1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James,
and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the
first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying
to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of
the tomb?” 4 And
looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the
tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe,
and they were alarmed. 6 And
he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was
crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 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.”
Mark 16:1-7
It
was a sad morning. Commonly, the day
after the Sabbath, and even more so, three days after the Passover Sabbath,
which was well known as the high Sabbath, a holy day, is a happy day. Because they just celebrated the day of
worship. Passover was considered very
important for the people of Israel. It
dated back to the time when Israel was freed from the bondage of Egyptian
slavery. With his mighty hands, Yahweh
punished Egypt in order to liberate Israel.
After 400 years under pressure and injustice, the entire people of
Israel rejoiced for the freedom they received from Yahweh. They were saved from the hands of their
persecutor. And so remembering the
liberation from Egyptian slavery, the days after the Passover Sabbath was the
days of great joy and thanksgiving.
However, in that Sunday, Jesus’ disciples were all in deep sadness. The women who faithfully followed Jesus
during his ministry came to the tomb early that Sunday morning believing that
their great Master was lying dead in the tomb.
They wanted to anoint Jesus’ body.
They wanted to honor Jesus for the last time.
As
they walked toward the tomb, they remembered that the tomb was sealed with a
large stone. The three women, Mary
Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, realized that they did not
have the strength to unseal the tomb.
Commonly the stone that covered 1st century tomb in the
Graco-Roman world was about 1-2 tons.
The size of the rock was about 5-6 feet (1.8 meters) in diameter, and
about 1 foot (30 cm) thick. At the
entrance of the tomb, there was a deep indentation in order to lock the stone
at the tomb entrance. Not only that the
stone was heavy, but also difficult to roll once it was locked in the
indentation. It could take as many as
ten men in order to roll the stone away from the entrance. The women asked a very reasonable question to
each other: “Who will roll the stone
away for us from the entrance of the tomb?” Given the weight of the stone, it was
impossible for the three women to roll the stone themselves. They need help.
This
question is a very significant question.
For in it lies an assumption that is prevalent in our world today. The three women were still in the “lack of
faith” mode as were the eleven disciples.
They were thinking in the worldly logic.
Never crossed in their mind that Jesus was alive. They witnessed Jesus’ death. They saw Jesus’ soulless body was taken down
from the cross. They saw death. Death that they had seen for so many
times. For death, when it struck, it
left the living powerless. No matter
what they did, they could not fight the power of death. And they saw, not even Jesus was able to
overcome death. That day, the day Jesus
was crucified and died, they experienced the greatest hopelessness. They saw him being laid in the tomb. And they witnessed the stone being rolled
into the entrance to lock it, so as to seal the tomb.
In
a similar way the world cannot believe that Jesus is alive or even exists. The world’s unbelief is much stronger than
the three women. The world does not even
have faith in Jesus. The world does not
have respect for Jesus. The world does
not care about Jesus. All the world
wants is for Jesus to be forgotten, and worse, for Jesus to be eliminated from
the face of the earth. In our current
age, the world is adamant to blot out the memory of Jesus from the life of
man. The dominant way of thinking, that
is science, has infiltrated human logic and somehow successfully obscures
faith. In the name of reason, the world
attacks faith as baseless and irrational due to its lack of scientific evidence. The world, then, moves on to dismiss any
truth and knowledge that is based on faith.
Such kind of faith-based knowledge is mythical at best, if not plain
lies, according to the world with scientific logic as the operating system.
I
talked to an unbeliever once about Jesus.
After listening to me that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and all,
he said to me: “You know, it is funny, why God chose the difficult way to make
people believe? It would be easier for
him to come in this modern era when news can spread very fast through TV,
radio, cell phones, internet. If he
would just come like now, then the news got to me, I would easily believe. If God really wants people to believe, he
should have come now in this modern era.
It was a mistake to come when it was difficult to prove that he really
did what you said he did.” Perhaps not
many people are like that in this church, but if we go outside this church wall,
we will find a lot of people who think that way. In fact, our public schooling system that has
been influenced greatly by the western world has been used very effectively to
indoctrinate our children of the scientific logic. Praise God if there are Christian schools
around that continue to stay true to the faith in Jesus Christ and not letting
the world’s system to obscure our children’s faith. But the world is relentless in its attempt to
take out any memory of Jesus from human knowledge and belief.
But,
contrary to their expectation, something had happened earlier that resulted in
a shocking discovery by the three women.
This is what they found: “4 But
when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been
rolled away.” Their question was
answered plain and simple, right there.
It’s done already. Someone else
had done it. Whoever that was, had
rolled the stone away. Their problem was
solved. The large and heavy stone, which
they could not roll by themselves, was rolled away. They were relieved that the hindrance was now
gone. They could do what they set out to
do. So without bothering to ask who actually
rolled the stone away, they just entered the tomb in order to anoint Jesus’
body. But another and bigger surprise
awaited them in the tomb. Someone had
been waiting for them. Someone dressed
in white robe. Someone with the liking
of an angel sat on the right side.
Looking at the unexpected sight, the three women were alarmed. They were surprised. All their imagination of what they would find
in the tomb and everything was shattered.
First the stone, and now the angel like person. Their heads must be spinning at that moment,
asking: “What happened? Who is this
guy? Did he roll the stone away? What is he doing here? Why is this not as we expect it to be?” They planned to anoint Jesus’ body. They imagined that they would need a big help
in rolling the stone away. They expected
to find Jesus’ body in the tomb wrapped in linen. They must have thought that they would then
unwrap the linen and then pour perfume and oil to Jesus’ body. But none of their imagination took place.
