Anguish

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over
to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white,
seated where Jesus’ body had been…They asked her,
“Woman, why are you crying?’”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said,
“and I don’t know where they have put him.”
At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,
but did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ”Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have put him and I will get him.”
John 20:11-15

The men came and left.
Mary Magdalene stayed and wept.
Two angels and You, Jesus—
whom she believed to be a kindly gardener—
asked about her tears.
“I don’t even have his body–
even this has been taken,” she cried.
There is no comfort
when love lost was life itself.
Her love, her anguish, were one.
Breath came in spastic spurts.
Spending what seemed her last wave of air,
she wailed, “I don’t know where he is!”
as if maybe You, dear empathic Gardener,
had seen her Jesus
lying in the flower bed,
as if all heaven and earth
depended
on Your whereabouts.

This post is from Juanita’s book: Grace Rises