Can you grieve for Jesus, then live like him?
31 March 2024 Daily Meditation
If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again.”~Robin Wall Kimmerer
One of the most amazing things about being raised Christian is the joy and celebration of the resurrection. Everyone in their most celebratory dress, praiseful singing, raising Hosannas to the highest on Easter Sunday!
We sometimes forget the power of the weeping and grieving on Good Friday, the wailing, the pounding on the chest, the weeping and losing of control of the unbelievable grief over the death of Jesus, whose life and preaching represented for so many people a new way of living. This is what I believe propelled people moved by Jesus into the next century.
As a Quaker, this is the part of the Easter season that I revel in. I understand this grief. I understand the loss of a life that is taken suddenly without real need or meaning. I get to weeping and trying to come to terms with loss that is so deep that one cannot make sense of it and that drives one to say and do things that seem unforgiveable. The kind of loss that drove Jesus to speak from the cross: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
I don’t really understand, or even at times believe in the Resurrection.
You might not want to hear that from me, and that’s ok. You have your beliefs, and I have mine. What speaks to you and has meaning for you, is important to you. I don’t begrudge you that one bit. I just ask you to pause and listen for a moment.
Here is what has meaning for me: The prophets and teachers who walk this world, now and in the past, who, no matter what happened to them, walked bravely and strongly according to their beliefs.
They set the example for me, so that now, as the Earth is dying, as people are struggling to keep their values in the face of extreme egotism, selfishness, lack of caring and breaking down of our society, I have examples to follow. I want to live my life as Jesus did, on this Earth, fearlessly and profoundly, in peace.
Maybe the Resurrection did happen. If it did, amazing.
But even if it didn’t, Jesus’ life was profound. I could not hope to come close. Nor to Ghandhi, or to Martin Luther King Jr. Or to Mother Theresa. Or to Saint Francis. Or to Rev. Barber.
But I will have a heck of a life trying.
And I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to try.
Happy Easter. I hope you pause and shed a tear today for the death of Jesus and what his life meant for how you can live yours. I hope you close your eyes in reverence for just a moment. Pause. How.