Word of Salvation – Vol.13 No.08 – February 1967

 

The Stone Rolled Back

 

Sermon by Rev. W. F. van Brussel on Mark 16: 3, 4

Scripture Reading: Psalm 16, Mark 16: 1 8

Psalter Hymnal: 323; 76; 121; 246; 359; 360

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who will roll away the stone from the grave in which a man is locked up?  It is impossible either to act or to reason as though death were not a reality in our world.  We ought to face the fact that death is something which comes sooner or later, most definitely.

People respond to this reality in various ways.  There are a number of people who really do face death as something which cannot possibly be denied or avoided.  And the only thing they are able to do about it is that they try and get out of life all they possibly can.

Others are not at all ready to face death as a reality.  They don’t want to think of it.  They never mention it.  The only thing they do is strive against it to the utmost of their power.  In certain cases they don’t have many objections against killing, but to them dying seems to be altogether different.

Some people manage to talk about death as if it were a friend who ought to be welcomed once he arrives.  They seem to find some comfort in the fact that this life with all its problems, fights, sicknesses, and pains will, eventually, come to its close.

Well, whatever people may be able to do about death, there is absolutely one thing they are never able to do: they can never roll back the stone, come out of the grave, and by doing so leave death behind.

When Jesus had died and after He had been buried the stone of HIS grave had locked up much more than OUR grave-stones do.  Underneath OUR grave-stones lie the remains of a person who used to be very dear to a smaller or larger number of people.  In Jesus’ grave, however, lay the body of the Saviour of the world, the only hope of all!

This hope was expressed in words by those two young men who were travelling home from Jerusalem to Emmaus, later on that day; said they: “But we had hoped that HE was the One to redeem Israel!” (Luke 24:21a).  But who can keep on living in hope once the Redeemer of Israel has been laid in a grave?

Yes indeed, what is left of the Gospel, the beautiful message of Divine grace for sinners, if this closing part to it were left out: this story of our Lord’s physical resurrection?

If that were the case nothing would be left to us but the sweet memory of a very exceptional, perhaps a unique figure, and on top of that: a set of commandments which nobody ever will be able to keep and a set of parables the sense of which nobody would be able to comprehend.

That is about how it was for these women as they were on their way to the tomb of their beloved Master that early Sunday morning.  The only thing – according to them – they were faced up with was: the end of all their glorious hopes and expectations.  The future they had been dreaming of for quite some time was entirely out of the picture, now.  All that was left to them with regard to the future was the sweet memory of a wonderful period that had gone by.  It had been a glorious period full of all sorts of marvellous experiences, and filling them with thrilling hopes.

But now all hope had gone.

What will become of a woman like Mary Magdalene in such conditions?  How amazingly she had been cured by the Master!  What will occur to her, now?  Will she fall back to her former way of life and conditions?  Will seven demons return and take possession of her, once again, and even worse than ever before?  Will her last state become worst than her first? (Luke 11:26).  The only thing that she still can do is to perform this final act of reverence and pity, and after that all will be over.

That’s indeed what the Gospel would have to sound like, if there were not this closing chapter of the story of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth.

But today we are privileged to celebrate Easter Sunday.  We may read this closing chapter together in our Easter-Worship service and ponder its beautiful message.

For when these women wondered, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” they discovered to their great surprise upon their arriving at the sepulchre – and to be honest, it was even more to their embarrassment! – that they found the stone WAS rolled back.  They were able to go into the grave without any further ado, and they could come out of it again also.

Well, we know that we all have to go into the grave, one day, for the grave will never be satisfied as long as this world exists.  In Proverbs 30:16 God’s Word says that Sheol, the dominion of the dead, never says: enough!

But that we can leave it again, that is something unheard of; that has never been witnessed by anybody.

This was, because this particular tomb was not one out of many graves; it was the grave of our Lord Jesus Who a couple of days before had won the victory on Calvary’s cross.

And now, ever since this Easter Sunday morning, since our Lord has gone into the grave, and through it, and out of it again, this insatiable grave has become a kind of open door!

Who will roll away that large stone?

Those women did not realise that at that very moment they were reading the closing page of the story of our salvation as accomplished by Christ.  For this indeed is the end of the Gospel concerning the ministry of the Christ of God: the stone IS ROLLED BACK!

At the grave of our Lord Jesus our reverence and piety as expressed by these women will certainly NOT DO.  All that is demanded from us at the grave of Jesus Christ on the Easter morning, and always, is FAITH!  For this is the message that comes to us today: the grave-stone is rolled back.

An angel had come from heaven to roll back this stone in order that the people who would come to see the grave might be able to discover that Jesus’ grave is abandoned.  As soon as the stone had been rolled away by the angel it was plain straight away that Jesus was no longer there.

Yes, this is the closing part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that at His open and empty grave we are enabled to look straight into heaven, as it were, right there.

If somebody comes to you today and asks you this question: ‘What does Easter-Sunday mean to you?’ then your answer can be very brief and jubilant: THE STONE IS ROLLED BACK!  Jesus is no longer in the tomb.

