When the Sabbath was over … very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb … (Mark 16:1-2)

We’ll be reading this week’s Connect Devotionals in the days immediately after Palm Sunday.  However, they focus on the sermon text for next Sunday, Easter Sunday. So we’re doing a bit of time-bending here, providing tomorrow’s news (or next Sunday’s news) today, writing about the good news ahead even as we bend ourselves this week into the story of Jesus’ rejection, crucifixion, death and burial.

Please take time to be in the story of this week.  Yes, you may be familiar with the story; no need to pretend you aren’t.  But slow down, take time to follow Jesus, from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (“God saves!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” the crowd cried) through the increasing tension and conflict, through the strange parables and prophecies, the betrayal, that Passover Last Supper that is also the first feast of a new covenant, to arrest and trial (“Crucify him!  We will not have this man to be king over us!” the crowd cried), to Golgotha, to a donated tomb.

We live in our own times of tension and conflict, of rising anxiety and fear, of a deep sense of our vulnerability and mortality, of infection rates and, most sadly, death counts.  Our illusions of power and control, the comfort we take from feeling like we know what’s going to happen, even have some say in what happens, our gnawing awareness that there may be some kind of terrible “end” coming for us or someone we love are in fact excellent preparation to re-enter and re-inhabit the story of Passion Week.

The New Testament squarely faces the fact that the human mortality rate remains at 100%.  Yes, Jesus has conquered Death, defeated the Devil, and broken the power of Sin, decisively and forever!  And yet: we will all die, each and every one of us. We hope that day will be far off, but know it may not be.  And, far or near, it is ahead. We try to avoid thinking about death, especially our own or that of those we love; now we can’t help thinking about it.

Next Sunday’s sermon follows three women, two Marys and a Salome, about whom we know very little.  Having observed the Sabbath, having “rested” from work, they are now on their way to work, the work of finishing the preparation of Jesus’ body for burial.  It’s familiar work, this work of giving death its due. The women are not “hoping to be surprised;” their main question is how to remove the stone that seals the tomb.

The story Mark tells us is not “natural,” it is not expected, there is nothing automatic or “Of course!” about it at all.  Spring comes each year because of the tilt of the Earth’s axis, but resurrection does not come on those terms or schedule.

Resurrection does not come on our terms or schedule, does not come at our command, is not designed to our expectations or preconditions.

The women went their way to the work of dealing with death, the hard, serious, necessary work of facing the reality of death.  They did not know what was coming, but they were doing, as best they knew, what needed to be done.

There is a Sabbath rest coming, but now we must again do our six days of work.  We must follow Jesus, day by day, this week and every week. We must pray for the sick and dying, follow needed precautions, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. We are facing something unprecedented.

The women were about to face the Unprecedented.  It’s what happens on the Jesus Way.

Mark 16:1-8 doesn’t make sense apart from the whole story.  Take time each day this week to follow Jesus through the days of Passion Week, as we are given it in Mark 11-15.