Previous | Next 

Rolling stones away at Easter

Lena Bergen Friesen

My perception of the Easter story was shaped by hearing it told in Sunday school, by hearing sermons on it every year and by reading it in the Bible. I believed the sequence of events on that morning went like this: First, there was an earthquake; then, the angel came and rolled away the stone; this caused the guards at the tomb to fall down as dead men; finally, Jesus came out of the tomb.

Then, through a sermon one Easter morning, our pastor corrected my thinking. He said that the stone was not rolled away from the tomb so that Jesus could come out (in His resurrected body, Jesus could enter rooms through closed doors), but so that the women and the disciples (and we today) could see that the grave was empty. This was an awesome revelation to me. When I reread the story, I realized that I had not paid enough attention to the details. Having the angel roll away the stone from the tomb was God’s way of removing the obstacle that could prevent people from believing in the resurrection.

Restructuring my previous perception, I now like to think that heaven was charged with excitement that first Easter morning. Early before earth’s dawn, God summoned two angels and told them, “The women who attended Jesus are planning to go to the tomb early to anoint Jesus’ body, but He is risen from the dead. One of you must roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb. The other must go inside where Jesus lay and wait there. When the women come, tell them the good news that Jesus is risen, and urge them to quickly tell the disciples the good news. The guards are still at their station, but I will take care of them.”

And so it was that when the sorrowing women arrived, puzzling about the question “Who will roll the stone away from the mouth of the tomb?” they saw an angel sitting on the stone beside the tomb’s opening. The guards lay there stunned by the earthquake and the vision of the angel. Each obstacle had been divinely removed so that the women could go in and see the empty tomb. Next, the angels told them the wonderful news of Jesus’ resurrection and instructed them to tell the disciples. With great excitement, the women obeyed; as they went, Jesus met them. What a glorious ending to their night of sorrow and unbelief! Jesus was alive! There was reason to hope again!

Sometimes, when we are faced with a seemingly impossible problem, we are like these disillusioned women. We look for Jesus in the wrong places. We forget that He is risen from the dead, that He has defeated the forces of death and evil. The Easter drama teaches us that God is aware of the details of our lives. He is able to remove the doubts and fears, the “stones” that hide Him from us and prevent us from believing. The empty cross and the empty tomb are proof that Jesus has been given all power. He lives for us. All we have to do is believe.

Lena Bergen Friesen is a member of The Dwelling Place in Waterloo, Ont.

Previous | Next 

Last modified March 14, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.