lent blog: Easter Eve
Christopher Armstrong, Priest-in-Charge writes:
‘Now there was a garden’ (Jn. 19.41)
Jesus is dead, locked down in a garden, in a borrowed tomb. Most of us are locked down too: not yet dead but having the opportunity of a garden which so many in our wider society do not have. Isolation for them must be very challenging.
St. Matthew’s account of the burial (27.62 – 66) is even closer to our own situation today. The Jewish authorities were fearful that the disciples might come by night and steal the body of Jesus and then claim that he has been raised from the dead. So they sealed the tomb and placed a sentry at the entrance. Official lockdown.
St. John makes much of the death and burial. For him it is the end of a life of total obedience and love for The Father and for all humankind. No one knew what might happen next, if anything. Only God knew. His will was pregnant with power and potential, just like this laid hedge on the road to Seaton. It is not quite dead but we can see the power of nature just beginning to break out. It was not nature which changed everything – divided time, gave hope, dissolved enmity – but the power of God. It is for that which we wait, sometimes patiently, sometimes wisely, often irritably. But because of tomorrow, we have hope that God will act. Today we must wait.
