Grief, as we have talked about this month, can only be truly healed by the resurrection of Jesus.
The power found in the resurrection gives us the assurance that death and loss have been defeated. Only when we acquaint ourselves with the resurrection can we truly experience the peace that is actually greater than any loss.
Jesus had been executed two days before, while the disciples watched from a distance. One of them had betrayed him, and another had rejected him three times before a crowd of people. His body was placed in the tomb of a friend, and it had been done hastily so the devote Jews would not violate the Sabbath.
On the first day of the week, a woman, Mary Magdalene, got up before the sun and went to the graveyard where the stone was rolled away from the entrance. She went back, but returned quickly with two of the disciples to explore an empty tomb.
Jesus had risen from the grave on this morning, but the people still were confused. They believed his body had been taken, and they were in despair because they did not know where to look. First, they had watched him die; now, they had to find his body. If the story were to end here, it would be embarrassment on top of grief.
Mary was left alone at the tomb when the two disciples went back to tell the others, and it was then that she saw not only two angels sitting where the body had been, but Jesus himself appeared to her.
At first, she confused him for the gardener. Perhaps it was her experience of grief that temporarily blinded her, but when he called her by name, she was awakened to who was standing in front of her. This is the place where hope rose from the grave to present the final victory over what had always been the final defeat. Death was no longer the end of life. Grief fled instantly, the moment Mary recognized her Savior standing with her.
It is the hope embodied in that moment at the tomb that gives all of us the ability to overcome grief. Only hope can overcome the grief of loss. We see it in the way Mary turns from weeping to gladness at recognizing the teacher. And without that hope given to us, we would be left in our own grief everytime the pain of loss came to visit itself upon our lives.
If it were not for the resurrection, death would be the end of all our discussions. The assurance we have for eternal life would cease, and we would be left standing in the graveyard beside Mary Magdalene, staring at a stone-covered tomb.
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As Paul was with the Corinthians in the previous lesson, we must not allow anyone to be uninformed. Grieving still occurs. Even at the death of Jesus, they grieved his passing, as we see in the tears of Mary Magdalene and the distress of the disciples.
We still lose people in our lives, and things change in ways we cannot plan for. The hope we have is that loss, of both people close to us and control of our circumstances, is not the final end of things.
Jesus’ resurrection brings the ultimate hope. We are given hope in the resurrection that we can be reconciled with God to those who we lose. When our lives begin to spin out of our control, we have hope that God has the final say in how things will be.
The resurrection is the only thing that can give hope to everyone in every situation. It comes from the God who makes the blind see and the lame walk. The healing seen in the miracles of Jesus to those who were sick is made full in the way his death and resurrection heal our grief.
It is all part of one movement that is finished, not on the cross of Friday, but truly completed in the resurrection of Sunday. That garden, when it seemed hope truly had vanished with the missing body of Jesus, is ground zero for the hope of the nations. The Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Healer, has brought peace and healing to all of us.
Without experiencing the resurrection, we cannot experience peace and healing; and without peace and healing, we cannot overcome our own grief. The previous weeks of talking about grief have no meaning without the events of the garden after the stone had been rolled away.
It is here we must begin our search. It is odd that this should be the final lesson of this month, but not inappropriate. With grief looming in front of us, how can we summit this mountain without the resurrection?
Questions for reflection
• In verse 8 of this week’s passage, we read that the other disciple saw and believed, but verse 9 says they still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. What did the other disciple understand?
• Who is a better model of our response to an empty tomb; the disciples who leave, or Mary Magdalene who stays? Why?
• When grief looks to be too large for us to overcome, how does the remembrance of the resurrection give you hope?
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