Scripture: Mark 16:1-8 (NRSV)
Two downcast women, deep in grief and weighed down by pain and suffering,
laboriously take one step at a time in the direction of their pain –
unable to avoid the inevitable,
unable to make sense of the senseless,
unable to do anything other than that which they know must be done:
funnel whatever energy remains into tender touch
for the one they so deeply loved,
for the one they so painfully lost.
In their anguish, their eyes stay fixed on the ground,
not wanting to be doing what they’re doing,
not wanting to be getting closer to the crux of their pain with each step,
not wanting to have to figure out how to do the heavy lifting that is awaiting them.
They are so weighed down already.
They murmur to each other:
How will we do this?
How will we carry on?
How can we get past the oppressive weight?
The path comes to an end.
They slowly look up.
Their eyes widen.
Things are not as they expected.
The heavy lifting has already been done.
This is, indeed, Good News! Hallelujah!
Thank you for “signing up” and journeying with all of us at Goshen College during this season of Lent. We trust that your journey has been enriched by having others to walk alongside you during these days of struggle and suffering on the road to new life. Now as you live into the season of Easter may you do so with a lightness in your step and a persistent awareness that the heavy lifting has already been taken care of. Carry on in wonder and amazement! Hallelujah!
NOTE FROM THE EDITORS:
Join us again for devotions when the season of Advent begins (unless you unsubscribe, they will automatically come to you when they begin again in late November 2012).
Scripture: Mark 16:1-8 (NRSV)
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.