this time, this time of quietness is the hardest. I imagine the disciples spent these 24 hours on Saturday numb, confused, lost...trying to act like normal, but knowing, completely realizing that everything was not normal...their entire lives had been changed, turned upside down in the last 3 years...they had been religious outsiders, and it seemed they were becoming insiders and now their Teacher, the one they were convinced was Messiah is wrapped up in some cloths in a tomb, dead. what do they have to trust? what do they have to hold on to?
Luke 23.56 says, And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. This is what they did, the rested from their work, they obeyed the commandment, they observed the Sabbath and rested. I can imagine them sitting in their homes, staring out their windows, staring at their walls...their kids running around, the smell of food wafting in the air, their animals doing their animal business while they sat oblivious to it all wondering about what had just happened.
We all have expectations, things we think that are going to happen, things that are suppossed to happen, things that aren't supposed to happen...we have expectations of perfect relationships, we have expectations of fulfilled desires, we have expectations that we can trust ourselves, we have expectations of safety and sanity and at some point or another, there comes a time in our lives when are expectations are carried away by some dudes with clubs and torches and sometimes with the kiss of one we hold most dear. The pain mounts, the confusion mounts, the fears mount and grow exponentially until we reach that place of Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection where all we can do is sit, rest, wonder...we can't feel anymore, we want to feel, to feel is to be human, we want something that can stir us from our numbness...but we sit, we stare, we wonder if we'll ever be healed from those pains, from those broken expectations, we wonder if the pain we feel that we've cause ourselves will ever subside and vanish, or will it become such a normal pattern of our life that we won't even feel it anymore. so we get started, we do what we know, we do what we believe is normal, we rest on the Sabbath, we've always rested on the Sabbath, and when Sabbath ends, we continue to do what is normal, when someone dies...
...Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." So Petere and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running togetherl; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which haD BEEN ON His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes...
Just as things were returning to normal...just as life was getting put back together, as we are coming to grips with the fact that what we ha expected wasn't going to be, we get thrown this curveball...imagine the desperation in Mary's voice...as one whom Jesus had healed so incredibly, she has a deep love and trust in the Lord and she finds the tomb empty, goes and finds the boys and says, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him" She had gone to continue the grieving process to continue the healing process and now there is more chaos, now there is more confusion...now Jesus' body is missing!! So Peter and we presume John get up and start running, and we get a nice little glimpse into their relationship...and when the other disciple entered it says he saw and believed...and what he believed at this point is that the Lord's body has been taken. It was gone...so they went home...but not Mary...ya see here's the thing about us dudes sometimes...we have feelings, we don't know what to do with them, we don't know how to speak them clearly so we move on...but thankfully you ladies are much better at expressing your emotions and seeing that as part of your healing process...for Mary...
...was standing otside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stopped and looked into the tomb; and she saw 2 angels in white siiting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him"
Because they have taken away my stability, they have taken away my peace, they have taken away all that I was able to trust and hope in and now I've got nothing, I don't even know what they did with it. I had a job...recession, gone. I had a house...bad market, gone. I had friends...bad decision, gone. I had family...broken promises, gone. I had healing and hope...crucified Messiah; and it feels like it is all gone. It was her emotions, it was her willingness to be honest with her inability to move on, to be honest with her inability to fix it all herself that made her ready for what was next...
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Her problem and sorrow and her tears had so filled her eyes, so filled her heart that she could not even recognized the Hope in front of her...Jesus said to hear, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away."
Mary is still clinging to those old expectations, still clinging to an old reality that she had constructed for herself, she is still clinging to those expectations that had fallen rather than allowing her eyes to yet be opened to the new expectation, the new reality that stands in front of her....
Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God." MAry Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her. I have seen the Lord, and he spoke to me, I have seen the Lord and I was able to cling to Him, I have seen the Lord and He is not dead!!!!
Friends, even in the midst of our hurts, our struggles, our busted up, broken, and destroyed expectations for our lives, it is time to reorient ourselves around the truth of a resurrected Lord. Even when our old expectations have been lost, there is a promise of resurrection. Even when the relationships we've held on to become fractured, there is a promise of resurrection. Even when the stability that had become our norm has its feet cut out from under it, there is the promise of resurrection.
Paul writes to the church in Corinth that is still clinging to a realty that doesn't trust in the fullness of the Resurrection...But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed Up in victory! O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, nd the power of isn is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nothing in this life that comes against us...not any kind of addiction, not any kind of hate, not any kind of pain, not any kind of man-made separation is left untouched by the redeeming God. These mortal bodies, these frail lives are not condemned to a life of suffering here on earth, we are not condemned to a life of just getting by here on earth, but we can stand today, because of the grace of Friday and the Victory of Sunday and shout, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? We serve a resurrected Lord. We celebrate the Lord's Supper today, not because our God has died, but because our God now lives!!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment