“God doesn’t expect me to dance at His empty tomb"

“God doesn’t expect me to dance at His empty tomb without weeping at His cross. I don’t have to hide my grief or pretend I’m stronger than I am” 

Michelle Cushatt 

In the next few weeks we will be focusing mainly on the cross and the different views of what actually happened when Jesus died on the cross. One can’t escape the fact that when talking of the cross, immediately suffering comes to mind. However, the suffering that the Son of God went through was unlike any other. 

No matter what our faith, culture, background, we have a tendency to shy away from anything to do with suffering. We all find it challenging to know what to say, or do or how to help others in order to try and bring some relief to their suffering.

When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, scripture tells us…

“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care” Isaiah 53:3 NLT

Jesus suffered the most humiliating, scandalous, excruciatingly pain ridden death anyone could endure. The Son of God, the creator of the universe, the One who enabled us to come into existence was brought to the lowest place on earth, crucifixion on a cross at the hands of those He had created. Such humility. It’s here where God’s love and justice/righteousness meets. 

Christianity, especially in the west, the most affluent part of the world jars at the picture of someone being tortured and people suffering. We quickly want to change the subject and simply move on to discussions more attuned to our status and privilege. 

Parts of the Church when advertising across social media more often than not show pictures of people laughing, having fun and enjoying life. This, however can be far from reality and often doesn’t portray a true picture of what life, when facing difficulties, can be like. Many in those very same churches are suffering and in pain, yet many hide behind the facade. There is an unwanted pressure to conform to the ‘best life now’ mentality. Yet most of us know that the ‘best is yet to come’ mantra is for the life to come, the Kingdom in all its fulness when Jesus comes again. Surly that was what He had in mind when He said ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly’. John10:10 ESV. In this life we get but a small foretaste of what that looks and feels like. 

Grief, trauma and suffering are all around us. Pain is widespread. As Cushatt says in the heading of this blog, ‘I don’t have to hide my grief’. When we look upon the cross, do we weep, do we stand in awe of the One who suffered horrifically for us? Or do we rush away and look for comfort and victory in the resurrection. 

The Apostle boldly proclaimed ‘For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’. 1 Cor 2:2 NIV

Paul is writing here after Jesus’ resurrection and yet he says about knowing Christ crucified, not risen. Now it is important to remember that when Paul speaks often of Christ and His death, he also has in mind the resurrection. But as in the Corinth Church and large segments of the Church today we can quickly overlook the events surrounding His death and all that happened at Calvary and rush into the resurrection. 

Sometimes the Catholic Church and other denominations are ridiculed for having images of the crucifixion, where Jesus is hanging on the cross. I do however think that this can be of benefit as it helps us to focus again upon Calvary. 

There are times when we need to stop and pause and look again upon the cross and ask some important question as well as allowing the cross to ask us some very important questions. These next few blogs will aim to do exactly that. 

There’s a time to dance at the empty tomb but not before we have wept at the cross. This is not something we do once but many times. As the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, 

“There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” Eccl 3:4 ESV

When we suffer and experience hard times, we need to remind ourselves, yes the victory that is ours in Christ but not without looking at the cross that He endured for each of us. With His enabling we will endeavour to do that in the coming blogs. 

Prayer: Jesus thank you for the cross my friend and my Lord. Amen