3-21-16 - The First Day of the Week

For the past two years, my Water Daily practice during Holy Week has been to focus on that week, not wanting us to get to Easter before we’ve walked the passion story. Thus our Easter Sunday gospel has gotten less “chewing” than that for any other Sunday. This year, I’m going to dive in, knowing that we are capable of being in the story and peeking at its Easter surprise all at the same time. As a song I once wrote says, “From the shadow of the cross, see the light beyond the grave.” We live always in the light from our forever future, beckoning us out of the shadows.

And shadows there were that Easter morning; Luke tells us the women came to Jesus' grave with their embalming spices at the end of night: But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.

Once again I had to look to see what the “but” referred to – here is how Chapter 23 ends:
On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Jesus had died relatively quickly for a victim of crucifixion on that Friday, but not early enough for his followers to claim his body and prepare it for burial before sundown and the Sabbath day. All they were able to do was to wrap him in cloths and lay him in the tomb which Joseph of Arimathea had helpfully offered. “On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.” One wonders how much rest the grieving and terrified disciples were able to get that sabbath, but they did refrain from working.

In Jewish time, Saturday, the Sabbath day, is the last day of the week, commemorating the seventh day of Creation, when God rested from his work. Therefore Sunday is the first day of the week, a day of new beginnings, new possibilities. It is no accident that Luke emphasizes the timing of day, of week. It is still dark, but dawn is breaking. The world is still in shadow, but light is coming. It is a new week, and all things are possible. On the first day of this week, he reminds us, God initiated the New Creation.

As our work week begins (remember that Sunday, our day of worship, is really the first day of the week…), what possibilities lie ahead for you? What shadows are you contending with? What glimpses of light do you see on the horizon? Being aware of where we are will help us be more present to Holy Week.

The first day of the week is also the eighth, for time is infinite, and circular as well as linear. Each week we start afresh, building on the gifts of the week just past, our sins forgiven, our hearts re-centered in God. (That’s why we go to church on Sundays.) This week is a special one, maybe busier than some, and yet it’s also ordinary, each day giving way to the next.

Our Sabbath is over for now – let us walk into Holy Week.