the stone had been moved away

a stone grave marker from an ancient abandoned monastary in ireland

last week i talked about the rightful place of stones. this week, the stones show up in our texts again. in luke 24:2 we read that 'the stone had been rolled away.' i don't know if its a remnant of our flannelboard sunday school days or what, but i feel like so many of us imagine this great round styrofoam stone that could just be pushed aside. if that were the case, why would the author tell us that the stone had been moved?

the fact that the stone had been moved is a really big deal. stones don't move themselves. the text doesn't say that stone had moved. it stays that it had been moved. someone moved it. someone moved what was immovable. someone overcame that which was unbeatable. someone dared cross a line that we had all thought was uncrossable.

here is at least part of the Easter story for us who are Christ followers: THE STONE HAD BEEN ROLLED AWAY. seriously. let's not take that for granted. because there are stones in our lives. there are places where we have made some pretty final decisions about 'the way things are.' we have some boxes in our lives that we have taped shut and labeled immovable, unbeatable, and uncrossable. and we get through our Christ-following lives pretty much ok with those boxes put away somewhere. but easter jumps up off the calendar each year and begs us to pay attention to the fact that the stone had been moved. that which was impossible actually happened.

what does that mean for us today? what does it mean for you?

something always needs to be moved. i guess thats part of being human. we're always finding ourselves in various graves and tombs. buried alive. and most of us pretty much come to terms with that. but God wants to move the stones from the tombs. God wants to call you to life again (and again and again and again). i don't know this, exactly. but i believe it.

so, God, help my unbelief. whatever stones are stifling me and shutting out the light, move them. make me aware of the ways i have resigned myself to thinking that a tomb-life is the best life. and raise me up. bloom me. spring me. easter me.

greg.