Compassion at the Tomb – an Easter Message from Dean Moore
Compassion at the Tomb
The empty tomb is the most vivid symbol of Easter, but the women who first went to the tomb did not know it was empty. They went there to anoint their beloved friend and teacher, Jesus. They carried deep sorrow. Jesus had died on a cross with no tender kisses at his bedside, no words of gratitude from loved ones, no assurance that the Good for which he had lived would continue beyond his death. He was alone on a cross, derided, shamed, and physically pained as he carried that heavy cross, wearing a crown of thorns, and finally dying in a painful and scandalous way. It was finished. He had died a horrible death, separated from those he loved, and even deserted. When the women went to the tomb, they went because they loved Jesus and they needed to care for him and mourn. They never expected the tomb to be empty.
Tombs of fear and illness are all around us now in the spread of COVID-19, yet people of compassion still go to the tombs. Health care professionals, hospital workers, researchers, firefighters, paramedics, police, shelter directors, and grocery store workers enter spaces where they are daily exposed to the coronavirus. Yet, they care for others – cleaning hospitals, giving patients their best care, seeking cures, responding to emergencies, intervening with families caught in escalating cycles of abuse, keeping grocery stores stocked for others, and then returning to their own homes with the fear that they too will fall ill and infect their families. They spend their days in tombs of tragedy with many hopes, but no simple promises of a happy ending.
The Lenten journey ends at the cross and the tomb. Yet, the cross and tomb are not the final word. Resurrection is coming, not to end the coronavirus in an immediate and dramatic way, but to herald the good news that God is still alive in the world. The good news of Easter is Jesus’s resurrection – the rising of Jesus’s spirit that will not die. Yet the story of Easter begins when the women who loved Jesus went to the tomb to anoint the body (Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-12). They had no expectation of the Risen Christ, nor any expectation of personal gain. They simply went because they loved. The resurrection story begins with these women – with their compassion and care.
In this time of pandemic, job loss, loneliness, crowded living conditions for many, and unequal access to health care, people still approach tragic tombs with compassion. People serve in nursing homes and homeless shelters, street ministries and food banks, centers of health care and public service, homes and neighborhoods, congregations, advocacy networks, and all forms of virtual communication. The scattered School of Theology community is itself engaged in acts of compassion wherever people are suffering, and we daily see moments of Easter breakthrough. God is alive in the world, even in the midst of tragedy. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
With Easter blessings,
Mary Elizabeth Moore