Who Will Roll Away The Stone? (Easter Sunrise 2015)

WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE?

Text: Mark 16:1- 20

Did you notice who saw Jesus first? Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome were wondering who would roll the stone away. That stone can be thought of as a metaphor---a barrier between belief and unbelief. As someone (J. C. Ryle) put it “Their expected trouble was found not to exist. "When they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away." (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels). They made these women feel better and helped them with their unbelief, but there are others in this chapter who are in need of being convinced about the resurrection. Jesus appears to two others in this chapter that the Gospel of Luke tells us are the two disciples on road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13 – 32). Lastly, we have the eleven remaining disciples and their unbelief (Mark 16:14) who seem to be seeking refuge in the Upper Room.

It seems as though the Upper Room had become a Panic Room as the disciples stayed huddled and secluded behind locked doors. It seems that they were hiding because they were afraid and wanted to stay isolated from danger. In the world we live in today we can identify a lot with those disciples. “What are the doors that we might be hiding behind?” (David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. eds. Feasting On The Word. Volume 2. Nancy R. Blakely. “Pastoral Perspective”. Louisville: Westminster: John Knox Press, 2008, p. 426). If there was a common theme between all of the doors that we hide behind, then it seems that it would have to be fear. We seem to need the evidence of the stone being rolled away before we will believe. Is our fear creating distance between who we are and who God wants us to be?

FEAR CREATES DISTANCE

Do you remember how Jesus told His disciples, prior to the crucifixion that they would all run like scared sheep? Jesus told His disciples that they would all run at the time of His arrest in Mark 14:27: "You will all fall away, Jesus told them, "for it is written: "`I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered'" (Zechariah 13:7). Thomas made his courageous statement, "Let us go that we might die with Him" (John 11:16), he was ready to die with Jesus. But, when they arrested Jesus, Thomas was not so courageous. He ran scared just like Jesus said he would. Fear creates distance.

Do you remember How Jesus told Peter that Satan wanted to sift him like sand? Jesus said to Peter “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31). What Jesus meant was that Satan would the chaff in his religion if indeed there was any wheat at all. This comment was not just for Peter but for all of the disciples as well. (Jamison, Fausset & Brown). It was then that Jesus went on to tell Peter that he would deny Jesus three times before rooster would crow at sunrise (Luke 22:34). As Jesus had warned, Peter also fell away in fear. Peter also ran scared. Fear creates distance.

Now it is three days since the crucifixion and the disciples are in hiding. The Upper Room where they had shared the last supper with Jesus was becoming a Panic Room---a safe place. They hid because it seems that they were in fear for their lives. They were grief-struck, feeling guilty, frustrated, doubting, anxious, restless, despondent and terrorized. (David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. eds. Feasting On The Word. Volume 2. Barbara J. Essex.. “Homileticall Perspective”. Louisville: Westminster: John Knox Press, 2008, p. 425). Fear creates distance.

They were afraid because they were like sheep separated from their Shepherd. These disciples were so scared that even an outside noise would probably have startled them. Have you ever been that scared?

“A burst of thunder caused the three-year-old to race into her parents' bedroom. "Mommy, I'm scared," she said. Her sleepy mother responded by saying, "Go back to your bed. God will be there with you." The little girl stopped at the doorway, turned and said, "Mommy, why don't I sleep here with Daddy, and you go in there with God?" (Raymond McHenry. ed. McHenry’s Quips, Quotes And Other Notes. Third Printing. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004). Fear creates distance.

JESUS CALMS OUR FEARS

Do you remember when the disciples experienced a storm in the Galilean Sea? They had Jesus with them in the boat and yet they were scared. Jesus questioned them about their lack of faith and then calmed the storm in nature as well as the storm in their spirit. They had seen all the numerous times that Jesus was at work liberating the captives, healing the sick, exercising evil spirits from those who were possessed, helping the lame to walk, the blind to s ee and even the time Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead. Jesus was with them then. Now, they were like sheep without a shepherd. They were forgetting that God has the last word.