The Womb and The Tomb
I had never paid attention to how the gospels writers overstate the fact that the tomb where Jesus was laid had never been used before, making it a “virgin” tomb. Once someone pointed this out a few weeks ago, and as my excitement for Advent kept growing, I couldn’t stop thinking about the connection between Advent and Holy Saturday. In Easter, we celebrate new life; out of a virgin tomb, Jesus comes out having defeated death, but before Sunday morning, there was a long Saturday. Holy Saturday is a day we tend to overlook, but as we await the day when death will be no more, we live on a long Saturday. And living on this Saturday is difficult because here is where we face the reality that, as the disciples on the road to Emmaus honestly said, we had hoped things would be different. On Sunday, there will be no more tears, but on Saturday, we mourn.
But why talk about Holy Saturday on the first Sunday of Advent? The Christian life is one of paradoxes, and while we live with the burdens of the long, long Saturday, we also live with the promise and joy of Advent, both seasons being all about waiting. The type of waiting during Advent is different, though. During this season, we look back at the time when Israel had waited long for their Messiah, and he finally came from the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of the Spirit. With the knowledge of what happened before, we look forward to the day when this Messiah will come back once more; but until then, we wait. We wait with joy and expectation, with confidence in the promises we know will be fulfilled because we know the faithfulness of he who made them. So, we are the people of Christmas day when Christ is born, living in the Advent season, and the people of Easter morning when Christ is resurrected, living in Holy Saturday. The good news of this paradox is that while we wait, we can hold both joy and grief because we have both confidence in the promises that will be fulfilled and weariness from the long wait.
For Christians, both the womb and the tomb where Christ dwelt point to the promise of life. Jesus took on the flesh and later rose from the dead to bring about the possibility of eternal life for us, and, according to his own words, this eternal life is the knowledge of him and of he who sent him. In this season of Advent, whether we feel the joy that Emmanuel will soon be born, the sorrow that he has taken longer than we expected to come back, or a combination of both, let us draw near to the God of Easter and Christmas who meets us as we wait in the womb, in the tomb, and the life in-between.