Shabbat After Good Friday

Jesus’ body was quickly brought down and buried because once the sun set, all work was to halt; it was Sabbath. Sabbath (Shabbat), in Hebrew, means “to stop.” The whole world was to come to a stop. Even oxens, those beasts of burden whose sense of times isn’t divided into weeks, must be left graze for the day. And in Jesus’ death, for those who loved and followed him, their whole world did come to a screeching halt. Not only because the death of a loved one feels likes the end of the world, but also because they saw him as the promise of a new world where God would finally bring shalom (wholeness). In Jesus’ shocking stop/death, they found themselves more broken for having believed in a new world.

As for Jesus’ enemies, they believed that by their devious and brutal ending of his life, they’ve also stopped his revolution….or so they believed….

We know that the first day of the week brought a twist to this plot, but it’s necessary for us to sit awhile with this tragic stop.

Especially, in this time of Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing, as we know well the grief and loss that comes from unexpected and abrupt “stops.”

stopped…

the dream of a different world

the water turned to wine

the drinking of wine

the inebriated laughs

the hilarious parables

the thought-provoking parables

the world-shattering parables

.

the shaming of the shamers

the stopping of funerals

the talks about God that made things more confusing

the talks about God as if I had known God all along

the talks that made me angry

the talks that just left me speechless

the voice that made my name sound holy

the voice that rebuked the wind

the voice that rebuked those I was scared of

the voice that scared me

the voice that calmed me

.

the long walk through the woods

the long walk through the streets of Jerusalem

the eyes that looked me at as if I was God

the eyes that opened my eyes to see God

the healing of lepers

the touching of lepers

the rubbing of blind eyes until they opened

the blessing of children

the heartbeat

the heart

everything