Who will roll away the stone?
Mark 16.1-8
Easter Sunday 5th April 2015
Belle Vue Baptist
Who will roll away the stone?
Jesus is not asking the question this time.
The women disciples are.
Who will roll away the stone?
Jesus is hidden behind the stone.
Jesus who has died is hidden behind the stone.
Jesus in whom they had hoped, with whom they had lived,
and to whom they had followed as Lord.
Who will roll away the stone?
Who will roll away the stone so they can at least give his body the honour its due
and they can cling just one more time to him, before he becomes just a memory.
And if these women are asking the question,
so are we,
who will roll away the stone?
Jesus you called me and I followed
Jesus you promised and I believed
Jesus you gave me faith and hope – small like a mustard seed, but you planted me in soil ready to grow.
but … but now there is this stone
in the way … this big stone that I can’t move.
A stone that represents
my cynicism – I can’t get past that you’re just too good be true,
I can’t get over that maybe you’re just all made up, or at least
history as made you more than you are.
my apathy – I can’t find the energy to keep believing, the passion just isn’t there
anymore, it all seems too much like hard work
my suffering – I can’t stop asking why me Jesus? why is this happening to me?
my sadness – I just feel sad, there’s no joy left in me, I feel like you’ve taken away
those I loved …
Who will roll away the stone?
For some of us, perhaps many of us,
the Saturday of Holy Week is where the story ends:
Jesus dead in the tomb.
Faith and hope ebbing away.
We started, but now we can’t go any further;
we started, but we don’t know how to go any further;
we started, but we don’t want to go any further.
Who will roll away the stone?
The stone represents
the thing we can’t get round.
The stone represents
our desire to stop.
The stone represents
a weight we cannot lift.
Easter dares us to look again.
Easter dares us to believe that God is stronger than the stone,
that Jesus can make a way where we can’t,
that Jesus will come and wait until we are ready to go again,
that Jesus can remove the weight weighing us down.
Easter declares that nothing, nothing whatsoever,
(to borrow some well-known words)
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation – and certainly not a large cumbersome stone – can separate Christ from God, and us from Christ.*
Easter is the announcement
that Jesus is who he said he was
that the gospel really is good news
that death is undone
that a new world has come
that the stone lies rolled away.
Come to the tomb and see that it’s empty.
Come to the table and find Christ is present.
Go into the world for Christ goes ahead of us.
And who is this Christ: he is risen one,
who says ‘Be clean’;
who says ‘Your sins are forgiven’;
who says ‘Go in peace and be freed from your suffering’;
who says ‘Don’t be afraid just believe’;
who says ‘All things are possible with God’;
who says ‘This is my body’.
The woman in the story move from despair to terror.
The stone lies rolled away,
but they are overwhelmed with the news that Jesus is risen.
We are left with an ending that is unresolved,
but with the word of hope and faith, ringing out,
‘He has risen! He is not here’
The promise is we will see him again,
if we will go and look for him.
Easter celebrates a new day, a new world, a new time,
it invites us to leave behind
our cynicism, our apathy, our suffering and our sadness,
to be embraced by Jesus,
do you want to see the glory of God?
Jesus is both here and he is beyond waiting for us,
he invites us once again to follow him,
back to the beginning:
the kingdom of God is near,
repent and believe the good news.
* Sam Wells, Learning to Dream Again.
This sermon was helped by reading Ched Myers, Binding the Strongman and Wells sermon 'Rolling Stones' in Learning to Dream Again.
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