On Biblical and Other Modern Stones

While reading Mark 16, 1-8, a couple of things struck me:

1. The women going at sunrise to the tomb to anoint The Body of Jesus
2. The women wondering who would roll away the stone at the entrance of the tomb, and finding out when they reached the tomb that the stone had been rolled away and Jesus had risen.

With regard to the first point, the very fact that the women were going at sunrise to the tomb means they were possibly waiting for the first ray of sunshine so that they could set out. Maybe, it won’t be too far fetched to assume that they hardly slept, if at all. One can see their deep love for Jesus and a desire to serve Him by anointing that same Body that had been so brutally and cruelly treated in the recent past.

Going by the events of Good Friday, I am sure the women were mourning and grieving and the atmosphere was one of sorrow. Had The Body of Jesus been in the tomb, it would certainly not have been a pleasant sight; with holes in The Hands and Feet and lacerations on account of the scourging.

Attending funerals, visiting the graves of our loved ones, preparing bodies for burial are not easy tasks and do take a heavy toll on us. But these women’s love for Jesus far outweighed anything else and thus, knowing it would be a heart rending task, they still went to the tomb.

Which brings us to the next point- on the way, the women kept asking one another who would roll the stone away. The Gospel mentions it was a very large stone. However, the women didnt stop in their tracks and start conferring with one another or brainstorming.

Not one of them even came up with suggestion of running back and getting one of the disciples of Jesus along. They just kept going towards the tomb and when they approached it, they found the stone had been rolled away and Jesus had risen. And they who had come to anoint The Body of Jesus, now found themselves being sent forth as the first emissaries of the message of His Resurrection!

Reaching out to people who are hurting and broken is not easy! Some of them are like tombs- hard and rough on the surface but having broken hearts and wounded spirits within. And God has called us to take the balm of His healing and redeeming love to these very souls and to keep going inspite of the obstacles on our path.

If we press on, motivated by a deep love for Jesus and a desire to serve Him in these wounded and broken people, we will see God move away the stones of distrust and hostility, we will see Him raise them up from spiritual, emotional “deadness” and give them new, abundant life.

We will see the glory of The Risen Lord shining through them and we will know that the same Lord Who moved away the stone that first Easter morning, still works miracles and turns what seems to be defeat into victory, mourning into joy and gives hope to the despairing.

The empty tomb thus fills us with hope. God is alive. And still moves stones!