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What does it mean for something to come back from the dead?

That death is not the final answer?

That nothing ultimately stands in the way of life?

That there is nothing in the world evil enough to overcome the power of that which raises from the dead?

Death may seem a scary thing. But through the concrete actions of dying & resurrecting, Jesus reveals that death isn’t what we should fear most. 

Despair and troubles may plague your days, weeks, and months. However, by taking the full weight of death upon Him and not collapsing under the heaviness of the world’s filth, Jesus is the Master that teaches us there is no obstacle that can’t be endured.

Damnation and failure may seem ubiquitous. A dearth of morality and pervasive greed may mark the day. It is not the final word. In searching the depths of evil, Jesus found that no power could ultimately rival the just, long-suffering, life-giving Love of the Creator of the Universe. 

In the reflections of today, we find that Jesus allows us to partake in His death so that we may partake in His resurrection. Without dying physically ourselves, we are benevolently granted access to that death-pummeling, evil-trumping, love-splurging Power that supersedes the laws of the universe as we know it.

In the moment when God seems most absent, he is strangely most present. 

With the suffering of Jesus on the Cross, the subsequent burial, and then the haunting absence of his presence in Jerusalem, the day after must have been peculiar for most and even more painful for some. 

A few were relieved, and a handful were perplexed. 

We often talk about experiencing death, and even more about experiencing resurrection—but what does it mean for us to experience today? To experience the moments of burial? 

When you’re dunked in the waters and then pulled back out, what’s the significance of the moments you spend immersed? Not the action, not the result, just the experience of being absent. 

In the moment when death has overtaken Christ and he is yet to rise, it appears God is absent. Missing. Resigned. 

But maybe in those moments he is as engaged with His Love as he has ever been. 

Because in that experience is the culmination of His identification with Us. All that He is colliding with all the we are not. And without such, we cannot experience Sunday. 

This day, in the Great Absence, we learn what we cannot do. We cannot fight for ourselves. 

Yet there is one who is fighting to take our place and will be victorious in our place. I am thankful for the Absence. That eerie, lonesome, abandoned absence. Because on this day, we are forced to wrestle with our helplessness.