Who Will Roll Away the Stone?
Mark 16:1-8
April 20, 2025 anno Domini
The women were already on their way to the tomb when they remembered the stone. They had gone out the night before, after sun set on the Sabbath, to buy the spices. They had risen early so they would be at the tomb at first light. You couldn’t blame them for forgetting. They were driven by grief. Their friend, their teacher, the man in whom they hoped had been put to death in cruel fashion by religious hypocrites and political cowards. When you’re overwhelmed you forget things, even big things, like the giant stone rolled in front of the tomb which you hope to enter.
This isn’t the only significant stone in Scripture. The stone tablets which Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were big stones. Not so much because of their actual weight but because of the weight of their words. The first word the Lord gave Israel was “I am the Lord Your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
You really don’t need another commandment after that one. That one word of the Lord says it all. I am the only God who does anything. I brought the Israelites out of slavery. I defeated Pharoah and his army in the Red Sea. I am the Lord your God so don’t have any other gods. I created the world and everything in it. I made you male or female. I placed you in your family and gave you to your parents. If you are married, I am the One who separated you from your father and mother to cling to your wife or husband. I set the sun and moon in place. I order the days and the seasons of your life. I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods.
Can you lift that stone? Carry that stone? That One Word of God condemns all of us to death – not because it is a bad Word. It’s a great word. Your life would be awesome if you had no other gods. If you trusted God more than the government of your choice. If you loved God more than yourself. If you feared losing God as much as you fear losing your health or your lifestyle. The weight of that one Word, that One command is not because God made it impossible to lift, rather it is because you have lost all our strength to do what is good and right. If you don’t believe me, try to stop sinning or try to stop dying.
You cannot understand or rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ unless you know and believe that you are a sinner. This is not the simple, common confession that “well, of course I’m a sinner, nobody is perfect.” To confess you are a sinner is to confess that by nature you are totally corrupted. You’re a corpse before God, no pulse, no desire for Him, no ability to do the smallest righteous task. To confess you are a sinner is to confess you have more false gods than your prized collection of Beanie babies, Vince Flynn novels, or leftover nuts and bolts. You’ve got false gods in your house, at Edward Jones, Centracare, and Washington DC. To confess you are a sinner is to confess you cannot please God by anything you do. You’re as dead as Lazarus after four days in the tomb and you stink to high heaven. You have the same chance of getting out of your tomb as the women did of getting into Jesus’ tomb – which today is pretty good..
Looking up, the women saw that the stone had been rolled back – it was very large. In St. Matthews Gospel, the angel of the Lord caused a great earthquake, rolled the stone back and sat on it. I like to think the angel was smirking at death’s defeat or smiling as He waited for the women to come. Maybe it was that same angel who had moved inside by the time the women arrived – wanting that surprise of the open tomb to be even more of a surprise.
“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.” Here’s where you need to remember your sin to understand the resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead because the cross worked. The resurrection of Jesus means the sin of the world have been taken away. If your sin is take away so is death. The angel could have said, “Jesus is not here. That means your sins are forgiven.”
That’s why the angel instructed the women who they were to tell. Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. What had those disciples done? They had sinned against the Lord. They had all abandoned him at his arrest. If anyone needed forgiveness it was Peter. He had denied his Lord three times, so the angel singled him out – tell Peter, Jesus is risen. Your sins are forgiven. That’s what you need to hear. Jesus is risen. Your sins are forgiven.
What is interesting about Mark’s account of the resurrection is how it ends. The women went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. On the way to the tomb they forgot about the stone, for all their sorrow and grief. On the way from the tomb, they momentarily forgot what the angel told them to do – tell the disciples and Peter. I’ve always been puzzled why they were afraid. Were they afraid because they had seen an angel? Were they afraid that it wasn’t true?
I have my own theory, not about their fear, but ours. People are afraid of the resurrection because it is a life changer. If you believe Christ forgives your sins you’re going to want to stop sinning. You’re going to change your life. If He’s the guy who’s going to pull you out of your grave on the last day, you’ll want to hang around with Him often, like every chance you get, like every Lord’s day. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God as He claimed to be, and as the resurrection proves, then it’s time to clean house and throw out your prized collection of false gods. If you believe in the resurrection, that Christ Jesus has forgiven all your sins, then every part of your life is affected – your work, your relationships, your finances, your goals, your weekends. The believer in you isn’t afraid of any of that, but the sinner that clings to you until the resurrection is scared to death, as he should be.
A few months ago, I priced out a “monument” for my grave. Isn’t that a nice word? What better thing could anyone see at my grave than a monument to Bruce? The old word is tombstone. That’s a better word. It reminds us of Jesus. My grave is at Trinity Cemetery in Sauk Rapids. The word cemetery means resting place. I’m not staying there after I die. My body will rest for a while. Then, because the tombstone of Jesus was rolled away, revealing He is risen from the dead, I too will be raised. Because I believe His cross took away my sins I’m going to live forever. Jesus said He came to die for your sins and then He did what He said. There’s nothing more certain in life than the resurrection of Jesus, because there’s nothing greater for life than the forgiveness of your sins. In the name of Jesus. Amen.