April 9, 2023, Easter
– St. Paul
Jesus wept. But did Jesus smile?
We know Jesus wept because the Bible tells us so, but there are no accounts of Jesus smiling. However, someone whose heart is filled with infinite love for us has to smile because he can’t keep all that love inside.
There had to be the occasions when Jesus smiled even though they may not have been recorded by the Gospel writers.
Was there a more appropriate time for smiling than Easter morning? Do you remember the account in the Gospel of John 20:11-17, when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds it empty? Jesus appears and says, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” And Jesus responded, “Mary…” Surely, there was a tender smile on the face of our Savior in that precious moment.
After her intense grief, standing at the foot of the cross and witnessing his passion and crucifixion, Mary received an unimaginably wonderful gift from Jesus on Easter morning.
We may not realize it now, but it will be the same for us. In time, all things work together for good at God’s hand, even death. Surely Jesus understands our grief because he encountered it during his life on earth, and surely he understands our suffering because he suffered too, and surely he understands joy because he bestows it on us even in our pain.
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God of all consolation, in your unending love and mercy for us,
you turn the darkness of death into the dawn of new life.
Show compassion to your people in their sorrow.
Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by dying for us,
conquered death and by rising again, restored life.
May we then go forward eagerly to meet him, and after our life on earth be reunited with
our brothers and sisters, where every tear will be wiped away.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen