Exodus 37:1-38:31; Matthew 28:1-20; Psalm 34:11-22; Proverbs 9:9-10
"The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves
those who are crushed in spirit" (Ps. 34:18).
Some of you may be broken-hearted today. Some of you
may be crushed in spirit. Some of you, like Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary, may be forced to confront the reality of the death of a loved one (see
Mt. 28:1). Some of you, like them, may be swallowing the anguish of
a lost dream. Some of you may be experiencing serious physical or
emotional pain. Some of you may find this particular day full of bitter
irony and loneliness. Some of you may doubt that God is present.
The two women in our New Testament passage were on their way
to prepare a body for burial: the body of a man who had suffered physically,
who had been abandoned by his closest friends, who had lost the presence of
God. He was broken-hearted; he was crushed in spirit. This is
the God - the God who knows what it is to be broken-hearted and crushed - who
is close to us in our own pain. Not only do we love and serve a God who
is present to us, who is with us (Emmanuel, yet again) in our suffering, but we
love and serve a God who deeply understands our suffering. He, too, has
experienced it.
Jesus meets these two women (see vs. 9-10) in their
confusion (see vs. 8). He greets them; he allows them to touch him, to
reassure themselves. He accepts them, and then sends them on a task. Their suffering encounters the risen Jesus - the God who is close to the
broken-hearted - and they find joy.
I am heavy today for those of you who are suffering. I
pray that you would experience the truth of this verse in our Psalms reading
today: though you "may have many troubles," may "the Lord
[deliver you] from them all" (Ps. 34:19). Amen.
- Sarah Marsh
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