EASTER SUNRISE 2012

EASTER SUNRISE

April 8, 2012

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Mark 16:1-4

“WHO WILL ROLL THE STONE AWAY?”

Mark 16:1-3 (NIV 1984) “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ² Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³ and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

Growing up we never went to the Sunrise Service at our church. We were 9 o’clockers. That was our regular service. That didn’t mean however that we weren’t up at sunrise. We had this Easter tradition in our home, maybe you do too, of hiding Easter baskets. As soon as you got up you could look for yours. At first our parents did the hiding but as my brothers and sisters got older they gradually assumed the job of hiding the Easter baskets for us younger children. Eventually that led to problems. You see, my parents would hide the Easter baskets so that they would be found. My brother Marty hid them so that they would not. I remember one particular Easter, I was probably about five or six, just a little guy, when I finally found my basket I still couldn’t get it. He had hid on top of one of the supporting beams in the basement and back then even standing on a chair I couldn’t reach it. I remember a few tears. Who would get my basket for me? I couldn’t do it.

A similar problem occurred the first Easter. There was a Sunrise Service then too. It was sunrise. Some women were hustling to Jesus’ tomb to perform a service. They wanted to serve their Lord Jesus by anointing His body for burial. If you recall Jesus had been placed in His tomb just before the Sabbath began and so the women could not do the work they wanted to. But they were bound and determined to get the job done right. However as they went they found themselves in kind of the same Easter predicament I was in, just much more important. There was something they needed to do they knew they could not do. Roll the huge stone away to get into Jesus’ tomb. So they asked a very natural question. “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

Now that’s kind of surprising, isn’t it? This entire Lenten season and Holy week we have been looking at surprising sayings surrounding Jesus’ Passion and this is one of them even though at first glance that doesn’t seem like a surprising question at all. It seems very natural. It is a surprising saying in this. The question should never have been asked. Why not? They should have known. They should have known they wouldn’t have to roll the stone away. They should have known that Jesus’ body wouldn’t need anointing. How? Jesus had said so. On several occasions He told His disciples that He was going up to Jerusalem, that He would be betrayed by the chief priests and Pharisees, that they would put Him to death but on the third day He would rise again. We can’t know for sure but certainly the disciples must have talked about these strange sayings. Jesus had given the Pharisees and the teachers of the law the sign of Jonah. Three days in the belly of the fish, three days in the belly of the earth. He had proclaimed publicly, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law understood what Jesus was saying. That’s why they went to Pilate and asked for guards to be posted at the tomb. They didn’t want that stone rolled away.

And so surprisingly the women ask, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” With their lack of understanding what would really happen they did understand that rolling the stone away was impossible for them. And then they learned an important truth. “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.” These women had been worrying about something God had already taken care of. What was impossible for the women was very possible with God and He had done it.

Isn’t that a great truth to learn from Easter? God rolls the stone away. When we need something done God does it! Think of what that rolled away stone meant. It meant Jesus was alive. He had risen from the dead just as He said. Remember why He had died. To pay for sin. Talk about a stone that it is impossible to roll away. Sin is one of those stones. No payment for sin is ever enough. Oh people try. They try to make up for the sin by saying sorry or doing better but our efforts don’t take the sin away. We need that to happen so God did it. He rolled the stone away. When Jesus was on the cross He was punished for every sin. His death was the final act of substitution for all people. The stone was rolled away because death could not hold Him. His work was done. Who will roll the stone away? The women at the tomb found out that God had. When it comes to the stone of sin that is impossible for us to move, Jesus did.

And Jesus will. You know these women faced more stones in their lives, not real ones but symbolic ones. They faced the stone of lack of understanding. Scripture tells us they just didn’t get it. Some thought Jesus’ body had been stolen. God rolled that stone away. He gave them the understanding from Scripture. They faced the stone of sorrow. Mary Magdalene and her tears. Jesus rolled that stone away. He comforted Mary. They would face the stones of persecution and rejection by family members who would not accept Jesus as their Messiah Savior. Jesus rolled that stone away giving them strength to be faithful and finding family in each other. Each of these and many more would be impossible tasks for them. What a blessing the Lord had given to them that they could think back to the impossible problem at Easter Sunrise and their understandable question, “Who will roll the stone away?” and remember the answer. God did. So God will. God would roll all the other stones away that they needed.

God will do the same thing for you too, brothers and sisters. Easter proves it. When our salvation is at stake, when we need it, He will roll the stone away. When you have sorrows and disappointments so that you want to cry your eyes out and your heart feels broken and you think the hurt will never go away, remember the tomb on Easter morn and how God had rolled the stone away. Count on Him to take care of you. When you are fearful of what the future holds, if your job is not secure and you don’t know what to do about it remember the tomb and who rolled the stone away, not the women but God. He’ll be there to provide for you. Whatever stone you are facing remember Easter morn God’s already taken care of the big one and just like with the women who got their answer before they even asked the Lord has your future planned too. Right down to the very last stone you need removed.

Your tombstone. Oh we don’t quite bury people the way they did back then. We use caskets and vaults and cremation and urns. Who will roll the stone away so you can get out? God will. As a believer in Jesus when you die there will be no obstacle to your entrance to heaven. The stone of sin is rolled away. Your spirit goes right to be with Jesus. Your body stays here and on the last day the great day of resurrection God will roll the stones away from the graves resurrect the bodies of all people and reunite them with their souls. Those who believe will go to everlasting life. Those who rejected Jesus to everlasting death. For it is God who rolls the stones away. We believe in Him. And are happy to. He is our Father in heaven.

I should tell you how my other Easter morning turned out. Now that I think of it there must have been a few tears because eventually my father came down to the basement. “What’s going on here?” he said in his take charge voice. Not too long after that my father reached up and retrieved my basket for me. My Father still does those kinds of things for me, my heavenly Father. Yours too through faith in Jesus. So let’s stop asking who will roll our stones away and because of what has been proved to us on Easter morn always know that if it needs to get done, God will do it. Amen.