It was a week of sorrow and sadness. The shocking news of sudden death rocked the whole community. People said he died much too soon. People were asking “how are we going to cope without him?”
Such were the sentiments in Jerusalem in that small community that gathered around Jesus on the Sabbath between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The twelve disciples were feeling quite lost, bereft. The women who provided for him as he traveled tried as best they could to provide something for him in death: dignity, memories that would live on in their hearts, the promise that his name would still be spoken even now that he was gone. Quietly they waited through the Sabbath rest until the sun should rise on Sunday morning.
On Sunday morning the women went to the tomb to complete what the approaching Sabbath had prevented them from doing on Friday night. They brought spices, including some of the pure nard with which Mary had anointed Jesus at Bethany not so many days ago. “She kept it for the day of my burial,” he had said then. But when they got to the tomb they found the stone rolled away, the place where he lay empty, and angels announcing that he had risen from the dead. Just as suddenly as they were plunged into mourning by his death, they were filled with joy at his resurrection. He was not gone forever. He was more than a mere memory that they cherished. He was living. He was speaking. He was filling their future with hope.
And then they began to remember some of the things he had said which had gone right over their heads when he first said them. “In my father’s house there are many dwelling place. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also.” (John 14:2-4) And “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19) And “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.” (John 14:28)
This is the story of Easter. A community was devastated by the death of the one upon whom they depended for so much. It was a death that made no sense whatsoever to them. But then, as they saw him in the Upper Room, on the Road to Emmaus, and by the Sea of Galilee over a period of forty days, they knew they would have strength to go on and carry his message of peace, love, and forgiveness to the whole world. They had a purpose in life, a reason for living.
For our community, it was the week before Holy Week 2010 that produced such emotions as we dealt with death of men in their 50s, infant illness intensified, and treatments suspended for lack of usefulness. It felt like Good Friday and Holy Saturday arrived a week early with all their sorrow.
But as followers of Jesus we recount the awful events of Jesus’ arrest, trials, suffering, and death every year fully aware that a day of joy lies just ahead. We read of Peter’s denial knowing that Jesus will rehabilitate him. We are told of the tears of those who witnessed his walk to Golgotha and know that they will be wiped away soon. We see the cross emptied of his lifeless body knowing that soon the tomb will be empty of his risen body as he goes forth to speak to his disciples.
As followers of Jesus we deal with every illness and every death, knowing that a better day is coming. In First Thessalonians 4:13 these words were addressed to a grieving community: “But we do not want you to uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died……and so we will be with the Lord forever.”
Yes, it was a week of sorrow and sadness, filled with suffering and death. But it ended in triumph. So this Easter Sunday we will sing with conviction of the victory of Our Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death: “Jesus Christ is risen today! Alleluia!”