Absence
Praying the Gospel of Mark. Holy Week, Holy Saturday. (Mark 15:42-47)
Audio Post: (Also available on The Friendship with Jesus Podcast on Spotify, Apple, etc)
For many years now, Holy Saturday, has intrigued me. I’m not sure why, exactly. Perhaps it’s because we are left on our own to figure out what the disciples did that day. Mark, along with all the other gospel writers, tell us nothing. The only slight hint we get, and it’s very slight, is from Luke who tells us, “they rested because it was the Sabbath.” (Lk 23:56). I wonder how much “rest” they actually got!
I suspect my intrigue has more to do with the waiting. Unlike us, Jesus’ friends did not know the rest of the story. They were left waiting, wondering what it all meant, worried, I imagine, about their futures.
But first, here’s the story:
It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
This part of the story takes place on the Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. The next verse takes us to Sunday morning. There is a complete absence of Saturday. Blank, nothing. As if it did not even happen. This is what absence feels like.
Absence
There are a few places in the scriptures where I go when I am feeling the absence of God. One is Psalm 88, the only psalm that does not end in some kind of resolution and worship. The last line of the psalm is “You have taken from me friend and neighbor – darkness is my closest friend.” (Ps 88:18). Fairly morose, but I’ve been there. I’m suspect you have, too. It’s a way to pray when nothing in me wants to pray.
That line seems appropriate for the disciples on this Holy Saturday. Jesus, their master, lord and friend, is gone, killed in a torturous and shameful manner. They are likely afraid for their own lives. John tells us they are huddled together in an upper room. It was common practice in that day that when a leader of a seditious group was caught and killed, the top echelon of the group were also killed. That way the fledging revolt would never get going. The disciples were right to be scared.
But Mark does not mention any of this. He leaves the page blank. It makes me wonder if he did this intentionally to remind us that this story he is telling is not about the disciples and what they are doing. It is about Jesus, and what he is doing.
The Apostles Creed hints at what the early Christians supposed Jesus was doing on this day. It reads:
He (Jesus) suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified, died and was buried, he descended to hell . . .
A traditional view is that Jesus descended into hell to preach to the souls imprisoned there. There is a lot of debate about this. The fact is, though, that Mark tells us nothing. Jesus is gone from the scene, and that is the point.
The question I face is, what do I do when it seems Jesus is absent?
The Women
The other thing I notice in these final verses of Mark’s Gospel is that the women show up. As soon as the centurion speaks his word, Mark tells us, “Some women were watching from a distance.” (Mk 15:40) - Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Salome. Then, just a few verses later, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.” (They are there tomorrow as well – we’ll get there soon enough!)
Mark has not mentioned these women at all in his story, then they appear three times in these last moments of Jesus’ life as those who were present, who did not run away, who remained with him. I can’t help but notice the three. You might remember that three is often used as a signifier of a test. Jesus prays three times in Gethsemane. Peter is approached three times in the courtyard. Here, we are told three times, the women are present. They remain with Jesus.
These were the ones who were witnesses to Jesus death and burial, the pinnacle of the story Mark is telling. In a day when women’s testimony was not seen as credible, these are the ones present. Once again, it is not the obvious but the unlikely whom God uses.
Now, let’s pray the story, as we ponder this dark day of Jesus’ absence.
Father, animate my spirit and imagination as I seek to remain with your friends, Jesus, on this dark day. Open the eyes and ears of my heart, Spirit, that I might receive what you want to reveal to me today.
Prayer: Absence
(You can listen to the prayer by itself here. The text follows, if you’d rather read it.)
You sit with your friends, huddled together, quiet, filled with sorrow. There is nothing to say. Your mind goes back to all your memories of Jesus.
That day you first saw him. The moment he invited you to join him and his friends. All the stories he told. The power with which he told them. And, of course, the miracles, some of which you can still hardly believe even though you saw them with your own eyes.
But now . . . he is gone. Was it all a dream?
Jesus’s body has been taken off the cross – for that you are thankful. You have seen bodies hanging for days. Joseph offered a tomb to lay Jesus’ body – again, you are thankful. So many bodies, especially of people convicted of treason, are simply left to rot.
Mary saw where the tomb was and you’ve heard her say she is going out in the morning with some spices. Perhaps you’ll join her.
The hours drag on. Someone begins to sing softly, a mournful lament psalm. You lean into it.
“Lord, you are the one who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength.
Why, Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?
You have taken from me friend and neighbor – darkness is my closest friend.”
You may want to spend some time here, reflecting on your own experience of Jesus’ absence.
Amen and amen. Thanks for praying. Until tomorrow.