Monday, April 16, 2007
Mark 16:4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away -- for it was very large.
AN OPEN DOOR TO HOPE
In one of his plays Shakespeare wrote: "Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." When the living God is removed from the stage, all that is left is hopelessness. Don't we see this hopelessness everyday? Don't we see it in the people who float from one new marriage into another? In the children who are shuffled into one foster home after another? Don't we see it in a nation that lives for nothing more than the latest fad, the weekend party, the hottest and newest form of entertainment? Don't we see hopelessness in a shallow society that measures the value of others in terms of their net worth or in terms of their desirability as a sex partner?
We hear some of this hopelessness in the question of the women who were on their way to anoint Jesus' body. "Who will roll away the stone?" they ask. Jesus was in the grave. In their minds He was dead, and so were their hopes.
What a wonderful surprise! The stone is already rolled away! They are greeted by an angel in white. "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" The answer: "He is not here. He is risen!"
The rolled away stone was like an opened door. An open door to hope! What do we see when we look inside the empty Easter grave? We see sin defeated! Death crushed! Hell vanquished! We see an open door to everlasting life. We see our great and noble reason to live! We see a living hope that can never disappoint!
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:3-4).
