Not Ready for Easter

One of my students died last week. When I accepted the offer to move onto the Georgetown campus as a Resident Minister I knew that the position was designed to support students through crisis. I knew that a student might die during my tenure, I just hoped it wouldn’t happen so soon.

This tragic death of a young person opened up a new understanding of Holy Week for me. Grappling with death personally while the church is grappling with death globally is powerful. As a hospital chaplain throughout two years of pandemic, death and I got to know each other intimately. I couldn’t possibly count how many people I watched die or how many families I sat with as they made impossible choices on the edge of life and death. Death is not new to me. But this Holy Week was different because tragic death was all-consuming.

I found comfort in the days between Palm Sunday and Easter. I needed the darkness of Good Friday to feel the people around me grieving and talking openly about death. To my own surprise, I wanted to linger a little longer in Good Friday: I wanted to sit in the ending; I wanted to feel the despair of those who loved Jesus and watched him die; I wanted to greet grief and loss like an old friend.

I didn’t feel ready for Easter this year. Nevertheless, I went to church on Sunday. I saw the herds of children in bright colors, the Easter hats, and the triumphant brass section. I heard the story–told for two thousand years–that does not end with a man facing gruesome death, but with a God who did not let death be the end. Death feels final, and it is in many ways, but our story doesn’t end in despair. Our story continues on with the profound hope of new life in the midst of despair. Jesus isn’t in the grave: he lives among us, calling us to follow him toward a more just and compassionate world. That is the Good News I needed to hear this Easter.

It’s my prayer that the Easter story touched you in new ways this year, especially if you weren’t ready for it.

Text copyright © 2023 Grace Woodward. All rights reserved.