The Estate of Jesus of Nazareth--A Morning Prayer Reflection

I was in eighth grade when my grandmother died suddenly and unexpectedly one night.

It was a heartbreaking loss for both my grandfather and my mother and I remember both of them sitting around the kitchen table arguing over who missed her most.

Years after my grandmother’s death, her water glass and pill bottle still sat untouched on the dresser in the spare bedroom where she said her prayers every night.

My grandmother never missed saying her nightly prayers.  Every night she went into the room that used to be my uncle’s bedroom and knelt by the bed and prayed.

The only thing as important to her as prayer was smoking.  And if you have ever been a smoker or known a smoker, then you know just how much prayer meant to her.

That tiny bedroom, just big enough for a twin bed and dresser was her sanctuary.  She took Matthew 6:6 very seriously.  “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

She never closed the door, though.  And I am thankful for that, because she gave me a lasting image of her.  When I was little and spending the night with my grandparents, I remember passing by that open door as quietly as possible and staring at her back as she prayed.  She prayed out loud but in a low murmur and I never could make out the words.  I never knew what she prayed for.  I only knew that she prayed.

Those nightly prayers were so much a part of who she was, I completely understood my grandfather’s reluctance to move that water glass and pill bottle from the dresser.  He preserved the room for her and in that way, she never left.

When someone dies, it is part of the grieving process to go through their possessions, their estate, to inventory the things they left behind.  It is perfectly normal to hold onto clothes or books or jewelry or other things that you have so associated with that person that holding that necklace, smelling that shirt, allows you to continue to keep those loved ones close.

Which honestly is one part of Jesus’ death and the hours that followed before the resurrection that doesn’t get a lot of attention.

Who grieved for Jesus?

Not who grieved for Jesus the Messiah, but who grieved for Jesus, the man, the son, the brother, the friend, the teacher?

Who grieved and how did they grieve for a kind, gentle, man of peace who died a horrible, agonizing death on the cross?

Jesus didn’t die of old age.

He didn’t die in his bed, surrounded by friends and family. 

For his family and friends, there was no time to prepare.

Though Jesus knew how his life would end, though he spoke fairly often of his death, we are left with the impression that either his family and friends didn’t believe him or simply didn’t want to believe him.  If they had, do you really think Peter, John and James would have fallen asleep at the Garden of Gethsemane? 

Think how fast things unfolded from the Garden of Gethsemane, from arrest to crucifixion.

Jesus’ friends and family must have been shocked, must have been stunned and shocked and frozen by all of it.  Thanks to Joseph of Arimathia, they at least had a place to bury Jesus, but remember that the soldiers had cast lots for Jesus’ clothes.

Mary didn’t even have her son’s clothes to remember him by.

So, what did Jesus leave behind?

We know there were no pictures.

Nothing of him as a boy, holding onto Joseph’s hand.

Nothing of him with red cheeks and tousled hair.

But were there other things?

Did he have a special, chipped cup that he always drank from whenever he visited his mother?

Did he leave behind his favorite sandals the last time he visited Mary and Martha?

In reality, the only thing that his loved ones had to hold onto after his death was his body in the tomb, which is why Mary Magdalene breaks down crying when she arrives at the tomb and finds it empty.

Her first thought isn’t that Jesus has risen from the dead.

Her first thought is that the body has been stolen or moved or taken and she wants desperately to know where.

If you have ever sat or stood by someone’s grave, if you have ever spread ashes, if you have ever listened to a voice mail again and again just to hear the words, “I love you” one more time, then you can completely understand what Mary Magdalene, what Jesus’ mother, what his friends and followers must have been feeling.

They were desperate for something to hold onto.

And if you can understand that, then you can also understand the sheer joy, the indescribable joy that Mary Magdalene felt upon seeing the resurrected Jesus.

The truth is what Jesus left behind was no simple water glass, sitting on a dresser in a spare bedroom.

What Jesus left behind was so much more than a memory.

What Jesus left behind was not meant just for family and friends. 

This week is Holy Week and much of your time will be spent on Good Friday and Easter, on Jesus’ death and resurrection.

But to me, the lasting image of Jesus, the one that should tell us all we ever need to know about Jesus, happened at the Last Supper.

It was here that Jesus broke bread with his disciples.

It is here in Luke 22:19 where Jesus says, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

How important is this moment?

It’s so important that we reenact it every Sunday.

It’s so important that we participate in this breaking of the bread every week.

It is everything.

Christ died for us, for this moment, so that we might be saved by his sacrifice.

All of us.

This is what Jesus left for us, this is our inheritance.  This is the estate of Jesus of Nazareth … that we are saved—that we are loved.

All of us.