The Emptiness That Fills Us

It seems contradictory to say that emptiness can fill. By definition, empty means: "containing nothing." How can we make sense of our title: "The Emptiness That Fills Us"?

I’m referring to the two most significant symbols of Christianity: the cross and the empty tomb. Both are empty. When Mary Magdalene saw the empty tomb, she was devastated, thinking that someone had taken the Lord Jesus’ body (John 20:2). The empty tomb did not yet mean victory to her or to the others, because they still did not know that Jesus had to rise from the dead (John 20:9). They did not yet realize that that emptiness would flood and fill their sad and discouraged hearts. Yet that emptiness, that apparent defeat, was in fact victory.

When Jesus appears to Mary in his resurrected and glorified body, she cannot bring herself to let him go and wants to hold on to him (John 20:17). But he tells her to go and tell the disciples that he is alive.

When Jesus died on the cross, many women who had followed him were there watching (Matthew 27:55). I can imagine that when Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross, their sorrow, as they looked at the empty cross, grew even deeper. Little did they know that the empty cross would become the most important symbol of victory. There stood the clearest evidence of a victory the world would come to know.

The empty cross, together with the empty tomb, has become over the centuries an unmistakable mark of victory over death. These "emptinesses" fill our hearts with the concrete hope of victory over death. The cross and the empty tomb empower us to boldly echo the apostle Paul’s challenge.

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:55, 57.

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