Roll Away The Stone

" Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ' They have taken The Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.' Then, Peter and the other disciple . . . were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Then, Simon Peter came . . . . and saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand that He must rise from the dead."   --[ John 20:1-9].

After Jesus had died on the cross, a rich man named Arimathea obtained permission from Pontius Pilate to take possession of the body of Jesus; he wrapped Jesus' body in linen and after he had placed His body in the  "new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock, he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away." --Matthew 27: 57-61.

On the next day, the Pharisees convinced Pontius Pilate to provide a guard at the entrance of the tomb for three days, because Jesus had prophesied that after three days, He would rise again.  They said,  "Command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise, his disciples may go and steal Him away, and. . . the last deception would be worse than the first. -- Matthew 27: 62-66.

In these accounts, Jesus is surely locked away in prison. Not only that, the people believed that His death was the last Word. To have any notion that Jesus, a dead man, could somehow escape, seemed preposterous. The Israelites at the time largely believed that death was final, that the corpse is laid to rest --- and there was nothing else to come after that.

And then, too, there is the Rock in front of the tomb. And the guard standing for three days before the tomb.

It is no wonder that Mary Magdalene absolutely runs to Simon Peter and the other disciples. Can you imagine her shock and wonder, that the tomb is open and that Jesus' body is gone? Can you see that the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, is so amazed that he stays in place and lets Simon Peter enter the tomb first?

Jesus had been imprisoned in His tomb. But now, Jesus has defied His enemies. He has defied death, and a cruel, bitter death at that. He has beaten the enemy, and He has risen up after three days, just as He said He would.

This Easter, I find myself meditating upon the stone. We could debate for an eternity upon how the stone could have been removed. Did a legion of angels swoop down and brush it aside? Did Jesus Himself arise and roll away the stone? This is an integral part of the Paschal Mystery.

Recently, I was confiding in a dear friend, about some of the awful events that I have faced in the past:  my father, who came home each night when I was a child, and who quietly tried to drink away his bitterness. The anger that my father took out on me.  My mother's consistent rejection and abandonment of me, even in life and death situations.  The fire in my grandparents' house, and that acrid smell I can still almost taste in my mouth. The time, when I was about three, that I came very close to drowning in a neighbor's pool. The suicide by a member of my extended family-- (for years, I thought that it was my fault.) The violent assault I suffered as a graduate student, when I felt my life slipping away. I was told afterwards, that I had had about 30 seconds to a minute longer to live. The untimely death of my best friend, a wife and mother, who died of cancer way too young.

Oh, I could go on and on. My dear friend turned to me and said quietly, " You certainly are carrying a big bag of rocks."  I said to her, " Yes. And how am I ever going to get rid of them?" She said, " One Rock at a time."

I used to feel that my entire life was about being weighted down by those Rocks that I am carrying. I have often been in despair about how many more Rocks I seem to have than others. This is certainly not a distinction that I ever would have thought to pursue.

But lately, I have been starting to see that we are ALL imprisoned in some way or another, by the Rocks that block us from our very own Redemption. We are burdened and weighted down -- by death, by trauma, by depression, by anger, by despair, by our own serious mistakes and flaws.Some of this, we do to ourselves. Some if this is imposed on us by others.

Then, I think about how utterly joyous and free that I feel on every Easter morning. I think, we should ALL feel this way, all the time!

That feeling is ineffable, but clearly felt. It is the feeling that I used to get on the last day of school, before summer break. The Joy was so overwhelming, I was capable of tears. At the same time, I would feel as if the weight of the world had lifted off my shoulders. Like Mary Magdalene and the disciples, I ran, and I could not run fast enough, all the way home.

On that last day of school, I used to feel that everything and anything was possible. I felt that, with the vast swathe of summer before me, I would become wholly transformed by that freedom. I could swing high in the sky on my backyard swing and pretend I was going up to Heaven ( but I would be home before dinner). I could lay as low as possible the grass, examining each ant and ladybug and blade of grass, and pretend that I was inhabiting their world. I could be infinitely huge. Or impossibly tiny. I had absolutely no limits.

This freedom, this unburdening of whatever weighs us down -- THAT is what Jesus gives us in His Resurrection.

He says to me, and to you, ' Come follow me. '

But, we have to dare to exit our caves, to allow the stone to be rolled away.  We have to have Faith that in Jesus, anything is possible, even the promise of our very own Stones being rolled away, one by one. We have to be bold enough to understand that, only by binding ourselves to Jesus, can we ever be truly released and set free!


[ Related Postings: " Easter Joy!", April 23, 2011;  " Easter Redemption", April 7, 2012.]

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