Jesus Comes To Us In Our Darkest Of Times

I’ve been thinking about the story of Easter from the perspective of Jesus’ friends, family, and followers. I am trying to sense into the grief, hopelessness, and loss they must have experienced, not only the death of someone they loved deeply, respected, trusted, followed, hung out with, relied upon, but also to witness the brutality and injustice of it. I can only imagine that this would have been a very dark place to be.

When I think back on personal times of grief and loss, nothing seemed real. It was difficult to focus on or even care about people or what they were saying through the relentless waves of strong emotions and the sense of being in a very dark fog.

John 20: 1-18 tells us that when Mary came to the tomb it was still dark. I suspect, however the darkness she was experiencing (¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying) would have made it impossible for her to make sense of anything, including angels! No wonder she thought that Jesus was the gardener.

The same thing happened to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, their faces ‘down cast’, they would have been full of grief on multiple levels, Jesus’ death, he is now ‘missing’ from the tomb, and their purpose as disciples gone, but Jesus came to them in their darkness. For both Mary and the disciples, they were able to eventually see beyond their grief, beyond the darkness and confusion, to see Jesus right there with them; the ‘lights came on’!

One of the strongest messages of Easter this year for me, is that Jesus comes to us in our darkest places, whatever that fog may be. Jesus in fact is always with us, waiting quietly for us to ask and to listen, providing us with light to be aware of his presence in the awfulness of what we are experiencing, and to eventually see things differently, just as Mary and the disciples did. Those intense emotions of grief and fear diminish and serenity, acceptance trust and love increase. Not only does Jesus’ put things in a new ‘light’ but illuminates us to be light for others.

Dear Jesus, draw our awareness to your presence with us when we find it hardest to see or hear anything, let alone you, in our darkest of times. Thank you for the light you bring to our situations, showing us a new perspective and your presence with and in us. May your light illuminate us, to become light to our family and friends, our colleagues, and our communities. Amen

Mignon Weckert