The "Empty" of Easter

This will be a short post; I had no intention of writing one. But on my way to the blog site to state there would be no blog this week, this seemed important to say. And so it will be said. Nothing more. Nothing less.

This week is Holy Week for the Western Christian Church. There are Holy Week services, the number and days depending upon the denomination you attend. Liturgical churches observe Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Some churches skip to Good Friday - and then to Easter.

Easter is about Resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus from the grave on Easter morning. It’s about an empty cross, and then, an empty grave.

There’s so much to be said for this holy day that consistently coincides with Passover, that I find myself literally without words. I’m so full of the mystery, of the wonder, of the enormity of the event, that I’m empty of the mundane — filled with so much of what I don’t understand.

Which is perfectly fine. We are not called to understand, or explain, or pontificate when faced with mystery. We are simply called to enter into it, to experience it, to absorb it. The “empty” of Easter.

It is enough to contemplate what an empty cross means, the cross that still bears the bloodstains of the one who was tortured and died on that cross. It is more than enough to witness the empty grave; to see the grave cloths wrinkled and empty, lying limp in a pool of angel light on top of the stone slab.

We are called to be a witness to the “empty” of Easter, and what it means for us. In this time and place. In our own particular life, at this particular time.

Sometimes, it is the “empty” of a thing that is most convicting.

May you be blessed in the “empty” of Easter this year.