Our Scripture meditation is from Mark 16:1-7, the heart of the Gospel reading for Easter.
[1] When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. [2] And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. [3] And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” [4] And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. [5] And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. [6] And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. (ESV)
When the women went to anoint Jesus’ body, they knew they had an impossible task. They said as much to one another: “Who will roll away to stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”
Yet the women still traveled to the tomb that held Jesus’ corpse. To their amazement, finding the stone rolled away was the second greatest miracle the women experienced that morning. In fact, the second miracle was so magnificent they could scarcely compare one to the other. In Jesus’ tomb an angel told them:
“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.”
That angelic message meant that a weight far greater than the massive stone was lifted from them. The weight of their sin. The oppressive force of eternal condemnation. Jesus had taken that crushing weight upon himself.
Christ is risen! He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Just like the women, our sins hang like a millstone around our necks. My gravest concern is that we might deny this truth. In multiple ways each day society tells us that we should determine our own truth. We should decide our own moral code. With such thinking, we can deceive ourselves into deciding our sins are mere pebbles, which we can easily cast aside.
Such self-deception doesn’t change the fact that our sinfulness remains a massive boulder, teetering on a mountain precipice, waiting to start an avalanche. In fact, God wants our sins to become such an avalanche, an avalanche that we can’t escape. We need to be convinced that we can’t save ourselves from the crushing weight of our sins. We, like the women at the tomb, need a miracle.
This miracle that was already performed. Just as Jesus saved the women at the tomb from their sins, so he also was raised to life for our forgiveness. He has delivered us from the crushing weight of our sin and carried us to eternal safety.
Christ is risen! He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Kevin Wilson 360 