Yesterday was Passion Sunday, and Easter is only days away. What’s a congregation to do? No Easter services? That feels unthinkable. Yet in these days of sheltering in place and quarantine and physical distancing, who is going to show up and celebrate an empty tomb?

Perhaps it is worth remembering that early Christ-followers were not hanging out in the garden on that first Easter morning. They were huddled in small groups, in locked rooms – full of fear! Fear indeed. Everything they had believed in and everything they had hoped for got hung up on a tree and was left hanging in the wind. Jesus was dead and so was their future.

That first Easter sunrise service was rather quiet. According to John’s Gospel, only Mary Magdalene made her way there. But what she witnessed echoes resoundingly still today.

So I want to say, walk on. Walk on through this week – Passion Week. Let’s remember that Jesus walked in and out of the city of Jerusalem, that he shared a Seder meal with those close to him, that he continued to speak of serving others, that he was betrayed, arrested, abused, ridiculed, and finally put to death by asphyxiation by being nailed to a cross. Let this week remind us that nothing we face or fear hasn’t already been encountered by Jesus. Easter is only Easter when we make the connection between the reality of suffering and death and the remarkable embrace of God with human experience.

So whether we gather (in some future season) by the hundreds or thousands, or whether we gather in our small huddles or shelter at home, the reality of Easter is still the same. God walks right in the middle of the mess of tragedy; God takes it all on. And in the morning – beyond the darkness of a Good Friday, comes the sun. On Easter morning comes the Son.