Thought for Thursday
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. John 20:1
The stone taken away… what stone? The previous chapter doesn’t mention any stone. All we read is of Jesus being laid in the sepulchre, and everyone going away because of the preparation day and the sabbath. No mention is made of a stone, at least, not in John’s Gospel. But plenty is mentioned in two other Gospels about the stone. Matthew tells us that Joseph of Arimathaea rolled a great stone over the sepulchre opening, and also that the Romans placed a seal on that stone and had a guard detail watch it. Mark confirms that Joseph placed the stone. Like John, Luke makes no mention of the stone beforehand. All four Gospels confirm that the stone was moved on the resurrection morning. Can we take from this that the placing of the stone was not as important as its removal?
The first Adam was made of the dust of the ground, and, because of his disobedience, was told he would return to dust. The last Adam was made in the likeness of men. But, unlike the first Adam, He did not come from the dust, and could not return to the dust. No sepulchre had the power to hold Him; no stone had the weight to suppress Him. Had all the stones on earth been piled on that sepulchre, they must all move aside for the Victor o’er the dark domain. No, the stone was not moved to allow Him to depart the sepulchre; it was moved to prove to you and me that He had risen. It was moved to prove that death has lost the war.
Grief grips us when loved ones die. Worry and despair grip us when illness and pain cause us to realize our own life hangs by a slender thread. Frustration grips us when our bodies weaken and fail to provide the strength we once enjoyed. But the grip of these children of death is broken when we live in the greatest realization that the stone has been moved from the empty sepulchre. Not only has Christ risen, but He has left the proofs in the empty tomb and in the accounts of the eyewitnesses. Had the Roman seal never been broken, we might never know, but we do know because all four Gospels relate it, and many witnessed it.
Comfort and hope spring from the moved stone. It grants to us the assurance of everlasting life. -Jim MacIntosh