight in.  And perhaps the reason for the “three days’ wait” between Good Friday eve and Easter morn is to allow his people the time and space and permission to face the howling abyss …

… and await the one who can, who does, and who will cry out, “Lazarus: come forth!”

Easter comes – but not just yet.  Today we sit with the dying and death of Jesus.

Just one prayer prompt today: Bring before the Lord whatever “deaths” you have experienced during this past year.  Name them, sit with the reality of them and the consequences from them. Take your time.  Then wonder – just wonder – what an impossible “life from the dead” might look like …

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