Between Grief and Joy

 

John 19:40-42

Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

There is a pause between moments,

The indrawn breath we hold,

The thought that hasn’t quite yet formed,

The story still untold.

They waited in the first dark night,

The Sabbath dawned and passed.

And. as the darkness fell once more,

Their tears flowed down at last.

They waited, though they did not know,

For dawn of the next day,

And for the answered prophecy

Already on its way.

All that they knew was the waiting,

The breath not yet exhaled,

The moment between grief and joy,

Thinking that death prevailed.

That pause between a horror lived

And glory, yet unknown,

Still quivered in the moonlit night

Outside His tomb of stone.