Don't Rush To The Resurrection
In a conversation amongst a group of Christian leaders recently, one pastor shared the hardships facing himself and his church right now. Faced with profound brokenness and grief, he reminded the group that was gathered together that: “Easter is all about the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. But don’t rush to the resurrection. We need time to grieve the brokenness of life too.”
Don’t rush to the resurrection.
The last few years have been filled with all sorts of difficulties. War. Famine. Inflation. Pandemic. Divisiveness. Death by drugs or death by disease or death by poverty or death by COVID or death by gun. And in the last several days here in Nashville, Tennessee, this brokenness has been crushing as 7 lives were ended because of absolutely senseless violence at The Covenant School.
Maybe you feel the weight of this too. That the world is not as it should be and the darkness of death, destruction, and sin borders on the overwhelming some days.
Faced with such brokenness, this Good Friday - the day we remember the torture and state-sanctioned murder of Jesus of Nazareth via crucifixion on a cross - I find it a wise reminder to not rush to the resurrection. Not because the Good News of the Christian faith is not built upon the belief in a risen God - it absolutely is! But because there is no resurrection of Jesus without the death of Jesus.
There is no empty tomb without a God-extant* cross.
The Good News of Easter requires the sacrifice of Good Friday and provides us with the important reminder that our Jesus is a God who has won the ultimate victory AND who has suffered like us. Our God weeps too. And for those in our lives (or maybe you are in this spot yourself) faced with sorrow, grief, or brokenness this week, rushing to the resurrection would cheapen their loss and invalidate their pain. A slower journey that acknowledges the pain of the cross back then and the pain in life today cares for those who are faced with hardship while also providing hope for the future.
Yes, Sunday is coming. Resurrection and new life and hope and healing and wholeness are on their way.
But let us not rush to the end of the story and, in doing so, cheapen the journey and short-circuit the healing.
Let us not rush to the resurrection.
