What do we do after Covid? Many of us have lost loved ones; others have watched friends and family suffer. We’ve been keeping a relentless watch for messages night and day and have felt powerless to help those we know. It seems as if we have passed through the eye of a storm. How do we recover from the trauma?
In Luke 23:55-56, we read of Jesus’ women friends and what they did immediately after watching him go through excruciating suffering and die.
“As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law.”
Luke 23:55-56
Unsurprisingly, after Jesus death, the women were traumatised; they went home on auto-pilot and, through their tears, prepared spices to anoint Jesus’ body. They wanted to do what they could and to follow tradition. However, in their distress, they lost track of time; after preparing the costly spices, it was too late, and they couldn’t get to his body. Again, they obeyed the rules and observed the Sabbath, too exhausted to do anything else.
While they waited for Sabbath to end, I am sure they shed many more tears, and they must have felt useless and hopeless. The women would have comforted each other, and within sabbath regulations, tried to keep busy. Sabbath forced them to rest and do little, just like the enforced lockdowns we have had to endure while desperate to do something to help those we care for.
As with Covid and us, Jesus’ death was a surprise to them and took them unawares. They hadn’t prepared the spices in advance and were now rushing to keep up with events. They were caught off guard by everything that had happened.
If you find yourself on auto-pilot right now, feeling useless, hopeless and in a state of shock, you are not alone. Perhaps you will find comfort in tradition and can share your pain with those around you. I pray that you will find support and can offer solace to others. Just like the women, we need each other.
When the women were finally able to access Jesus tomb to anoint him, they were the first to discover that he had risen from the dead. Similarly, following our challenging experiences of Covid, there is hope for us in the wake of trauma. We can be assured that Jesus has good news to share with us when we come to him. He has overcome death, and we will find hope again.
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