RESURRECTION WEEK DEVOTION: 7 DAYS. 7 REFLECTIONS. 1 ETERNITY-SHAKING RESURRECTION!

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

Matthew 27:61 ESV

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Mark 15:47 ESV

It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.
The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.
Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Luke 23:54-56 ESV

How are we mortal beings supposed to deal with grief, especially the loss of our most cherished loved ones to the inevitability of death?

First, put yourself in the sandals worn by the followers of Jesus. Now ask that question again… Where is the hope in all this horror of our Master’s death?

The visuals of a murderous, tortured execution would have been traumatic to a level difficult to grasp. Their Master had died a cruel death beyond imagination, suffering the barbaric affliction of a wooden cross.

Leaving the scene of His death and quick burial before the onset of the Sabbath, the sheep were left without the physical presence of their Shepherd.

Grief in 5 stages

Swiss psychiatrist, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, categorised the stages of grief in her ground-breaking work, On Death and Dying, published in 1969. They are, in order:

1. Denial,
2. Anger,
3. Bargaining
4. Depression, and
5. Acceptance

US Psychologist Caitlin Stanaway further suggests that ‘persistent, traumatic grief can cause us to cycle (sometimes quickly) through the stages’.¹

Most likely, in the quietness of the Sabbath rest, the followers were feeling overwhelmed with sorrow, and likely dealing with that pain in different ways, at individual paces and with hope seemingly lost.

What we know — with the benefit of having finished the story — is that Jesus does NOT stay in the tomb wherein He was laid.

He rises again in this ground-shaking, curtain-tearing, dead-raising narrative… TOMORROW!

But for today, OUR DAY, we can shake off the cycles of hopeless pain with the certainty of what is to come.

Yes, the followers mourned, wept, and wept until they felt there were no more tears in their bodies.

But we, in 2023, have peeked at the last pages of the story. We know what’s to come — more importantly, what has ALREADY occurred. For us, joy substitutes grief.

Tomorrow, embrace and share that joy. Today, rest in it.

• Reference: ¹ Stanaway, C. (2020, June 8). The Stages of Grief: Accepting the Unacceptable. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://is.gd/g5dhX7

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For a full breakdown of the week leading to the Resurrection of Jesus, see this table provided by the team who brought us the English Standard Version of the Bible: https://is.gd/olgMH0

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