lenten blog | March 30, 2024

And Jesus went to black

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 30th:  Exodus 19:1-9a; Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24; Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16; 1 Peter 4:1-8; and Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is Holy Saturday.  Jesus lies dead in the tomb.  This is where Lent ends.  I think it is an unproductive Lenten practice to presume that Lent leads to Easter.  Lent leads to the tomb.  The agony in Gethsemane, the physical torture of the cross, the spiritual and emotional anguish of Jesus’ separation from God, these all require a terminus at the tomb.  This is not to deny Easter.  It is to treat Easter as the unexpected surprise that it is in the Bible. 

At the end of the Soprano series, as the mob boss Tony Soprano is murdered, the screen goes black.  What would it mean for God to experience this through the life of Jesus?  I have no idea.  The earliest Christian testimonies to Easter such as the proclamations in Acts 2 speak of God’s initiative on Easter, not Jesus’.  Resurrection terminology is an active verb:  Jesus resurrects.  Jesus is the actor.  This is not the earliest Christian proclamation.  It is rather, “God raised him up, having freed him the pains of death …” (Acts 2:24)  Jesus is passive.  Easter happens to Jesus.  Jesus is freed from the pains of death by God’s intervention.  This implies that until the moment of divine intervention Jesus has gone to black. 

It is at this point that the theological focus shifts because Jesus lies dead in the tomb. The unfathomable question is what this means to God in heaven.  Does God, I only ask, experience the substantive separation from God’s own self in Jesus as Jesus lies dead in the tomb?  Obviously, Jesus invests everything in His ministry of salvation and renewal as He even endures death to be at-one with us.  Does God in heaven do the same?  If Jesus felt abandoned at Gethsemane and Golgotha, what must that have felt like for God in heaven to hold back and not speak or intervene?  I have no idea, but I wonder if this is a question that seeks to be asked.  When Jesus dies and goes to black, what did that feel like in heaven?  I have no idea, but I think the intentional time in the tomb makes this a valid question.  It is not death and Easter; it is death and tomb and Easter.  The tomb cannot be ignored.

These are questions I cannot answer for myself.  I wonder about this every Holy Saturday.  However, and against my own advice offered above, to consider the weightiness of Jesus’ death magnifies the glory, wonder and fall-down-to-your-knees shock of Jesus’ empty tomb on Easter.  If you are not planning to join another community’s Easter celebration, I invite you to join us for our Easter Sunrise Service at 2 Prospect Street in Hatfield at 6:30am.  If the weather cooperates, we will watch the dawn brighten the sky and the sun rise over the horizon as we look to the East over the church steeple.  We will gather again in church for our Easter Service at 9:30am.  To join via Zoom send an email to [email protected].  This is my invitation to you.

This is the last of this year’s Lenten blogs.  If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.

If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.