Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day; (shared from Word In Season Devotional) Sometimes we miss that the gospel – the good news about God’s work in Jesus – rests on grief. But that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary didn’t go to the tomb expecting it to be empty. They certainly weren’t counting on meeting an angel. They went intending to grieve. No, they went already grieving. From Friday afternoon until Sunday morning there likely wasn’t a single moment when they weren’t grieving.
And that matters. God raised Jesus from the dead and raises us too. God does this out of sheer steadfast loving-kindness. Joy, too, comes in the morning – as a gift. God turns our love – our mourning – into joy.
Eventually, in the life of the church – in our lives – that love widens out to embrace our fellow Christians, all persons, and the world. And when we open ourselves to the suffering of others, that love becomes grief. And that grief might once again become resurrection joy.
God of resurrection joy, call me into love and into grief. Then show me what else you can do. Amen.
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