“It’s a Miracle: the Stone is rolled away”
Luke 24:1-12
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
It was January 12, 2010, a little before five in the afternoon, as Ena Zizi sat with friends at the national cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It wasn’t unusual. It’s where she often went for fellowship, Bible study and prayer.
But all of a sudden, at seven minutes to five that afternoon, she felt the earth shake and the building start to crumble around her. For at that moment, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the island, destroying 300,000 buildings and taking the lives of as many as 160,000 people. It would be Haiti’s most devastating quake in history.
And somewhere beneath all that rubble lay poor, 70-year-old, Ena Zizi, her right leg crushed, her hip broken. She called for help, but no one was able to hear.
At first, she spoke to a man who was also buried nearby, a priest. But after two days, he fell silent. So then, she said, she talked to God.
Finally, a week after the quake, a team known as “the Gophers,” tunneled through the debris and found her. Then after hours of careful extraction by rescue crews from Germany, South Africa and Mexico, they carried Zizi from the rubble on a wooden board, her body covered in dust.
And as her friends from church cheered and prayed, she sang and said, “Thank God! Thank God!”
God is in the business of moving stones.
But of all the stones that have ever been or will ever be, there was never one more powerful or immovable than the one that sealed the grave of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It had all happened so fast. One minute they were sharing a Passover meal, drinking wine and talking of Moses and Elijah, and hoping that Jesus would choose this time to reveal His plans for another great liberation.
Then, what seemed like an instant, there was talk of betrayal, arrest, and denial. Jesus would fall on His face to the ground to pray, Judas would kiss, and torches would flash in the air. Then bound like a common criminal, He would stand in judgment before Annas and Caiaphas and Herod and Pilate. And by 9 o’clock Friday morning, it was done. Jesus was hung on a cross to die.
And there she stood, Mary Magdalene, at the foot of His cross, watching her Savior take His last tortured breath. It was all a bloody blur in her mind.
If only it had been a dream. But the faint scent of myrrh on her fingertips brought it all back—how Nicodemus brought spices to anoint Jesus’ bruised and broken body, then wrapped it in linen cloths and laid it in a cold stone tomb. Given all the eyes and ears, and the hearts and homes that Jesus healed, tending to His body was the least she could do.
But how hard it was to do. With every rub of the myrrh and aloes onto His head, His hands and His feet, she remembered the seven demons He once cast out and how He made her well.
Dear Jesus, the loving healer and teacher, had cast all of Magdalene’s demons out, every last one of them. And He had given her her life back. She had been born again by His love.
But now with Jesus gone, now what? Would the demons come to torture her again? Would she be forced to resume her silent, solitary life? With Jesus dead, would she die too?
So many fears, so much grief, so little sleep. It was all she could do to wake up so early that Sunday morning and put one foot in front of the other, and walk out to that cold, garden tomb. Maybe, just maybe, she could see Him and hold Him one last time.
But as she approached the tomb in the pale pink light of dawn, she felt the earth shake, a deep resounding shudder, a cracking, a breaking, as if death was afraid and life had won after all.
Then in that dim, morning light, she saw something she never expected to see. The stone had been rolled away!
Now we know how the story ends. But at that moment, Mary didn’t. All she saw was absence, that another dear thing had been lost. All she knew was that the empire of evil had not only killed her Lord, but now it had taken His body, leaving her with nothing at all.
Do you see the tears streaming down her face? Can you fathom her anguish?
Listen to what she said: “They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have laid Him.”
Then came that voice, that clear, calm, commanding voice, that cleansed lepers, that ruled the wind and the waves on the sea. “Woman,” He said, “Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
And as she fell at His feet, wrapping her arms around Him, she cried, “Rabboni!” “Teacher!” And at His command, she ran, she ran, to tell His disciples, “I have seen the Lord!”
Today, we can’t help but wonder just why she went to visit that tomb. Sure, she wanted to make final preparations for burial. The Bible says she took spices and ointments and perfumes. Still, what made her go to visit that tomb?
After all, there was no way she could even hope to get inside. There were Roman soldiers and a Roman seal, and an 8,000 pound block of stone standing in the way. There was little anyone could do to push past those guards, break that seal and move that stone to get inside. “We have our orders, woman. Better be on your way,” they would say.
But when she arrived, she saw something she never expected to see. Not only was the seal broken and Pilate’s band of armored men nowhere to be seen, but the stone, that 8,000 pound stone, was picked up and laid on its face on the ground.
And stranger still were the men she saw and the words she heard. Angels, sent from heaven, were thrilled to say, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He’s not here. He’s risen as He said.”
There is that question that makes us wonder even today. Why was that stone rolled away?
That’s easy, you might say. To let Jesus out. He was dead and buried and trapped inside. That’s why the angel rolled the stone away.
But that can’t be right. For that very night, as the disciples hid behind locked doors, Jesus suddenly appeared to them and showed them His hands and side. Just because the stone was there couldn’t mean He was trapped inside.
So there must be another purpose, another reason, the stone was rolled away. And the reason is this—so we could look inside.
“Look! See!” the angel said. “He’s risen, just as He said.”
And not only was it rolled away. It was laid down, its face on the ground.
And as the angel sat on it, silently, gracefully, breathing challenge to the Romans and defiance to the Jews, to earth and to death, and even to hell itself, he did as good to say, “You infernal powers, you enemies of the risen One, come and try to roll the stone back again, if you dare, if you can. For Christ has conquered. Jesus has won.”
Are you living as if death has the last word, as if we too will someday be trapped inside a stone cold tomb? Look! See! The stone is rolled away.
No wonder trumpets blare, choirs praise and the scent of lilies fills the air! Jesus is risen from the dead.
As Paul once wrote to the Corinthians: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you’re still in your sins.” Then he wrote: “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
It was 1930, and Communist leader Nikolai Bukharin journeyed from Moscow to Kiev in the Ukraine. His mission was to address a huge assembly, a crowd of 10,000, to advance communism. His subject for the evening was atheism.
For a solid hour, he took dead aim at Christianity, hurling arguments and ridiculing the Christian faith.
Finally, when he was done, he looked out across the crowd and asked, “Are there any questions?” In the silence, one solitary man stood up and asked permission to speak.
He climbed the steps of the platform, made his way to the podium, and stood beside the communist leader. The audience was breathless as he surveyed the crowd from right to left.
Then he leaned toward the microphone and shouted the ancient Orthodox greeting, “Christ is risen!”
And like thunder, the vast assembly, with one voice, shouted back, “Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
On this most wonderful Easter Day, may God grant you that most wonderful news of the angels, that most wonderful message they were once privileged to bring: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He’s not here; He’s risen as He said!”
Dear Father, we thank You for the wonder, the mystery, the hope and the promise of Easter. Grant that we may always remember and never forget--the stone is rolled away. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen
THE SWEET TRUTH OF EASTER
(m & m’s)
These candies tell a story~
the best news you’ll ever hear.
~It’s about Jesus dying on the cross
so that we could be brought near.
So hold them and turn them and you will see . . .
the ‘M’ becomes a ‘W’ an ‘E’ and then a ‘3’
The ‘E’ stands for . . .Easter . . .
God’s everlasting love and His eternal plan.
It reminds us of the cross
and the way God rescued sinful man
The ‘3’ represents the 3 days Jesus spent in the grave . . .
By His death, His children He did save
The ‘M’ reminds us of the mercy the Messiah showed
as He died in our place.
And the miracle of the resurrection
so we can see Him face to face
The ‘W’ reminds us . . that He alone
is worthy of our worship and praise
and calls us to be His witnesses
around the world for all of our days