THE STONE

I like stones, plain, smooth, valuable, bright, gray, all types, so I am grateful that the Bible is filled with the images of stones. Jacob used a stone for a pillow, 12 stones were engraved with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, commandments were written on stone, the Old Testament refers often to precious stones, as does Revelation. We are told by the Gospels that Satan taunted Jesus to show He was truly the son of God by telling stones to become bread. Painful images of Jesus being stoned give way to living stones built up as a spiritual house.

And then there is the powerful image of the stone that sealed the tomb of Jesus. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, were walking at dawn to anoint the dead body of Jesus when they wondered which of them would roll the stone away from the tomb. Jesus had been wrapped in pieces of linen and sealed in His tomb. The women must have been heartbroken that the promise of Jesus and his ministry had ended. Imagine how they felt when they came to the tomb and “they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.” How confusing and frightening this must have been! Where was the body of their Lord?

Luke and Matthew refer to angels who tell the women that Jesus is no longer in the tomb because He has risen. It is only then, on the third day, that they remember His promise. He is resurrected.

The stone that sealed the tomb is the first sign that time itself and our concept of death would be changed, forever. I used to wonder why, if Jesus was resurrected, couldn’t He simply float from the tomb? I believe that just as God had made His love in human form and taught spiritual truths through the material world, so did He offer us a clear sign, with a stone. Rolling this large but nevertheless common stone from the tomb showed in concrete terms that death could not bury Jesus – and that our own tombs would be unsealed through the Resurrection.

I often visualize the struggles and obstacles in my life as a huge stone that must be pushed from my path or worse, pushed up some steep, neverending mountain. I simply won’t get far on my own, no matter how strong or determined I may be. Only through God can I love others, and only through Him can death be defeated.

In Ezekiel 36:26, God says, “A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will remove your heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” Jesus became our new heart.

We behold this with awe and the knowledge that there is no stone God cannot move. Not one.

— Leia Francisco

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist