This week - after Holy Week that held both praise and criticism, worship and cries of death, promises and broken promises, the grave and resurrection - we may find ourselves continuing to feel both the weight of death in so many ways and also the power of life because of the resurrection.
Holy Week reminds us of a time and place and happenings in the life of Jesus. It invites us to think of more than of eggs and bunnies and chocolate. It invites us to remember the One who came and the reason why He came - Immanuel.
Holy Week holds both joy and grief. Both celebration and crucifixion. Both life and death. Both those who chose Jesus and those who rejected Him. It holds space for the tomb and the bursting forth from the tomb. It holds glorious resurrection - the conquering of death - the power of life!
To truly know the power of life we will also know deeply the weight of death and weakness and silent Saturday's of waiting and wondering.
This hard reality holds a mystery of the ways of God that are so opposite of our human thinking. That to give is to gain and to serve is great. That to know loss we can know the gain of something more important.
We know physical graves of loved ones we laid them in. Mourning the loss of who they are to us. We know the 'graves' of buried dreams, of loss that laid us low, and of disappointments and rejections that pierce our hearts.
But the life of Jesus, His resurrection from the grave holds the torch of hope for us all as we stand at those graves and weep. It gives us a way through, a path to see beyond the grave that stands before us.
It offers us the truth that the grave is not the end of the story, it does not have the last say. Jesus does!
His power is greater than the power of the world. His Spirit is greater than the spirit of the world. And that - that gets me so excited because He wants to infuse me with that same power and strength to rise above the grief and weight of death.
In those moments when the weight of death overwhelms our heart and soul, He comes alongside us and says, "I will be with you. I am with you."
He is our Advocate, our High Priest, the One who knows the weight of death but also rose in the power of life. The grave opened to show us He was not in there.
To know the Resurrection Sunday, we will also know the weight of the grave of Friday and the silence of Saturday.
To those who are in the Friday and Saturday's of life - it's okay. The disciples also wondered in those hours, they too struggled to understand what all was happening as the One who they believed was their Master and Saviour was laid in the tomb. The women went to honour Him that Sunday morning. They went, in their grief, to honour Him.
As they stood at the empty grave, more grief of "Where is He?" echoed and bounced around in their hearts.
An angel spoke words of life - "He is not here, He is risen. Behold, this is the place He laid. Go. Go and tell... and remember - remember what He told you".
The disciples went and in Mark 16:8 it says they went with trembling and astonishment. Amazement and fear. They had nothing to say and yet fear stayed with them.
Mary stayed. She stayed by the tomb weeping, weeping with the unanswered questions she held in her heart. She didn't know where Jesus was, even if He would be in this tomb at least she would know, something would make sense. But this? This doesn't.
As she turns around a man asks her why she is weeping.
Oh, the care of Jesus when we don't even recognize Him in our grief. I weep with the sheer magnitude of this truth.
She, thinking it to be the gardener, pleads with him to inform her of where Jesus may be. Her heart was in turmoil - until. Until the Master spoke her name - and then she knew.
Mary then goes and tells. No, she announces, "I have seen the Lord." Announcing isn't just saying it, it gives the picture of loudly saying, declaring, and with emotion.
Jesus speaks your name and mine. In our grief, Jesus comes, holding out His nail-scarred hands to offer us His life, light, and truth of who He is. And when, we too, see the Lord, we leave changed, embolden and declaring the ways of the Lord. I have seen the Lord!
I have had my own questions and wrestlings that include confusion and wondering where Jesus is. My pain doesn't always end with the good news of "He is risen" and so I'm left with what to do when life doesn't make sense. I don't believe I am alone in this for I have heard cries of the same. Our enemy wants us to believe the grave is the end, that Friday wins.
But guess what? IT DOESN'T!
Jesus is our Hope, our Peace and He tells us, "It is I". He invited Thomas, as he wrestled with all that had happened - to "Reach here...". "Reach here and put your finger, and see My hands; reach here your hand, and put it in My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing." John 20:26-27
Jesus was so tender with their grief, their questions, understanding their confusion and in His gentleness He comforted them, reminding them, and bringing evidence of who He is.
And so it is for you and I today. In our moments of grief, questions, the pain, and when His ways don't make sense - He comes. He invites us to reach for Him. He speaks our name. He comes and is here with gentleness and the power of life that is greater than the weight of death.
