Rolled Away
By Jack Wyman
It’s still dark.
The air is cool.
There’s not a sound. It’s peaceful here—and beautiful. The large gnarled trees form a canopy over the well-trodden paths.
The sun would soon throw its brilliant rays across this rocky ground and illumine the mountainside.
A huge stone had been rolled across the entrance of the tomb two days earlier. This grave must be sealed—not to prevent a resurrection but to guard against an insurrection. To stop ardent disciples from stealing the body and claiming he’d come back to life.
Guards had been dispatched to stand watch.
The stone was the triumph of finality, so the powers thought. It should be immovable; secure against any other outcome; impregnable against even the faintest hope. This stone was the doom of any expectation of something better.
It was the stone of enmity and division; of oppression and injustice. It was the stone of fear, distrust, and anxiety; of bigotry, hate and violence. Here too was the stone of war, despair, pride and greed. It was the stone of sin. The stone of hopelessness. Among the dead and decaying, it was the stone of death.
Hope is hardly the natural offspring of a graveyard. Here was buried the future’s promise.
His disciples were shattered and scattered; their hearts gripped by fear and broken by cruelty.
The Gospel writers differ slightly in their accounts of what happened on that third morning. There was no disagreement on the astonishing result. The stone that could never be moved was rolled away.
Forever.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest single event in the history of the world; the most significant event in the history of the cosmos. More than any other belief, the resurrection is the cornerstone of Christianity. It is the triumph over sin, death, and the devil.
The stone could not prevent Jesus. The guards could not constrain him. The tomb could not contain him. The Pharisees could not defeat him. The Sanhedrin could not condemn him. The crowds could not be rid of him. Satan could not destroy him.
“Death could not hold its prey, Jesus my Savior; he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!”
The apostle Paul was dead right: if there is no resurrection, if Christ be not raised, then our faith is in vain, our hope is futile, our preaching and teaching is empty, and our religious observance is a cruel, meaningless joke.
Why bother? Life itself would be drained of any transcendence. You and I would be no better off—and of no greater significance—than a fly on a windowsill in December.
While much of the world has always lived with the doubts of Thomas, those of us who have not seen, yet believe, have embraced the surety of the resurrection as our ultimate strength and consolation. Still, it must be said, we will gather to worship and celebrate this weekend surrounded by a fallen world of lost dreams, misery, fear, injustice, and war.
The United Nations met recently to discuss peace. Instead, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the diplomats:
"We are facing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945.” The war in Ukraine, he said, is "a catastrophe shaking the foundations of the international order, spilling across borders and causing skyrocketing food, fuel and fertilizer prices that spell disaster for developing countries."
The world, captive to sin and oppression, reels in its grave clothes. It thrashes about and groans for liberation, cries for hope. It looks for meaning beyond the drudgery of its endless daily toil and futile attempts at happiness. The human heart longs desperately for joy, deliverance and purpose; freedom from the chains of its bondage.
At the grave of his friend Lazarus, Jesus made his most audacious claim:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
Jesus turned to Martha and asked her: “Do you believe this?”
Many do not. They seek answers less astounding and categorical. Above all, they seek a prideful self-reliance. Yet, the evidence mounts that the humanists of a century ago had it wrong. We cannot save ourselves.
The overwhelming majority of Americans consistently believe that this country is headed in the wrong direction. Why is that? Why are we not more optimistic about our politics, our government and our future? Why do we not have more confidence in our elected leaders, in the politicians who presume to guide us? Why are we drawn increasingly toward despair, negativity and cynicism?
Because, in our hearts, we cannot deny the inescapable truth.
No mortal can save us from our depraved selves. No party or candidate can deliver us from the sin that so easily besets us—as individuals and as a community. The fallen human condition is impervious to legislation, Supreme Court decisions, or elections.
Only God can save us.
In the vicarious death and triumphant resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, God has made a way for you and me to be saved. In this life—and forever.
Only a firm, unalterable, undeniable, and unconquerable faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ can give us joy for today, purpose for tomorrow, and bright hope for eternity.
Only that resurrection power within can give us the perseverance and strength to seek a newer world here—while we wait for the its consumption through the glorious reign of Jesus Christ in the hereafter.
C.S. Lewis argued that we must be heavenly-minded in order that we may do earthly good. Those who set their affections on things above, not on the things of earth, Lewis insisted, have had the vision and courage to make life better here. Their confidence and hope have been in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Because he lives, we shall live also. Here is the difference between a hopeless end and an endless hope.
Let’s remain steadfast, Paul says, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Because of the resurrection, our work for him is never in vain.
He rolled the stone away.
To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of LIfe, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.
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