Stones (Easter Sunday)

Sermon Reflections

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There’s always a big problem on Easter Sunday morning!  And in every one of our four Gospels, that big problem isn’t the overwhelming sense of grief the disciples are feeling.  It’s not the danger of going outside where the people who killed Jesus are potentially still looking to kill the disciples.  It isn’t even the fact that Jesus had died.

It’s the stone.  The stone is, literally, the big problem.  It’s huge.  It’s heavy.  And tomb stones were intentionally designed to need multiple people to move them so that nobody would go in and disturb the dead.

But in all of the other three Gospels, when the women arrive at the tomb (or just Mary Magdalene in John’s Gospel), they find that the stone has somehow been moved away.  There is no explanation for this, and generally, we’re left wondering how this happened.

But not in Matthew’s Gospel!  Alone in our four Gospels, Matthew says that an angel descended from heaven, and rolled the stone away from the entrance to the tomb.  Matthew says that this was done in full view of the women and the guards who Matthew tells us where there guarding the tomb.  It’s a wild and strange scene!

But then the strangest thing of all happens!  Jesus does NOT come out of the tomb.  In fact, he’s already gone – he’s been raised from the dead even while the stone was still there.  “See”, says the angel, “he’s already been raised from the dead.” 

It turns out, the stone was never really the problem.  Jesus was raised from the sealed tomb, so Jesus didn’t need the stone to be moved so he could get out.  The women, who wanted the stone moved to anoint the body, no longer needed it moved, either, because there was no body to anoint.  And apparently, even the guards shouldn’t have cared whether the stone was there anymore, because what they were guarding was gone.

And so – especially in Matthew’s narration – the stone, which used to be the biggest problem of all:

  • Didn’t stop God from raising Jesus and continuing to work new life in the world (in some artwork we see around Easter, Jesus is walking out of the open tomb, as though somehow the stone was a problem for Jesus, but clearly it wasn’t…!)
  • Is still there, but it’s not the center of the story anymore. Almost immediately, the stone is forgotten, because it was never really the most important thing;
  • Wouldn’t actually have stopped the women and the rest of the disciples from experiencing the Risen presence of Jesus, because even if the stone had kept them out of the tomb, the Risen Jesus would still have met them on the road as they went back to where the rest of the disciples were gathered;

And that’s why this story is so important for us when we face the big, heavy “stones” in our lives.  So often for me – and maybe for you, too – the “stones” become the most important thing in the story of my life at the moment. 

Sometimes, the “stones” are the big, traumatic and immovable problems that we can’t really change in the world around us – the wars, the natural disasters and the general social ugliness that prevents even the desire to address the problems.

Sometimes, the “stones” are the emotional stones that feel like they’re sealing us in a tomb.  They can be the feelings of lingering grief, emotional estrangement from others or even simply the daily grind of dealing with difficult personal situations.

And sometimes, the “stones” can be physical stones. They can be the weight of illness or pain that we or those we love have to endure, or even simply the daily exhaustion that can come from heavy responsibilities.

The “stones” are real, and they’re a problem.

But the message of the resurrection is that the stones don’t get the final word in life.  And indeed, for us, too, the Resurrection is the announcement that:

  • Jesus is never blocked away from us by any of these stones – even and especially the ones we can’t move.  Sometimes, I imagine that if I can just move some of these stones out of the way, I’ll be able to more fully see or experience the good things in life that I know God has in store for me.  But the message of the Resurrection is that Jesus is alive in my life and in yours even when we can’t move the stones…
  • Because the stones don’t block God, the stones should also never be allowed to be the center of the story of our lives, either.  This is often hard, but part of the reason we gather for worship on days like this is to help us re-orient ourselves to the actual reality that the stones in our lives – even the heavy ones we have to deal with every day – don’t get the last word and are not the defining thing about us or the story of our lives…
  • Even when we can’t move the stones, the Risen Jesus isn’t just “out there” somewhere, but also promising to walk with us and give us strength and hope for our journeys.  You know, even after the disciples encounter the Risen Jesus, all of their “stones” aren’t removed.  They’re still in danger.  They still have hard work to do.  And they didn’t really know what the future would bring any more than we do.   But the final words of the Risen Jesus – “I am with you always, to the close of the age” – reminded them that Jesus was walking with them – and Jesus is walking with us – even and especially when the stones are still there…

So it turns out that the stone was removed simply to show the women and the other disciples that Jesus wasn’t there.  He had already Risen and was already alive in their lives again.

And that’s the message for us, too.  Whatever the stones are in your life, they never stop the Risen Jesus from being near you and meeting you in places you might not expect.  Whatever the stones are in your life, never let them define you because they never get the last word.   And whatever the stones are in your life – even the big ones that you can’t move – will never stop Jesus from walking with you to give you new life and strength and courage to keep going.

Amen.