Who Will Roll Away The Stone For Us?

Death is a matter of three days for those who are in Jesus  

 Suddenly there was a violent earth quake, an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled the stone away and sat on it” (Mt.28:2).  

Resurrection is the blessed reminder that, even when things seem hopeless, when all appears to be lost, there is still hope.  Resurrection is the energy of the holy, as it is nurtured in human experience. This energy cannot be confined to a tomb or narrated in a single story, but is a lived experience.  The energy of resurrection is like a sacred earthquake that shakes the foundations of doubt and leads to faith in the risen Lord. It bursts forth in our lives when ever stones of fear and doubt are rolled away. New life can emerge with resurrection energy, if we roll away stones that would imprison our hope, faith and love.  This is the foundation of our faith: “The Lord is risen indeed!”

In life we undergo innumerable little deaths: losing our reputation and expectation, losing dear and near ones, losing our having and being, collapsing our plans and projects, sickness and loneliness etc.; but we are called to rise from these little deaths.  God calls us to resurrection each and every day, with new strength and vigour.  Resurrection is a reality that cannot be taught, but is a unique and personal experience.  It is possible only through an act of total surrender in love, faith and hope.  Let’s make a total surrender to Jesus and experience resurrection from all kinds of deaths and imprisonment. 

“Very early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome brought spices to anoint Jesus.  They had been saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”(Mt.28:1-2).  The stone was too big for women to roll away, but they had trusted the words of Abraham - the Father of faith, who said, “God himself will provide”.  Having belonged to the weaker sections of the society, they had arrived at the tomb without men, which showed their trust in God’s assistance and providence in their genuine need.  

Who will roll away the stone for us?  God who knows their heaviness of hearts because of the cruel death of their beloved, heard their silent prayer and sent down an angel to roll away the stone.  It is fitting to note that the angel came down from heaven rolled away the stone and sat on it.  The  angel sitting on the stone means two things: primarily, that heaven (God) is involved in the matter and is worthy to be believed, secondly, Christ’s triumph over death, that he conquered death for ever, he could no longer remain in the tomb and now reigns as the living God.  

“Who will roll away the stone for us?”  God himself sends angels for us time to time to roll away the stones which stand like mountains before us. The stones appear in many forms in our lives.  The struggles of life, sickness, burden of sins, loneliness, poverty, failures, injustice and having deprived of rights etc.  At times they appear in our lives as huge stones too heavy to roll away.  If we take a flash look at our past we can know the times and occasions when God sent down angels to roll back the stones stood like mountains impossible to move by ourselves.  While the angels were disguised and appeared in human form, we might have failed to recognize them as angels sent by God.

“Who will roll away the stone for us?  Our God is a living God who hears the cry of His children and sends angels to rescue us, as He sent an angel along with Jacob when he was in danger.  In gratitude for God’s generosity in sending angels, we need to help him in turn in finding angels to send for our brothers and sisters who cry out to him for help to roll away the stones by which they are enslaved in.  When the stones are rolled away a new life is gained and we become resurrected people and begin to sing Halleluia. May the celebration of Easter enable us to live as resurrected people and roll away the stones from other’s lives which have entombed them.