This stone had been the silent witness to His death for three days.  But since Jesus has risen as is plain on the Easter morning – this very same stone has become, in its rolled back position, the silent witness of Jesus’ victory once for all over death.

Jesus Who seemed to have been silenced for ever, He is present; He is alive!

This stone is a silent preacher, a preacher of a surprising truth.  And this truth is: death, this terrible death many people don’t want to mention or to think about, has been overcome, once for all.  This stone testifies of the unconquerable life, and it proclaims, even today: You who believe in Him Who is the Life, Jesus the Risen Lord, you have life yourself, and you will live, even though you may have to die one day!

You believe in Him, don’t you?  No, if you don’t believe in Him, the Easter message will never become thrilling in your sight.  There must be a tie between you and Him as there was a tie between Christ and these women.  The comfort and joy of Easter doesn’t come your way of its own accord.  You must be sure that this Christ Who rose from the dead is the Christ Who first had died for you, for your sins, to cleanse your heart.  If that is a sure fact then you must agree, and you will agree indeed, that this is an extremely cheerful message.

For it is only too true that there was a very large stone, a heavy stone lying on your and my heart, the very grave-stone of our sin.  But the Easter message for those who love the Lord Jesus and who truly believe in Him is: that this solid stone which separated you from God is rolled back!

For when Jesus went into the grave He went there under the curse which we have deserved.  But now, after He has left the tomb, the curse is gone.  Our guilt has been taken away from us, for ever!  We find this joy expressed in our Catechism in the familiar phrase: “By His resurrection He has overcome death, that He might make us partakers of the righteousness which He has obtained for us by His death.”

Yes, He is alive to grant all true believers their share in all that He has obtained for them by His great work of redemption.  The stone is rolled back, or in other words: Our guilt is completely done away with, in God’s sight.

Still, there seems to be another heavy stone lying on the Christian’s heart.  Doesn’t he often complain that it is utterly impossible to meet the requirements of Christ and to keep God’s commandments?  Isn’t it a real struggle to live a truly Christian life?

Christians feel discouraged very frequently when they discover time and again that it is so extremely difficult to truly love God above all, and their fellowmen as themselves.  This sad condition often threatens to push us down and to rob us of our Christian joy and peace.

But here, too, the Easter-faith is needed to give us new courage.  THIS stone is also rolled back.  This burden that we can’t possibly do what we are called upon to do, is also gone to this very extent that it may not worry us as long as we truly and sincerely love our Risen Lord, and are eager to worship Him and to serve Him every day again.

All that kills, all that robs the Christian of his courage has truly and surely been overcome by our victorious Lord Jesus, Who has put a definite end to the power of death, in whatever way it presents itself.

Our Easter-faith means that we believe exactly that.  We believe the victory of Christ.  And that means for the practice of our Christian life that we cease seeking the Living among the dead.  This actually is how we live very frequently, and this is how we talk and act too often: as though the Gospel had not been brought to its blessed close yet; as if the closing chapter of the story of salvation had not been written by God.

Once we’ve celebrated Easter we must remember, once for all, that the work of our salvation has been completed by Christ, and by Christ alone; that the power of sin and death indeed has been fully overcome by Christ, our Risen Saviour.

When we claim to believe in Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord, we are acting very foolishly if we continue to ask questions such as this: How shall I ever be released from the powers sin and death?

The only thing we have to do today, and every day again, as Christians, is to take the Easter-message as phrased by the angel in verse 6: “…He has risen, He is not here; see the place where they laid Him”, very seriously together with all that is included in that statement according to what other parts of the Word of God add to it.

The Easter-message is really SOMETHING for the life and experience and practice of the Christian Church.  For, if this what the angel said is really true (and there is no doubt about it, for God’s own Word plainly teaches it) then our whole life has become entirely different as a result, completely new, and transformed.

And that boils down to this: that we are no longer bound by the sad necessity to commit sin.  We can’t say as Christians who believe in Christ and who live by His Spirit: we can do nothing but hate God and our fellowmen.

No, we are no longer locked up in that sort of life which is merely mortal, this sort of life in which the one person doesn’t like the other enjoying sunshine.  It isn’t absolutely necessary for us any longer to merely resist the Holy Spirit, due to our fallen state, and to disobey our Heavenly Father.  After Christ has completed His work and once we believe in Him we will definitely live a different life.

Let us never forget this glorious reality of the Easter morning: the stone, and it was an extremely heavy one indeed, is rolled back!  All glory and honour is due to Jesus Christ, the Conqueror!

This is also worded very beautifully in our Catechism where it states that: “secondly, we also are raised up by His power to a NEW life”.  Or to use the words of a hymn:
Jesus lives!  for me He died;
Hence will I, to Jesus living,
Pure in heart and act abide,
praise to Him and glory giving;
Freely God doth aid dispense;
This shall be my confidence.

Amen.