Woman, why are you weeping?
The greatest gift working in women's ministry has given me is the gift of other women's breaking hearts. It is a humbling thing you know, not to mention a complete joy, when you share your story with me, when you ask for my prayers, when you trust enough to hand to me the worst part of your life.
When I doubt the work I am doing and so often feel like a failure at, God speaks through your own brokenness, through your own cross, as you reach out to me in your own place of despair. Others might not catch this...this sighting of Jesus...this holy presence...but I do. With every "me too", and with every "I needed to hear this," you bring my own tear stained face an inch closer into the tomb. In your grief, you show me His face.
And this is why I love Magdalene. In her own grief and sadness, she too, teaches and leads me to Something Greater.
We can all cry today, for certain. We all have something that at any given moment, if we let ourselves go there, we can weep for hours by an empty tomb. But there is a great difference in weeping by the tomb, and weeping in the tomb. Because when we only weep by it, we remain stuck in our own problems, buried in our own ways we think we should solve them, in our own perception of how bad things really are. We stand no chance at seeing Jesus...where he once was, and how now, he has gone. We fail to hold onto the hope and reality that quite possibly, things are not as they seem, and that quite possibly, we are not weeping alone. But when we allow ourselves to bend over and weep inside of the tomb? When we do that, we stand a much better chance at seeing the Risen Lord, at letting go of our own will, at weeping with hope.
It is inside of the tomb that we remember. His story did not end there. And neither does ours.
I know we all want to actually see. To see the Risen Lord right in front of us, just like Magdalene. If we could just see, then we can believe that this present mess will soon pass, right? But Magdalene did not see right away, remember. She thought nothing of two angels...that is how stuck in her sadness she was. And so we have to wonder...in those moments we are so paralyzed by our circumstance, could it be we are not left alone? Could it be we are just too sad to see? Could it be two angels are right there before us?
I think so.
Actually, I know so.
Even when Magdalene turned around and saw Jesus, she did not know it was Jesus.
Amazing how grief can blind us, if we allow it.
And for this very reason...and well, so many others...I love Magdalene. Whatever you are weeping over today, she weeps with you. Stay by her side. Let her tears console yours. And let your weeping move you, into the tomb, in the presence of angels, at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been.
