The Mystery Rolled Away

1 Cor. 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

Mark 16:3-4 They said to themselves, “Who will roll the stone away from the door of the grave for us?” 4 But when they looked, they saw the very large stone had been rolled away.

Mark's observation "that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away" seems a simple statement, but behind it lies a truth that is positively staggering in its implications. One is that no longer can death be an intimidator. "Death," said someone, "is the great enigma of life; humanly speaking, it is the one secret of the universe which is kept, the silence of which is never broken."

To the weary and despairing, death may come as a friend; the cynical and disillusioned may meet it with indifference; to the healthy and the happy it may appear as a foe; but it comes to all. Death is like a great stone that blocks the path of human aspiration. How certain can we be of the continuity of life beyond death? What modest person would find in himself anything worthy to endure for all eternity? Such questions have been asked down the centuries. Death is a mystery - "the undiscovered country from which no traveler returns."

Then came the first Easter Day, and the stone was rolled away. One Traveler did return. Death is an abysmal cavern no longer but a tunnel with light at the farther end. If people have seen it as a blind alley, then they need think no longer in those terms. It is now a thoroughfare, a highway. "'Tis death is dead, not He," said the hymnist. The mystery is a mystery no more. The stone that was rolled away the first Easter morn was not just the rock that sealed the tomb. Our Lord rolled back for us the mystery of death also.

Thank you Jesus! You rolled the stone away and gave me access to an abundant life with you.

Credit: NLV - Crosswalk - HS -TM