St. Nicolai Notes

EXCHANGES ON THE WAY: LENTEN PRAYERS
Day 40 (last day): Seventh Saturday
Mark 15:42-47

     It was over! No doubt!
     But one who hoped in God's reign removed your body so it did not hang through the Sabbath or endure prolonged exposure to weather and scavengers. You were loved even in death: removed from the cross, wrapped and interred in a rock tomb. Some of the women who loved and followed You observed it all. They saw the end, saw the stone rolled against the entrance of the tomb.
     It was over! No doubt!
     Jesus, it is hard for us to linger in this moment. We want to rush ahead to what we know. But help us to sit with the loss. Help us to know the depth of the grief, emptiness, and despair that your first disciples felt when You were crucified and buried, and their hopes with You.
     Enable us, for this moment, to lament the ways we failed You. Enable us to lament the failure of religious and political leaders who resisted and refused your way. Enable us to lament the death of dreams that did not align with God's will and God's reign. Amen.