Easter Sunday

Mary Magdalene awakens. It is still dark outside, but it is finally Sunday morning. Time to get up, she thinks to herself. Time to prepare Jesus’ body for it’s final burial. She sits for a moment on her bed, thinking of when she first met Jesus. She had been possessed by seven demons and he had commanded them to leave her. My life has not been the same since that time, she thinks to herself. Where would I be without him? What will I do without my Savior, my friend? She rises from her bed, preparing herself for what she must do, with a great heaviness on her heart.

As the first streaks of dawn wind their way across the dark sky, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, knock on the door of Mary Magdalene. “Are you ready, Mary?” they ask. “Yes.” The three women walk quickly through the streets to the place where Jesus was laid, wondering amongst themselves who would roll away the large stone that had been ordered to be placed in front of the tomb by the chief priests and the Pharisees.

“Look!” gasps Salome. Both Mary’s look in the direction of the tomb. The huge stone is gone, rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. Carefully, the three ladies walk into the tomb and are startled to see a young man sitting inside wearing a long, white robe. They are very frightened. The young man speaks and says, “Please don’t be afraid. I know that you seek Jesus. He is not here. He is risen! Look, here is the place where his body once lay.” The three women turn and run from the tomb in both fear and amazement. What has become of Jesus’ body?

A short while later, as Mary Magdalene is sitting dazed in the garden near the tomb and in shock from this morning’s events, she suddenly feels a peace envelope her. “Mary.” She looks up, startled by the sound of her name. By a voice she recognizes so well. “Rabboni! Jesus!” she gasps. “I am he that lived, and then was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. I hold the keys of hell and death.”

The Bible says “He was wounded for our transgressions (disobedience), he was bruised for our iniquities (wicked acts). The chastisement (punishment inflicted by whipping) of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed (to make whole, to restore to original purity or integrity).” Isaiah 53:5

© Melissa A. Gustafson April 8, 2007

Saturday

The agony of waiting to prepare his body for it’s final interment is excruciating. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, prepare the spices and ointments in silence, knowing that they must finish it before sunset. Before the Sabbath begins. And then, they must wait for one full day before they can go and anoint his body for it’s final burial. Would the pain and heartbreak of this day ever end? How could they have crucified Jesus instead of that murderer, Barabas? What was it the old prophet Isaiah had said? “…and he bare the sin of many, and made intersession for the transgressors.” So many of the people had taunted him with his own words, saying, “Ah, you that said you would destroy the temple and build it again in three days? Save yourself! Come down from the cross!” Why hadn’t he done just that? If he was the Messiah, why did he not save himself and show these doubters who he really was?

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, sit and wait. Doubt and despair fill their minds. But their hearts, their hearts seem to know something different and so they wait. They wait for the Sabbath to pass. They wait for Sunday to arrive. Three days. That was what he had said. He would raise the temple again in three days.

Satan and his demons are having a celebration. They have defeated Jesus! The living son of God! He is dead! They can’t wait to plan their next attack on mankind. Jesus isn’t in the way to stop them any longer.

Suddenly, over the cacophony of the celebration, a sound shakes these demons to their core. They hear the squeak of a door opening and there is suddenly this brilliant light filling the room where they are at. It is so bright, they shade their beady demon eyes with their hands to try and see what the source of this light is. Their stomachs immediately clench and a sour feeling creeps up from the deepest part of their beings. Every muscle is tense. How can this be? This is not possible! He is dead! He cannot be standing before us now! But he was standing before them. In all his heavenly glory…Jesus. “I have come for the keys!” Satan trembled in anger…how could this be? He should not be here! “No! The keys are mine! They have been mine since Eve and Adam disobeyed you in the garden! I will not give them up!” he shouted, his voice trembling. “The keys, Lucifer!” Jesus said in a voice filled with great authority and power. Shaking, Satan stumbles forward, unable to see where he is going in the brightness of Jesus. “Take them then!” he hisses. “But know that this is not the end for us. I will do battle for generation upon generation for these souls. And we will see who will win in the end!”

Jesus takes the keys from Satan, smiling. “We already know who wins, Lucifer. I do. And though you will continue to pollute the minds and hearts of people with your filth, I will continue to love them, forgive them and comfort them and win their hearts with my unconditional and unwavering love. I have given my life in place of theirs, so they will have eternity to spend with me. I am the resurrection and the life: those who believe in me, though they were dead, yet will they live. And those that live and believe in me will never die.”

Darkness falls over Jerusalem as the Sabbath comes to an end. This day has been dreary. Dark and cold. As if life it’s self has left the earth. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, look at one another. Tomorrow. In the morning they will go and prepare the body of Jesus. Sunday is almost here. What will happen tomorrow?


© Melissa A. Gustafson April 7, 2007

Good Friday

Friday – the day he trudged through the streets of Jerusalem with the heavy weight of the cross upon his torn back, laid open by the thirty-nine lashes from a cat-of-nine tails. With those who just six days before who had greeted him in these same streets with palm leaves shouting out, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” now screaming obscenities and spitting on him as he labors through the mass of bodies that line the narrow street. He stumbles, the wood from the cross tearing into his raw and mangled back, slivers of wood driving deeply into his flesh. He raises his trembling hand to wipe a mixture of sweat and blood from his eyes as he feels the thorns from the “crown” they placed upon his head pressing more deeply into his brow as the cross shifts against him. The sweat burns his cheeks as it touches where just hours before, his beard had been plucked from his face. One of the Roman guards pulls a man named Simon, a Cyrenian, from the crowd and compels him to carry the cross for Jesus the rest of the way to Calvary.

As they prepared to crucify him, they lay him down upon the cross. They drive nails through his hands and feet, his flesh opening to receive them. With every blow of the hammer, his love for us is shown, as he lays there, without complaint, knowing that this is the way of salvation for all mankind. As they raise the cross and gravity pulls upon his body, as they drop the cross into place, jolting his hands and feet where they are nailed, crushing the crown of thorns even more deeply into his head, sending more fragments of wood further into his bloody back, he simply says, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” A simple, yet powerful request from a life lived that exemplifies forgiveness and unwavering love. They pull his clothes from his body, leaving him naked and exposed…as a final insult and indignity for the Son of God. They mock him and knowing he is thirsty, they offer him vinegar to drink.

It is only the sixth hour of the day…what is this great darkness that has blotted out the light from the face of the earth? Could this be creation trying to clothe his nakedness in darkness? For three hours this darkness remains. There is talk amongst the people…the veil in the temple ripped in two…from the top to the bottom by some unseen force. What does this foretell? Then, Jesus speaks saying, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Those are his final words, as his body succumbs into death. A soldier pierces his side to ensure that he is dead and blood and water flow from the wound.

Joseph, of Arimathaea, a just and good man, makes provision for the body of Jesus to be buried in a tomb he owns. As the men gently lay his body on the cold stone, the women leave to prepare spices and ointments for his burial.

© Melissa A. Gustafson April 6, 2007