Easter in a Season of Waiting - Learning from the Women in the Story

Christianity is my religion of origin, and growing up in New England, Easter was my favorite holiday. It meant gathering with family, but unlike the winter holidays, it always had a feeling of lightness. Most years, as children and then again as parents, we could be outside and soak in the spring weather after the big meal and chase each other laughing. 

As we experience Easter in this time of Covid, I was struck by the sense of waiting. And it made me wonder about the women who waited for Jesus, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. (Yes, I know there was another Mary at the tomb, bear with me.) 

Now, I’m going to add a bunch of caveats, so if they don’t resonate, that’s ok! These are some things that came up for me on this day. First, I don’t practice Christianity anymore. I don’t know that I subscribe to any one religion, but I am an avid learner of them all. My personal faith lies in the aggregate. I do think the Bible has beautiful stories to tell, parables or myths if you will. I also think so much was left out, especially from the lens of women. I am often reminded of Hamilton lyrics: “Include women in the sequel”. So it is through those optics that I think through the woman at Jesus’ tomb on that day, and in the days prior. And I’m focusing on the two Mary’s with “known” relationships to Jesus, because it feels important. 

So, I thought, what could Mary, mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, thought to be many things, but to me, she was his love, what could they have felt seeing that he wasn’t there?

That the body they had known to be in the tomb was gone? 

And what if, in that moment between grief and hope that they may have felt, what if that is the same feeling of waiting we are all in right now? What if the lesson, from this perspective, is that it’s ok to feel ALL the emotions as we experience these things? Because, while we know how this Easter story ends in its retelling, we don’t know how our current story will end. And, maybe, that’s ok. Both Marys, in their human selves, didn’t know how that story would end either. They just knew that a person they loved had gone, and was “gone” again. And maybe, they experienced many, many emotions as they lived through it and waited for those answers. 

Today, I’m choosing to learn from what I feel these extraordinary women could have gone through. And I choose to embrace the experience of living while waiting. I miss my extended family and friends, but I’m grateful to laugh at my 8-year-old throwing sticks to a goofy puppy. I am unsure of what’s next in so many ways, but I appreciate the space to allow me to sit and write this out. I’m ok that I just cried at an Ed Sheeran song and then laughed at myself. I am grateful for so so many stories of love and charity in this scariness. And I’m grateful for the interconnected medium that allows us to be together while apart. 

Happy Sunday all. 

Love, ~Rachel 

(Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash)