Rolling Stones
Text: Mark 16:1-8
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
“When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him.” What a group of dedicated women. After all that had happened in the preceding days and the fear they must have felt about being a follower of Christ, here they were “very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.” Up early, already having procured the spices they needed to anoint Jesus’ body, they travelled to the tomb. These women were busy. They had a lot to do. There was still mourning for their friend, their leader, their Lord, to be done. But before they could get on with that, they had a big task to take care of. Whether their task was to finish the job of preparation that had been cut short by the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday evening, or whether this “anointing” was a separate ritual, before they could do the job they had come to do, there was a big rock for them to deal with. A literal big rock. The text calls it a stone. “And they were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’”
Mark Twain once famously said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” Ok, maybe it wasn’t actually Mark Twain who said this, but he’s the one who it’s most often attributed to. This quote has been turned into a pretty memorable productivity method that simply says to get as much as you possibly can done in a day, make sure you do the toughest, least pleasant thing first. If you’ve ever tried it, you can probably vouch for the fact that it works pretty well. Instead of sitting around worrying about that difficult thing that has to be done, get it out of the way and then you can move on to all the other stuff you have to do.
Mary, Mary, and Salome had a big frog in front of them. Actually, a big stone, but you get the point. I’m guessing that they didn’t subscribe to the eat the frog productivity method, but they did know this was the biggest and most important thing for them to get done on that day and they were going to tackle it head on, first thing. Even if they had no idea how they were going to get it done. It seems clear they knew that even with the three of them, there would be no way they could roll the stone away themselves. Maybe they were aware that there had been Roman guards stationed at the tomb, but it seems unlikely their plan would have been to ask the guards to roll the stone away for them. Perhaps they thought some of the disciples might already be there, or coming soon, and they would help out.
Whatever they were thinking, it all ended up not mattering in the end. As they approached the tomb, “And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back – and it was very large.” Mark makes sure to be very clear, this was a big stone. In fact, something they wouldn’t have been able to move themselves. But it was already done. Matthew tells us that “there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.” God did it for them. What a great reminder of the work God does for us. When there’s something we’re incapable of doing, He does it for us. It’s the entire message of Holy Week and Easter encapsulated in a single verse, “And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back – and it was very large.”
WHEN WE HAVE STONES TOO BIG TO ROLL AWAY OURSELVES,
GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF THEM FOR US.
And we have plenty of stones in our lives. Obstacles, some of our own making, and others outside of our control, that cause us to sit back and wonder how we’re ever going to make it through. That conversation you know you need to have, but have been dreading. The job you feel you’re being called to, but are too afraid to go for, for fear of another rejection. The endless list of things to get done that gets longer and longer every day. For us they’re huge stones. We might even be like those women on Easter morning, approaching them with no plan as to how they’ll be accomplished. Well, here’s your plan. Let God take care of them. For us, they’re boulders. For Him they’re a grain of sand. “Cast all your burdens on Him, for He cares for you.”
He’s waiting to hear from you. But you’re not going to find Him in the tomb. Remember what the women encountered after they realized the stone had been rolled away? “And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, ‘do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here.’” You won’t find Jesus, your source of strength and hope, in the place where dead people are laid. Because He’s not dead. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! We can rely on that assurance as the stones in our lives weigh us down, keep us from moving forward, and cause us to take our eyes off the Savior.
That huge stone the Marys and Salome were worried about, and which God moved out of the way for them, wasn’t the biggest stone God took care of for them on that first Easter morning. Let’s not forget that Jesus was dead. Actually dead. His physical human body had stopped moving and breathing. His body should have been lying in that tomb that morning. God sent the angel to roll the stone away, but the bigger stone he removed for those women, and for us, is death itself. Jesus wasn’t the One who should have rightfully been in that tomb. It should have been us. Our sin carries with it the justified consequence of death. But we don’t have to endure it, because Christ took our place. He hung on the cross. He died. He paid the price that was rightfully ours. But He didn’t stay dead. When God raised Him from the tomb, brought Him back to life, He rolled the stone of death away for all of us. And “because He lives, we too shall live.”
A variation of the “eat the frog” quote goes like this, “if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that this is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.” To sanitize it just a little bit, we might say, “if you do the hardest thing first, everything else you do will seem easy in comparison.” But for us as Christians, this isn’t some productivity method. This is our lives. And too often we try and try to do the hard things, only to fall woefully short. When what we should really be doing is to allow God to do the hard things for us, and then allow all the rest of our lives to fall into place because of what He has already done. He did the work on the cross. He ate the frog, as it were, because we could not. He suffered the pain of death so that we don’t have to. And when we see it in that way, everything else in our lives can serve as a reflection of the incomparable work He has done for us.
Because He suffered the cross, and came out on the other side, risen and glorified, all the stones in our lives have been rolled away. Because He conquered death we can say, along with Paul, “in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Knowing this, we can hear the final words of the angel to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome as they were intended for them, and for us. The angel said, “But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.” The text then tells us that, “they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” That morning was awesome and amazing, and frightful, and astonishing to those women. And although they fled and said nothing to anyone in that moment, we know that Jesus’ disciples didn’t stay silent for long. If they had, we wouldn’t know about that first Easter morning. We wouldn’t know about all that Christ has done. We wouldn’t be here this morning celebrating the resurrection.
They told the story, and because they did, we know of Christ’s incredible work on our behalf. We know of all the stones He has rolled away for us. But there are too many who still do not know. Too many for whom their stones continue to be a crushing weight. They too deserve to know about our Savior’s work. So even in your fear, and trembling, and astonishment at the work of your Savior, go and tell the story. Shout it from the mountaintop. Because your Lord is alive. Your God is living and active. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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