Sometimes the deepest understandings come without words. I was watching the children during Easter Vigil, wondering what they were taking in from all the actions of the service: the fire burning in the atrium, the darkness, the single candle sharing its flame until all the faces in the crowd were illuminated. I am not so different from the children…
During the Holy Saturday vigil, for just a few moments, we sit in total darkness and the congregation bangs on wooden blocks. It is a terrifying time, perhaps representing what life would be like if evil reigned and we were stuck in a world without Jesus. Even though I knew the sound was coming, I still jumped in my seat.
Jesus took all that on himself, the darkness, the evil lurking around him during those three days. There were the disciples sleeping in the garden, the kiss a betrayal, Peter’s denials, the trial and the raucous crowd demanding he be crucified. And then the beating and bloody whipping and the agony of the cross.
He gave until there was nothing left to give.
On Easter morn we experience hope rising in music, scent of flowers, light coming back into our world. Beyond the mystery–a reality. I feel ashamed that I have spent so much time in the shadows. It is time for new beginnings, new risks. Time to move out into the territory of lost causes! Time to reclaim some of the ground I have lost!
“The territory of lost causes” is an evocative phrase. It could mean impossible goals and tilting at windmills in the enthusiasm of the moment.
I doubt that is the intent.
For me it means going into areas and issues where I have previously suffered defeat either from my own sin, the action of the enemy or (as is often the case) my sin and the action of the enemy working in unholy alignment to defeat and damage me as much as possible.
In Lent I have, I hope, faced my sin anew. It would be foolishly immature to claim victory, but I trust Jesus that my sin, as present as it still is, is weaker than it was.
In Easter Satan is shown to be a defeated, broken-backed foe underneath the feet of our glorious Risen Lord.
It is a good time to rise up in the strength of Easter and revisit scenes of our earlier defeats, in greater faith and greater dependence on Jesus, confident that this time the results will be different.
Sometimes, for me at least, it takes many such returns before Jesus has won the victory in a given area, but this IS a great time to reclaim some of the ground I have lost.
Once again you have touched a nerve in me. Oh to recover lost ground.
Also, the wood block thing at Saturday Vigil — was it one strike or a few seconds of noise? What a picture (sound ) that must have been.
Thank you