“I cannot even begin to imagine.”
It’s a response I’ve gotten used to as someone who writes about grief and feels it often. It’s all said with good intentions, of course, a nod to the gravity of the situation, but mostly, what I want to say in return is, “Yes, of course you can.” This life hurts, certainly we have all felt that.
There’s peripheral grief, the pain we find in tweets and headlines, feeling the loss of someone we once knew or will never meet. It’s the kind we pass through like a hospital hallway, guilty to be leaving so obviously whole, and yet, so unmistakably broken.
There’s nearby grief, sympathy pangs for the people we love and would trade places with in an instant. If only it could be us, we could tend to our own wounds and know exactly where it hurt. But instead, we visit, we sit, we wait, we do our best.
Then there’s intimate grief, the deep aches that shape us and never leave us the same. This kind ushers us into an entirely new reality, where we wonder if we’ll ever find joy again. And at the same time, we also question if we’d even want to, if we deserve to.
Holy Saturday—the day between Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection—invites us into all three dimensions of grief, a display of just how heartbreaking this life can be. After Jesus’s death, we see the silent doubts of onlookers in the crowd, feel the loss experienced by His closest disciples, and intimately grieve Our Father’s separation from His Son. With all of this obvious pain, it’s no wonder we’re hesitant to believe the good-news promises that have been made to us. And yet, here’s the most important part of today’s reading:
The next day, which followed the preparation day, the chief priests
and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said,
“Sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive he said,
‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give orders that the tomb be made secure
until the third day” (Matthew 27:62–64).
Although the scene was full of grief and doubt, the tomb was still secured by guards. While they said they were afraid His followers would steal His body, part of me wants to believe there’s a bigger truth at play here: Even those who opposed Jesus believed there was a chance He would keep His promises.
Regardless of whether we feel grief coming at us from all sides, or we don’t feel able to believe that God is who He says He is, the resurrection still comes. Easter still happens. Jesus offers the kind of mercy I cannot even begin to imagine or understand. Thanks be to God, whose faithfulness is good and whose promises are true. Amen.
I love to think that even the Pharisees thought that maybe Jesus would keep his promise and rise from the dead. It’s so tragic that many of them still refused to believe in him, even with all of the prophecies he fulfilled and all the miracles he performed. It just shows that our expectations can really blind us to the truth. I pray we would allow God to soften our hearts so we can experience his truth, even if it’s different than what we had envisioned.
Dorothy, my dear sister.. I am so very very sorry for your loss..
My heart hurts with yours as you grieve the loss of your niece…
God..
He also grieves with you, holds you and your family close, and collects your tears. He walks with you, and knows your hearts cry. Dear Dorothy, lifting you and yours up in prayer for peace of heart, mind and body.. He is near to the broken hearted, He is near..
Will continue to hold you up in prayer.. sending love wrapped hugs and prayers…xx
So thankful for the reflections here. Our Jesus in His amazing grace and incredible love laid down His life and took my sin. But God, indeed Tina. Praise God for salvation that reaches out to us and pulled us from our own tombs into Eternity, for in having forgiveness and salvation we have truly been resurrected by the Savior. Can I raise a Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!!!
“While they said they were afraid His followers would steal His body, part of me wants to believe there’s a bigger truth at play here: Even those who opposed Jesus believed there was a chance He would keep His promises.”
Amen Kaitlin! This was an amazing revelation to me this morning, that even the ones that betrayed Jesus still had a small part in their heart that believed in Jesus, whether they realized it or not!!
HIS promises are True. I (we) hold onto that promise! I too, (as many of you here do as well) know grief. But joy does come in the morning. It may take longer than a weekend but it does come.
Yesterday late afternoon my college-aged son rushed into the living room where my daughter and I were sitting. He was beside himself crying. He had woken up from a nap, the sky was gloomy and the house was silent. We all know that these days streets are empty and it’s more quiet around our neighborhoods.
He broke down and told my daughter and I that the way the lighting was in his room (gloomy), the silence, he thought Jesus had come and didn’t take him! MY HEART!!
I reassured him since he did make a commitment to follow Jesus that HIS promise stands true. It’s normal to doubt BUT GOD keeps His promises. Sunday is coming!
I just thought I would share that. I know these times are hard for young people.
I never realized how wild it was that they gave Jesus a ‘proper’ and respectful burial. Most ‘criminals’ bodies were simply tossed somewhere following crucifixion, never given a proper burial. But for Joseph, not even a family member, to boldly ask for Jesus body and then to give such a respectful burial is yet another radical and crazy aspect of the Easter story I never realized!
To Robin Mower from yesterday’s post: I appreciate your heart to love each other even though we may not believe “exactly” the same doctrine. I agree with you that there are secondary issues that we, within the body of Christ, will have differences. My intent in yesterday’s post was of concern for those whose beliefs are not of the sound doctrine of the essentials of the faith. My heart is this place is to obey our Lord’s instruction through John as he wrote “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out from the world.. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:1-2). I don’t speak of the “rebellious and hard of heart” with a self-righteous view. I was (and still have in me a remnant of) rebellion and a hard heart. I was blind to the deceptions of these false beliefs that many around me were speaking, but in his mercy the Lord opened my eyes to see there is a need for sound doctrine which disputes the false teaching. Jesus and the apostles warned us over and over again to beware of these falsehoods. My intent in sharing about this is because I know the pain of being deceived and I truly want to see others saved out of the deceptions of so many false belief systems. I write these words with tears and a deep ache in my heart because I truly want the truth to be embraced. I hope this clarifies my heart a bit better on this matter. And I, too, love the ladies of SRT with many prayers!
Thank You Jesus ❤️