Before they could say a word,
the angel spoke: “Don’t be alarmed, You are looking for Jesus the
Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where
they laid him.” The third surprise,
Jesus’ body was not there! The angel
testified that Jesus was not there. And
the fact that his body was not on the place where he was laid was proof of him
not being there. The angel proclaimed: “He has risen!” Or the better translation is supposed to be:
“He was raised!” Their head spinning even faster. They could not say anything. But they must have asked in their heart:
“What does it mean?” They saw him
dead. They set out to put perfume and
oil on his body. “The stone was rolled
away. The angel standing by. All the weird talk. And his body is not there. What is happening? He was raised?! What does it mean? Raised from death? How come?
Where is he?” The angel said: “7 But go, tell his disciples
and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just
as he told you.’” There, they
realized something that never registered to them before. Yes, Jesus had told them of all these way
before all the events took place. Yes
Jesus is alive. He is not dead
anymore. He conquered death. And now he is alive.
Brothers
and sisters, this was a good surprise for the three women. And for sure that is a good surprise for us
too. We all like good surprises. Good surprise is like opening the many layers
of the wrappings of our beautiful present.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s grace for us all. After all the gruesome events, the painful
feelings of losing a loved one, the depressing and distressful emotion of
hopelessness, the confusion of the mind knowing that the great Master – the
Messiah – was captured, tortured, and died in a grotesque manner, now the grand
gift. The gift no one expected, not even
Jesus’ disciples, to whom Jesus revealed what would happen. The sadness of Sunday morning was turned to a
great joy. The three women started out
to honor Jesus’ body. And they struggled
with the prospect of a failed mission because none would roll the stone away
for them. And the surprise started with
the stone being rolled away already and ended with Jesus’ body not lying dead
in the tomb. This is the hope of Easter!
The
world puts a lot of obstacles on our path toward spiritual growth in the
faith. It works very hard to quench the
fire of our faith within us. It squeezes
our faith to the point of helplessness.
It attacks our faith until it shatters and trusts no more. It does not stop until our faith lies death
in the tomb of doubt. Today we face the
coronavirus outbreak and its implications to our life. We don’t see hope because there is no cure
yet, no vaccine, and the prospect of getting infected is big. People all over the world are panicking. Masks, hand sanitizers, cleaners, toilet
papers, food, whatever they could buy they would. Cities are locked down. Flights are cancelled. Schools, offices, churches, are closed
down. The fear of the spread of the
virus grips the heart of man. We succumb
even more when we see our loved ones, friends, families, die to the virus. We see no hope and we despair. We then ask God: “Why God? Why?
Why bad things happen to good people?”
And this is just one virus, covid 19.
Yeah despair, that’s what
happened to Joni Eareckson Tada as well at a personal level. When she was eighteen she went to Chesapeake
Bay and she got injured there, paralyzed from the neck down. She questioned God for 3 years. Her faith was diminishing. She entered the state of despair. She found no answer to her injury and
paralysis. She was young and full of
energy. Bright future was in front of
her. But not anymore. Now, life seemed grim. Dark cloud was hanging over her fate. Her faith faced a big obstacle. It was as if a large stone was on top of her
body from the neck down. Who would roll
the stone away? No answer for 3 years. For the rest of her life she remains a
quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down.
One day I watched her presentation in front of some university
students. She came out from the
backstage with her wheelchair facing hundreds of students. She said something like this: “Now I know why
God made me a quadriplegic. For three
years I asked God and complained to him for why making me like this. I was angry at God. I was ready to leave my faith. But now I know. It is so that I could testify of his love, of
his salvation. I am like this, and I am
here now, is because he loves me.” And
the students clapped their hands honoring and celebrating her testimony of the
greatness of God’s love. Hundreds of
students were touched by her testimony that day, me included. Her stone was rolled away by God. It’s a mystery as to how the stone was rolled
away. But he did. Joni did not lose her faith, but in her lack
of faith God strengthened her and continued to love her.
Brothers
and sisters, God’s grace for us is given even before we could understand
it. The three women did not understand
it. Their lack of faith blinded them of
what Jesus already told them regarding his resurrection. Their deep sadness hindered their spiritual
eyes to see pass the earthly construct.
Their experience in the day of crucifixion filled their imagination and
left no space for hope and God’s power.
Their repeated experience of helplessness married the explosive power of
death, sank their heart and mind into the bottomless despair. But all that changed in a flash. The stone was rolled away. That’s the first clue. The angel proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection. That’s the second clue. And Jesus’ body was nowhere to be found in
the tomb. That’s the third clue. And later at the end of the gospel of Mark,
Jesus appeared before the eleven and other disciples showing them that he was
indeed alive. That’s the ultimate clue.
I don’t know what your personal
stone that needs to be rolled. It could
be health, it could be relationship, it could be financial matter, it could be
a lot of things. Right now, the whole
world is groaning over the big stone of covid 19. So we ask the question: “Who would roll the
stone away for us?” Brothers and
sisters, you know the answer: God will!
God did it for the three women, he did it for Joni, and he did it for
all of us too, before we all even realized it.
Jesus is alive. Long before
anybody could make sense of his revelation of his death and resurrection. No matter how big our stones are, God has
rolled it away. The stone of covid 19
will also be rolled away by God. The
stones of our personal health issue, relationship problem, financial
difficulties, will all be rolled away by our God, in His time and wisdom. Even though it might not mean you would be
100% healthy again, or getting your relationship smooth again, or being richer,
but you would be a transformed person who trust only in the Lord. And let me tell you the most important thing,
the greatest stone He rolled away is death through the death and resurrection
of his Son Jesus Christ. His
resurrection gives us hope, hope of a better life, hope of eternal life with
God. No more will we ask: “Who will roll
the stone away from us?” Because we all
know that God will. This is the hope of
Easter for all the people of God. Amen.
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