Easter is coming. With all it's bright colors, egg hunts, and fun. At Easter we celebrate the Resurrection. Because with that great miracle, we Christians believe that we are also offered the gift of eternal life with the loving God who made us.
When I think about Easter, I think about the sacrifice of the crucifixion. I think about Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding and preparing his broken body for burial. How that must have felt for her, that anguish. To watch the child she'd so lovingly protected, raised, and cared for scorned, ridiculed, tortured, and killed.
For some reason the image of Mary holding the body of Christ is particularly meaningful to me. Clothed in the black of mourning, she looks pale and haunted. She, as a mother,now understood grief and loss. I believe, as Christians do, that it's Christ's sacrifice that paid the price for my sin. But this picture reminds me that others sacrificed as well. A mother watched her son die that I might live. Maybe that's not really a terribly insightful revelation. But it feels very meaningful to me tonight.
I think about Mary and Jesus and how they interacted with each other, especially the day Jesus was crucified. Mary was standing at the foot of the cross, with John his beloved disciple, and Jesus said to them "Mother behold your son, son behold your mother". He wanted to make sure someone was going to take care of his mom. That always strikes me because it's so very human of Jesus to be worried about his mom, but at the same time so very Godly, because God is the one who takes care of us.
ReplyDeleteInteresting points, Anne.
That's a great observation, Sarah. Jesus, both fully human and fully divine, looking after His mother. How beautiful
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