March 31, 2013

Two thousand years ago a couple of forlorn women worked their way to a private place of burial. They were there to finish the committal preparations for the young thirty-three year old who had been the latest to experience the slow and humiliating death known as crucifixion. This sad labor would have already been completed had it not been for the obligatory rest commanded by their religion. The day before had been the Sabbath, and no work - least of all, this work - could be performed on the day of rest.

Along with the melancholic task of preparing the body came the natural process of grieving. That is helped along when the mourners can in fact witness the loved one inert and lifeless. In death, our emotions never quite keep pace with reality as we shout, "No!", however, the motionless body offers a silent "Yes." to the new certainty. The person we love is no longer with us. We honor their memory by tending to what remains - the shell, the husk. We hold a ceremony. We have a viewing. We place a marker. The rituals provide for the living an essential means for letting go.

So, it is in the early morning following the Sabbath, that Mary Magdalene and the "other" Mary tread the dusty path to the place where Jesus had been laid to rest. The tomb was a carved-out cavern, a piece of ground owned by a man of means named Joseph, who was from the city of Arimathea. A man who prepares his own grave while yet living is not only thoughtful in regard to his family, he is a man who has made peace with his own mortality. He knows that someday, in a remarkably fast-moving sequence of time, he will close his accounts on this earth. All of life's fights, struggles, sins, intrigues, longings, successes, loves, and pesterings will cease. 

This thoughtful man who had prepared his own tomb was perhaps more prescient than the Scriptures suggest. Matthew 27 gives us this account of Joseph: "As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb."  Matthew indicates that Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus. It follows then that if one is a disciple, then one has not been napping during the sermons! Joseph, it would seem, had actually paid some attention to Jesus and had heard Him say - even if not fully comprehending - something, or such and such, about having need of a tomb for only a few days. It appears that Joseph didn't so much give to Jesus a last resting place, but merely provided a weekend time-share. I know it is a common practice among funeral directors to have a "show" casket for viewing for those who will later be cremated. But I have not yet heard of a corpse getting up and thanking the mortician for the loaner!

Such seemed to be the case as the two ladies ventured out on their plaintive mission of mercy this first Easter morning. They had followed Joseph two days before to this very spot to mark where it was that their friend, their Savior, and their Lord had been laid to rest. They had seen the massive stone rolled over the entry to the crypt. Love, rather than logic led them to the tomb where they - the two ladies - would have to navigate the impossible physics of moving a couple of tons of rock.

As they approached the tomb and focused on their objective, they were stunned to see an other-worldly being, whom they immediately recognized as an angel, lounging on the massive stone. Matthew tells us that this angel had been responsible for a substantial earthquake that had caused the stone to move away from the door of the tomb. After all of that angelic effort, he kicked back and awaited the sure arrival of the two Marys. As they came into view he said this: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” Matthew 28:5-7.

I will not presume to improve upon the announcement that landed upon the ears of our two sisters of mercy: He is not here; he has risen, just as he said!  Go and tell someone...