Look for the Helpers

As part of a discipleship initiative at our Church in Nacogdoches, FirstNac UMC, I was asked to contribute to daily devotions which are emailed to visitors and members of FirstNac, as well as posted every day on social media platforms. These devotions include a scripture passage, a teaching based on the passage by a member of the church, and a reflection and prayer written by one of several contributors, also church members. In the past nine months that I have been writing these reflections, I have found that I enjoy the challenge of being assigned scriptural passages that are, alternately, and sometimes altogether, unfamiliar, opaque, beautiful, sad, and perplexing. 

What follows is one such passage I was assigned through the course of this initiative, along with my reflection on its words and stories as they speak to me. 

John 19:38-42

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

-Fred Rogers

I ran across this Fred Rogers quote a couple years ago, and I find myself coming back to it often. Even though its original intent was to help children understand and come to terms with incomprehensible tragedies, I have found that it, and really all of Mr. Rogers' teachings, apply to us "grown ups" just as surely.

As I read today’s scripture, this quote again surfaced in my mind. Some cynics read Joseph and Nicodemus showing up to claim and prepare the body of Jesus and paint them as “fair-weather friends,” unwilling to participate in the risky business that Jesus, in life, called his disciples to. But I see something else entirely.

I will bear with you while you pause for a moment and think about one of the darkest days of your life. The unexpected loss of a job, a divorce, or the death of a loved one. These traumatic times span the spectrum of intensity and severity, but, as in all things, tragedy is relative, and people feel things to different depths. What is catastrophic to one, may be just a bad day to another.

During these moments, it was hard to breathe, hard to think, hard to even be, wasn’t it? Simple decisions became uncrossable chasms, the smallest of tasks, sky-high, unclimbable mountains. You couldn’t see how you would make it through the next few minutes, much less the coming weeks, months, and years of your life.

Now, lift your impossibly heavy head and glance around. Look for the helpers.

At the time of your earth-shaking tragedy, you may not have even realized they were helpers, and perhaps they didn’t either. At least, not in the vitally important way they truly were.

But there they were, quietly delivering food to your door even though you had no appetite. Washing your laundry when you could hardly dress yourself. Driving your kids to school and baseball practice when you couldn’t leave the house. Showing up to the funeral when they hardly knew your loved one at all. Making your excuses to others who didn’t understand why you’re still grieving.

For me, this snippet of scripture is less about Jesus, and more about his eleven disciples who were terrified, grieving, and unsure how they would make it through the day without the beloved rabbi whom they’d given up their lives to follow. Maybe they, too, couldn’t get up out of bed, couldn’t eat a bite, or stop crying.

Joseph and Nicodemus were certainly followers of Jesus, but they couldn’t begin to match the grief and pain that Christ’s original disciples would have felt upon his violent, undeserved murder. They had not seen Jesus calm the dark, stormy swells, and also walk to meet them across the Sea of Galilee. They hadn’t seen Jesus feed thousands of people who were hungry for both food and knowledge. They hadn’t been shunned, called names, chased out of town for the sake of Jesus’ ministry… and still followed him.

No, they couldn’t. But what they could do was help.

They could do the things that the disciples couldn’t. Procure a new tomb, plead with Pilate for Christ’s broken body, and receive it into their care to be prepared carefully and lovingly when Jesus’ other disciples were not up to the task. 

And, no, we don’t hear much more about them after this, much like many of us might not remember the names or faces of those who were helpers in our worst moments. But God put them there in a time and place when we needed them most whether they, or we, knew it or not.

Look for the helpers, and you will always find people who are quietly picking up the slack of grief and pain, and I thank God for them, today and always.

God,

Open our eyes to the helpers in the world around us, quietly making life possible in its worst possible moments. God, help us to be those helpers to others when they cannot go on with how their lives used to be. Use us how you will, everyday.

In Christ’s holy name,

Amen.