“Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning”. (Psalm 30:5)
Sure enough, there are times when we weep, and I believe there are times when God weeps. When Bishop Tutu was asked to name his favorite Old Testament prophet, he said, Jeremiah. Because Jeremiah cries a lot. I cry a lot too. I cry every day. Think how much God cries. We have a God who weeps, so I cry a lot and I always have. But I laugh a lot, too. And with that, he let out one of his infectious, child-like, high-pitched laughs.
And that’s exactly what Holy Week is all about.
The Passion week narrative is filled with weeping. It begins with the tears of the woman washing Jesus’ feet. Then Jesus pauses to weep over the city during the Palm Sunday parade. The Last Supper is over-shadowed with sorrow and ultimately we find Jesus weeping tears like great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Mother Mary’s tears at the foot of the cross are so heart-breakingly painful we shy away from even observing them. And finally, Mary Magdalene comes to the empty tomb of her dead Master weeping, Tell me where you have laid him. Weeping fills the story and weeping endures for the night,
…But joy comes in the morning!
We’ve all been through nights of weeping, haven’t we? Like Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, we weep over the broken cities of Gaza and Ukraine and Haiti. Like the two Marys weeping at the tomb, we stand beside an open grave in tears. Like Bishop Tutu weeping over injustice, we feel the burden of lingering racism and bigotry. The good news of Easter is that weeping only endures for the night. Joy comes in the morning.
And the final promise of Easter is that one day, the night of weeping will end, the shadows will flee with the dawn of a great new day when there will be no more tears, no more crying, for the former things will have passed away and there will truly be joy in the morning over there.
MONDAY MEMO 