Hallelujah!
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Welcome to Easter. Today we celebrate the miracle of Christ rising from death – the paschal mystery where new life emerges from that which has died.
Yes, we make room to celebrate. Yet, you may still be carrying your own places of grief that have not resolved on the timeline of the church calendar. Perhaps you are longing to be seen as Mary was in the garden. Maybe you wish you could find your own way to describe what the grief feels like freshly today. Maybe you hope someone might be willing to listen to your tears. Or you are wanting a place where there is permission to be grieving and feeling disoriented by your grief.
If this is you, please know that your grieving is welcome here. There is One here with you, willing to hear about your sorrow. Perhaps you can find a safe place inside of you where you and Jesus can sense into what the grief is like today. Maybe you feel it somewhere in your body, or maybe a description comes by way of a picture or metaphor or sound or gesture. Give yourself room for the grief to describe itself to you and Jesus. And like Jesus in the Garden all those years ago, see if you and him can just listen to the grief and the longing underneath it. No fixing, no clinging needed. Just listening, being with, being beside and witnessing the grief with compassion and patience. If you are noticing a part of you feeling afraid of falling into a pit of despair by listening to the grief, start there by acknowledging that. Notice what that is like to simply be honest with Jesus about the feelings as they are.
New life emerges in ways we cannot control or even imagine. The Spirit of Christ is with us and within us, faithfully interceding on our behalf. And on some mysterious timeline, making all things new. May there be grace to wait and listen. Christ is calling to you.
John 20:1-18 (NLT)
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
“Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, phrase or image which caught your attention you as you listened to or slowly read the text? Quietly reflect on this with Jesus.
Notice any felt sense that seems to emerge as you linger with this passage. It might come as a bodily feeling, emotion, metaphor, picture, gesture or sound. See if you can describe it and simply be with it with patient curiosity. Be open to whatever more might emerge.
Perhaps you might want to draw, color or journal your conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some quiet moments with Jesus, simply resting safely in his presence.