Last Sunday most people here in the United States celebrated the holiday known as Easter. In China, however, they don’t celebrate Easter. In fact, on April 5, they celebrated a markedly different national holiday. It’s called the Festival of Qingming, also known as “Tomb-Sweeping Day.”
And it is exactly what it sounds like.
On Tomb-Sweeping Day, hundreds of millions of Chinese visit the tombs of their ancestors to sweep them of debris and dust. Many believe they should do it only once a year so as to not disturb the deceased. Oftentimes they will bring gifts and offerings for their ancestors to help them in the afterlife.
Every year, though, they make sure to go and sweep off the graves.
As Americans, we don’t have a specific day set aside for cleaning the graves of our loved ones. Some people visit every week or every month to make sure the grave is clean and has fresh flowers. Others visit once a year or on holidays. Still others avoid cemeteries completely because it is simply too hard to go.
I’ve always considered Easter a good day to visit the cemetery. In a way, Easter is our Tomb-Sweeping Day as Christians. When Peter and John visited Jesus’ tomb on that first Easter Sunday morning, they found it already cleaned out. Jesus was gone. His burial clothes were neatly folded where his body once lay.
Jesus’ clean and tidy tomb is a reminder of how clean and tidy our tombs one day will be. Centuries before Jesus was even born, Job gave this confident confession: “I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25).
Jesus, our Redeemer, lived long before he was born in Bethlehem and has lived long after his death at Calvary. On Judgment Day, Jesus will once again physically stand here on earth, but the Hebrew word here can also carry the idea of dust, which makes Job’s picture even more striking.
Our Redeemer will one day stand over the dust, the bodies, the graves of those who have died. And on that day, Job says confidently, “In my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes” (Job 19:26,27).
Jesus promises us that because he lives, we too will live (John 14:19). Just as he rose triumphant from the grave, we too will physically rise on the Last Day.
When a person dies, their body and soul separate. Their body turns back to dust. Their soul goes before God for judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:7). All those who believe in Jesus as their Savior are given the gift of heaven he won for them. All those who don’t believe are sent to the punishment of hell we all deserve (Mark 16:16).
But then on the last day, God will raise all the dead. Our bodies and souls will be reunited. They will glorified, just like Jesus’ resurrected body (Philippians 3:21).
Our graves will be emptied. They will be swept clean forever.
That’s the victory Jesus won for us with his resurrection. That is what we celebrate every Easter. And that is why Easter is such a good day to go visit the cemetery.
Easter tells us that the graves of all those who believe in Jesus will one day be swept clean.
Pastor Andrew Schroer has been a pastor for over 20 years and is currently serving at Redeemer Lutheran Church with campuses in Edna and Victoria, Texas. Read more of his devotional writing and contact him at 364DaysofThanksgiving. com.
