Into the darkness
by Pastor Jim Strelan
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They laid Jesus there (John 19:42b).
Read John 19:38–42
It’s a sombre moment when the body of a loved one is laid to rest. The body is not unimportant, even though we say that the spirit – the personality of a person – is the real thing. The body provides the means for us to identify each other. The body touches and can be touched. We share our bodies in acts of intimacy. The body can deteriorate and get old and weary. The body dies. Jesus’ body is laid in the tomb. The word becomes flesh, as John 1:14 describes Jesus.
Imagine these two trusty friends taking the body of Jesus from the cross and placing it in the tomb. Imagine how heavy their hearts must have been. It may be that as they placed Jesus’ body in the tomb, all their hopes and dreams went into that tomb, too. Sorrow, just like you will have felt when you laid a loved one to rest.
In some churches, this time is known as Tenebrae – a time of darkness. On Good Friday, the candles on the altar are extinguished, the paraments are removed from the altar, so it is now bare, and there is a period of nothingness until Easter Sunday.
It won’t hurt for those who know how this story ends to put that aside for a moment and enter into that darkness. And sit there for a while. Joseph and Nicodemus were in that dark place now. Mary and Martha were there (and perhaps Lazarus). The disciples were there. The blind man, the leper, the man with deformity, the father of the son who was deranged, and the son – they were in that dark place. So many who had been touched by Jesus in one way or another felt a darkness surround them – it seemed like there would never be any light. More than likely, you have been there – maybe you still are.
There is a Taizé song with these words, ‘In our darkness there is no darkness. With you, O Lord, the deepest night is clear as the day’. Get ready for the morning. Get ready for the light to shine. The darkness is only for a while; the light is forever.
Lord Jesus, who went to that darkest place, lie with us in our darkness and raise us up into the light as you were raised. Amen.
Jim is a retired pastor who lives with his wife, Ruth, on the north side of Brisbane. He is a proud and not very humble Brisbane Lions supporter. Jim likes to read, listen to music and play golf. He and Ruth love being with their young grandchildren and watching them grow. For Jim, grace is everything, and he will share that however and whenever possible.
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