“Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!””
John 20:1-2 NLT
“On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?””
Mark 16:3 NLT
“Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.”
Matthew 28:2-3 NLT
The question, “Who rolled the stone away”, is answered in Matthew’s Gospel. As he wrote, “an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it”. There were a number of guards there, ensuring that no-one came to steal the body and Matthew records that “The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint” (Matthew 28:4). These were seasoned soldiers, battle hardened, and not easily scared. But they saw something early that morning that had a devastating effect on them. It was only Matthew who recorded in his Gospel that an angel rolled away the stone, accompanied by a “great earthquake”, and the amusing part of the story is that the angel then sat on the stone, almost as though he was saying that it would take more than a stone to hold Jesus in the tomb. The stone would have been very heavy, and it took at least two men to move it into place – Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus. So the women who came to the tomb that first Easter Sunday morning were of course concerned about how they would remove it. But they needn’t have worried – the task had already been done.
John records that it was only Mary Magdalene who came to visit the tomb and it was still dark. She must have had little sleep, and was probably feeling a bit frustrated that she couldn’t have been there before, prevented by the Sabbath and Passover events. Mary reached the tomb and immediately she must have assumed that the body of Jesus had been removed, so John records that she ran to find Peter and John, to let them know. In some ways this was a nightmare scenario for Jesus’ friends, because they were unable to complete the burial process.
We read the account and immediately we are aware of the authenticity of what happened. Small details emerge in the different accounts and come together to set a backdrop for the events yet to come. The rolled away stone emerged as a symbol of the empty tomb, as though God was saying that there was nothing that could keep His Son in an earthly grave. If the story of Jesus had ended with a sealed up tomb then there would be no pilgrims like us, and I wouldn’t be writing these words down. But the stone signified the start of Christianity, and believers in Jesus have increased in every period of history ever since. Were Jesus’ friends and the first disciples starting to feel that something significant was about to happen, as reports of the empty tomb started to circulate? We’ll soon find out.
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Jesus, the One who left the tomb, alive and well. Without the empty grave we would have had no faith or belief in Jesus for His forgiveness for our sins. We are so grateful and we worship You this morning. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 