Tuesday, April 9, 2013
334 - When the Stone was Rolled Away
Spirituality
Column #334
April 9, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
On the radio just before Easter I heard, consecutively, two unrelated sermons by two different preachers making the following point about the empty tomb of Jesus:
The stone was “rolled away” not so Jesus could get out, but so that the witnesses could get in. Dumb me; I’d never thought of it before.
Could it be any more obvious? How else could Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, then Peter and John, the other disciples, the 500, and over time the entire world, learn about God’s love and the miracle of the resurrection? Duh. Of course Jesus didn’t need divine aid to move a rock; he had just beaten death, forgiven sin and restored a fallen world to fellowship with the Creator God Almighty. It was mankind that needed divine aid to remove the stone of its sadness, emptiness, guilt, and disbelief.
All four Gospels mention the stone: Matthew 28:2, Mark 16:4, Luke 24:2, and John 20:1. It seems Pilate’s tomb guards were “guarding” the evil done by a dark world, e.g., killing Jesus, and angels who “gleamed like lightning” frightened off the guards and revealed the glorious truth of the risen Lord.
And it struck me … do any of us come to faith in Christ without, somewhere along the journey, God rolling a rock out of our way? Or without angels removing a barrier to our faith in the eternal unseen? Have we ever approached Jesus thinking he was dead and been thoroughly surprised at the life we found?
I sure have. Like when I came to faith well into my adult years. It didn’t happen all at once, just like Christianity didn’t emerge fully formed upon the witness of the miraculously empty tomb. That rolled-away stone revealed the most enormous, total truth the world will ever know. It instantly triggered faith, fear and joy, followed by confusion and curiosity. “Jesus is risen! Our Lord is alive!” the witnesses rejoiced.
But … what happens next?
That’s what I wondered the first time I walked out of church: what would happen next? I had gone in with no intent or expectations of actually “finding Jesus.” But I came out having encountered “the empty tomb” – with spiritual proof positive in my heart that Christ was real and Jesus was alive and somehow everything I’d heard about Jesus Christ was true. I had found the truth of Jesus and wanted to actually find Him. But honestly, I had no idea how to go about it.
Thus the journey began. With the Spirit’s help, the journey continues.
But I’ll never forget the day the stone was rolled away.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wonders if you remember when your stone was rolled away.
April 9, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
When the Stone was Rolled Away
By
Bob WaltersOn the radio just before Easter I heard, consecutively, two unrelated sermons by two different preachers making the following point about the empty tomb of Jesus:
The stone was “rolled away” not so Jesus could get out, but so that the witnesses could get in. Dumb me; I’d never thought of it before.
Could it be any more obvious? How else could Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, then Peter and John, the other disciples, the 500, and over time the entire world, learn about God’s love and the miracle of the resurrection? Duh. Of course Jesus didn’t need divine aid to move a rock; he had just beaten death, forgiven sin and restored a fallen world to fellowship with the Creator God Almighty. It was mankind that needed divine aid to remove the stone of its sadness, emptiness, guilt, and disbelief.
All four Gospels mention the stone: Matthew 28:2, Mark 16:4, Luke 24:2, and John 20:1. It seems Pilate’s tomb guards were “guarding” the evil done by a dark world, e.g., killing Jesus, and angels who “gleamed like lightning” frightened off the guards and revealed the glorious truth of the risen Lord.
And it struck me … do any of us come to faith in Christ without, somewhere along the journey, God rolling a rock out of our way? Or without angels removing a barrier to our faith in the eternal unseen? Have we ever approached Jesus thinking he was dead and been thoroughly surprised at the life we found?
I sure have. Like when I came to faith well into my adult years. It didn’t happen all at once, just like Christianity didn’t emerge fully formed upon the witness of the miraculously empty tomb. That rolled-away stone revealed the most enormous, total truth the world will ever know. It instantly triggered faith, fear and joy, followed by confusion and curiosity. “Jesus is risen! Our Lord is alive!” the witnesses rejoiced.
But … what happens next?
That’s what I wondered the first time I walked out of church: what would happen next? I had gone in with no intent or expectations of actually “finding Jesus.” But I came out having encountered “the empty tomb” – with spiritual proof positive in my heart that Christ was real and Jesus was alive and somehow everything I’d heard about Jesus Christ was true. I had found the truth of Jesus and wanted to actually find Him. But honestly, I had no idea how to go about it.
Thus the journey began. With the Spirit’s help, the journey continues.
But I’ll never forget the day the stone was rolled away.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wonders if you remember when your stone was rolled away.
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