Out of Darkness, Light

It was Holy Week 2006 and I was serving at St. Paul’s in Massillon, Ohio when we received a phone call that really shook me to my core. I was 24 years old at that time and the call came that a young man in our congregation who was 20 at the time was on Spring Break and he was out hiking on some rocks with friends when he fell off some rocks to a landing many feet below. He had been air-evaced to the nearest hospital for immediate care.

Amidst all the preparation for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter we took our time out of the week to care for this family. I remember going and visiting the family at the hospital as this young man was hooked up to life support and listening to them tell me that there was no brain activity and that they could keep him alive on that life support of they could let him go because he wasn’t going to wake up again. As I listened to the family talk and cry and share with me all about what had happened and what they were doing and thinking I couldn’t help but look over and see someone who was younger than I that was not going to be around much longer. That was what had really rocked me. Everything about this tragic event was difficult but I had been with families who had lost loved ones and I had done well with it, but they were all older and had lived a long time. This was the first time I cared for a family member who was losing someone who was so young…someone younger than me.

One of the options that was given to the family was to donate his organs to those who were in need. Amidst all the sadness and darkness. In the middle of figuring out why and how this all happened they were then presented with this difficult decision about what to do with his body if they did let him go. They did not know what to do and they wanted more time. They needed more time. I honestly can’t tell you what I said or what I did while I was there, but I can tell you that as hard as it was it was also a very special and sacred time to be allowed to be there with the family.

I suppose that maybe that’s what it may have felt like for the women who had followed Jesus for all those years. A life that had been so young, so bright, so full of life had been snuffed out at an early age. In the midst of death the only thing that made any sense to them was to do what was the custom which was to prepare spices and ointments to care for the body that was in the tomb. So that’s what they did, they prepared the spices to prepare the body for its eternal rest. I also wonder that maybe there were multiple women who came to the tomb so that there was comfort and strength in a group of them. This act of love, although and act of love, must have been incredibly difficult for them both because of his age, but also because of who he was to them.

Jesus was a friend. He was a rabbi. He was the messiah. He was the Son of Man and the Son of God. He was the light of the world that scattered darkness and now all those things were now gone. The person that made their lives bright had been snuffed out and they were lost without him. Can you imagine what that walk might have been like for those women? Did they talk or walk in silence? Was there crying and wailing? That first day of week, a day we typically call a fresh start must have been the most difficult day and walk for them as they wandered to the tomb.

One of the most difficult decisions the family faced was whether or not to give his organs away if they were even any good anymore. After a lot of conversation and prayer the family decided they would allow the organs to be used and to see if they would be viable for anyone. We held the funeral on Saturday, the day before we were to celebrate Easter. The day that we tell everyone that death has lost its sting and that because of Jesus there is no more mourning or crying. My supervisor performed the funeral service and I assisted in it. Then the family did come the next day and celebrated Easter with us.

That next week we were in touch with the family to continue to walk with them through this difficult journey. The joy of Easter washed out by the sorrow of loss. But it was close the the end of that week and the the next week when they started to receive phone calls and letters from various places. And I don’t remember how long exactly it took, but I do know with certainty receiving a phone call from the family and then meeting with them. They were optimistic and dare I say joyful when we met with them again. They began to share with me all the news that they had received of the last few weeks. It all boiled down to this: Every single one of his organs and all the other parts of the body that can be used as transplants and to help other people were all viable and not only had all of them been viable, but all of them had found a match and been sent off so that people could receive them.

The family never downplayed the tragedy of losing this young man, but they also discovered hope, and possibilities, and even dare I say a little bit of joy in knowing that out of this sadness, out of this tragedy, out of this darkness there was light. Out of the tomb of death life and light sprang forth and the family re-discovered what life was like and how even a little light scatters the darkest and saddest places in this world.

The two men at the tomb in dazzling white were like those letters and phone calls that family received. They were the messengers that scattered the darkness and brought life and light back into these women’s lives.

That is why we come and celebrate Easter. We come to say to ourselves that out fo the darkness there is light. Out of sadness there is joy and out of death there is life. Jesus did conquer the grave so that even though we will experience and earthly grave we will live on with the one who conquered the grave, the one who overcame death, the one who put the devil in his place once and for all. Easter is the day that says there is nothing…there is not one thing in this life that can take God away from you and you away from God.

Paul says it perfectly when he tells the church in Rome this: 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing, without exception, without asterisks, without clause. There is nothing in this earth that will ever negate the cross which forgives us of our sins and nothing that can ever change his resurrection which assures our place in heaven. Celebrate that! Celebrate Easter! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed.

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.