-- Mark 16:3
Three women walk to a grave. In it lay one they loved. More than that, in that tomb had been laid to rest their expectations, their hopes, their faith, their lives.
"Who will roll away the stone for us?" they ask. "How will we get inside to mourn our loss; to grieve. How will we properly say goodbye to every dream we had for the future?" They were prepared to anoint the dead. They were not prepared for...
They hated that stone. It stood in the way. It signified finality. It stood for death. It was a symbol of separation. But in just a few moments it would signify something completely different.
You know the story. The stone had been rolled away. In the original language the emphasis is the stone had been ingloriously tossed aside. Our immediate reaction might be, good, at least we can get inside to mourn our loss; to reminisce what could have been.
But when stones are tossed aside, things change... radically. Instead of a dead Messiah - an empty slab. Oh, except for an angel hanging out.
(My version of the conversation)
Angel: "Why are you looking for Life in dead places?"
Women: "..." (speechless)
Angel: "He is not here, he is risen!"
Women: "..." (still nothing - would you?)
Angel: "I tossed the stone so you could see... Life wins, death lost.
Women: "uh..."
Angel: "Ok now - go tell..."
The stone was moved - not for Jesus - but for the women; not so Jesus could come out, but so the women could see in!
-- Max Lucado, He Still Moves Stones
As Lucado says, the stone wasn't rolled away to allow Christ to exit the tomb. The stone was tossed for our benefit.
Stones are nothing to a living God.
And stones - no matter what form or size -
still have no power to separate.
The God who spoke through limbs on fire, who parted seas and stopped rivers, who walked on waves and calmed the storms... HE STILL MOVES STONES!
God, no stone of my making or another is big enough to stand in the way of your life in me...
For now...
D
