Station 14 - Jesus is Placed in the Tomb

photo by Ron Zack / flickr

"Then, having bought a linen 
shroud,

Joseph took him down,
wrapped him in the linen,
and laid him in a tomb
which had been cut out of a rock.

Finally he rolled a stone 
across the entrance of the
tomb."

                  -Mark 15. 46


Somebody has to do the dirty work.  

Somebody has to wrap the body.

Somebody has to bring the spices.

Somebody has to do all they could do.

Even the soldiers have left having done all they could do--
rolling a stone so heavy it took three of their strongest men
to close Joseph's tomb. 

And the weeping--it comes all through the night.

If this was the end there would be
...no gospel
...no love
...no justice
...no hope.

Just emptiness and a terrible silence.

We don't know where the disciples were
when word came that it was all over.

But they, too must have wept all night.

And us? What about us? We have borne our burdens 
and, like him carried our griefs.

We, too have wept through the night.

No words. Just exhaustion and a heavy,
heavy tiredness.

And the weeping did not stop--
all through the night. 

We have been there or we will. 

And we, like them, hope that what seems 
like the end really is a beginning.

We, like them, weep all through the night.
But that, thank God is not the end of the story.

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com