God’s Word for You

Mark 16:2-3 Who will roll away the stone

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, April 1, 2024

2 And very early on the first day of the week they arrived at the tomb when the sun had just risen. 3 And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

Here the Evangelist gives us the familiar details of the day and the time. It was Sunday, for the Jews it was the first day of their workweek. Soon, people would be waking up with the sun and getting ready to head out into fields, shops, barns, forges, warehouses, schools, and other places, as the work of the human race continued. It would be on this day that news began to travel outward from Jerusalem along with the merchants and the pilgrims who were returning home from the Passover. The news would be that Jesus of Nazareth had died; killed by the Jews during the feast! Travelers would echo the words of a pair of disciples Luke describes: “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him” (Luke 24:21,20).

But while such travelers were still sleeping or were just opening their bleary eyes, there were women walking together in a group to the tomb outside the city. What they did not know is recorded for us by Matthew, and is worth recalling here: The burial of Jesus by Joseph and Nicodemus on Friday afternoon was witnessed by these women. But they did not know that on Saturday, the next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate. They remembered his prophecy about rising from the dead on the third day, and asked Pilate to seal the tomb and set a guard, “otherwise his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead” (Matthew 27:64). Pilate therefore set a guard with the seemingly ridiculous task of guarding a condemned man’s grave. He also commanded the guard to “make the tomb as secure as you know how” (27:65). So the guard put a seal on the stone, not to prevent the stone from being opened, but to reveal whether it had been opened.

Now, as the women approached, they were not expecting guards or a seal because they knew nothing of those things. They only knew that it had taken both men, Joseph and Nicodemus, to roll the big stone in place. The stone in question was not a shapeless monstrosity, nor a spherical ball. Stones for this purpose were large disks that rolled in a grooved track in the entrance, so that the tomb could be reused many times over the years for the family and descendants of the one buried there. This is what Joseph had in mind for himself, but which he gave up for Jesus.

What did the women expect to find? Here we must also remember or learn about one of the differences between men and women, and the way we think. Confronted by a large and difficult or strenuous task, a man will consider one, two or three methods of achieving the goal, and proceed with it, and then consider what comes next as it comes. Therefore, when males read this passage, they think about what would be needed to roll the stone away: a good lever (which might be available at the gravesite or nearby at Golgotha, where long poles were necessary for certain tasks), perhaps a fulcrum, although ample stones should be there, and more importantly, the strength of two grown men in a small space (the stone was not enormous; three or more people might be less useful than two, or even an impediment). But women, I have been told by a woman, think with many interconnected details all at once, “like a spider web.” Therefore the stone was only one of many things on the minds and in the hearts of these women. The purchase of the perfumes, the best path out of the city, the traditions, perhaps, of how to go about their task; which of the women might have certain tasks or even honors, and more than this, were all things they were thinking about in addition to getting past the stone. And there were two other things to consider: Their grief, and their faith.

In their grief, they may have remembered that Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). This was one of the signs of the Messiah, in fact, for Isaiah had foretold that the Christ would “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, to comfort those who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to lay upon them a crown of beauty instead of ashes and the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (Isaiah 61:2-3). But who would comfort them now? “The roads to Zion mourn. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she is in bitter anguish” (Lamentations 1:4).

But there is something besides grief in these women. There is also faith. For, as Luther says, “Due to sorrow and grief they had failed to consider, ‘If only we had taken a man or two along to roll away the stone for us! Otherwise we may be unable to get to the tomb.’ But they were not thinking about that, like someone stuck in deep passions, neglecting to look around, seeing nothing more than what he will do.” Instead, they were intent on what they needed to do. They simply trusted that God would provide for them some means into the tomb. As they approached, they did not see any soldiers. This did not surprise them, since they didn’t know that a guard had been posted. God had already removed one obstacle, but the women did not realize it was even an obstacle. God had removed the guards so that the women could encounter what was in the tomb (and what was not in the tomb) and hear the message from God’s holy messenger. God’s plans soar above our own. His deeds and acts run ahead of our lives, so that he accomplishes things for us and for our faith by kicking away stumbling blocks we don’t even know about, and so that our faith will grow, our trust will deepen, and our love for Christ will blossom into a gorgeous flower of faith.

These blessed women, the great professors and doctors of faith, teach the apostles and lowly pastors like me the great lessons of faith and trust in Christ. For even in their grief, thinking that Jesus had died and was still dead, still trust in God to guide them, to provide for them, to protect them, and to see to it that the work that they plan to do will be carried out to its conclusion. They trusted, even when grief and fear surrounded them like Jeremiah’s “terror on every side.” (Jeremiah 6:25). But the Lord our God reaches out to us and lifts up the human chin. His Almighty finger wipes away our tears. His Spirit speaks the words of Scripture that transform grief to joy, misunderstanding to confidence, and doubt to firm faith for everlasting life. A messenger, an angel, even now was waiting with the news that would change their hearts, and would change the world.

“He is risen. He is not here.”

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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