Mourning
“Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in clean linen and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone accross the entrance of the tomb and departed. But Mary Magdelene and the other Mary remained sitting there, facing the tomb.” Matthew 27:59-61
I believe the other Mary was Mary, mother of Jesus. I see both of the women who loved Jesus so much unable to walk away. Total shock having set in because they just saw this loved one murdered viciously. Defiled. Mocked. Wouldn’t any one of us be in shock and be unable to abandon our own loved one?I have no patience for the idea that Mary was sitting by passively. How could a mother be passive when this is happening to her son? I think Mary would like to refute this vision of her. So on Mary’s behalf…I present another vision. A vision of a mother mourning her child. I see her questioning her decision to say yes all of those years ago as she watches her son hanging on a cross. I watch her look in horror at the blood stains on her robe as she sits wailing at the foot of the cross. I feel her anger and her despair. I see Mary of Magdela unable to comfort the mother of her friend because she is in such a state herself. I believe that they sit at the tomb because they are trying to process what has happened. I believe that they believe it is all over and was all for nothing. That they are back to square one, only now they are in danger because of their association. I see Mary looking around for the other disciples, and maybe not seeing them, thinking them cowards. They are bereft. Abandoned. Lost.Everything I am thinking is human. All of these reactions are human reactions and predictable. I want to be with them at the tomb…I want to assure them that everything will be fine. But how could I… when tomorrow hasn’t come? So, in my heart I sit and wait with them, knowing something that they don’t know. I feel it is unfair, for Jesus meant so much to both of them.Today I pray for all who suffer from injustice and I remember what they did to my Lord.
