When The Stone Is Moved… And Life Is Opened

When the Stone is Moved… and Life is Opened

Brad Bailey – Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023

Today we gather around the event that opened up life as we know it.

An event which shook every life around it... and broke out through the region...and ultimately across the whole world.

And today... I want to encourage us to allow our souls to take this in afresh.

Once a holy day becomes a holiday ... a cultural holiday… we have to sift through the sentiments to engage the profound substance.

The problem isn’t with having cultural traditions... our family has always enjoyed Easter Egg hunts... and I can enjoy rabbits as much as anyone.

The issue that we need to face...is that of allowing the events of the death and resurrection of Christ to be lost in some kind of merely symbolic meaning... to lose the transforming power of that which is rooted in history.

These events are rooted in PROPHETIC PREDICTION.

We can read what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah... of the one who ... spoke thousands of years before these events... with specific facts that no one else could have fulfilled. All of which was clearly written over 700 years before being fulfilled in Christ.

These events are rooted in HISTORY.

It’s not uncommon today for people to claim that we can’t really trust that these accounts of Jesus are true because they were written long after his life. While many seem to WANT to accept that...it simply isn’t true.

We can read of how the resurrection of Christ was at the forefront of the belief of the people within the very first years after Christ was crucified....not something that emerged as some later account.

As the Apostle himself explains... not only was the risen Christ seen by many before ascending to heaven...but they are still alive when he is writing these accounts.

These events are rooted in their PROFOUND IMPACT.

We can read of the accounts of those who were there....whose testimony would cost them their lives.

Jesus said...

Matthew 24:14 (GW)

This Good News about the kingdom will be spread throughout the world as a testimony to all nations.

For someone... who had a small group of socially powerless followers... living under the oppressive reign of the Roman Empire.... who knew they would soon be killed...to say such a thing.... is either worth mocking...or worth sitting up and listening to. [1]

And here we are...at the ends of the earth...joining by 2.2 billion people around the world celebrating.

There is far more that we could explore.... [2]...but my hope is that if we are carrying some idea that this is perhaps mere myth... that arose long after the actual events... I believe we do well to shake ourselves free from that idea.

And from the Gospel account of Mark... this is just such an account...

MARK 16:1-3

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”

It was now the third day... Jewish days were defined as being from sunset to sunset. Jesus had died on that fateful Friday. Friday evening to Saturday was the second day... the Sabbath day when no one was to travel about... they obeyed the law... and now it was early on the third day.

Mark says it’s very early... John’s account says they began “while it was still dark” these women headed out.

This day begins in a darkness on so many levels.

We can only begin to imagine how the profound experience of what was so clearly God’s power and love at work... was just crushed in the most horrific and tragic ways.

In Jesus, they had seen the power God that transcended this world...they had seen the love of God that that transcended this world.

But then... the powers of this world had seized him... he was beaten..... mocked... and the people turned with hate.

The great Roman Empire now did what it did... it silenced the problem...but crucifying him... for all to see.

And they were there...They saw his body... ripped open by flogging...now nailed...bleeding.

They experienced the mid-day darkness (vv. 44-45a). They heard that terrible scream: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). And they watched him breathe His last breath (v. 49).

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord” ...wasn’t just a song to them. They were there when they crucified our Lord.

They knew Joseph of Aramathea had requested the body and prepared a tomb. They saw his body placed in the tomb...and sealed shut.