The women mourned on a frightfully-long Saturday. They waited and watched until Sabbath was over, so they were FINALLY allowed to go to the tomb to mourn some more.
“Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, [the women] were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?’ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.”
– Mark 16:2-4
Wherever life finds you on this Resurrection Sunday, remember that Jesus didn’t need the stone rolled away.
If he had defeated death …
if the grave couldn’t hold Him down …
a stone to seal the tomb wouldn’t have kept Him there either.
Nope. The stone was rolled away, but not for the Lord Jesus.
The stone was rolled away for the women …
So they could see the grave was empty …
So they could BELIEVE.
So that they would put their faith in Jesus, the promised Messiah, the Resurrection and the Life, and by believing they would be forgiven of their sins and adopted as heirs of God’s glorious kingdom!
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
-Ephesians 2:8
Have you ever waited through a long, difficult circumstance — only to find yourself in a MORE DIFFICULT circumstance?
Starting today, keep your eyes open for the unexpected. The women didn’t find the body of their Lord Jesus. Their spices went unused. Their tissues stayed dry.
The horrible, unexpected moment could have ended even more tragically. One woman DID stay at the tomb to weep some more, to unleash her fury at the gardener. “Tell me where you have put Him.”
Jesus wasn’t there because He was no longer dead.
Jesus wasn’t in the grave because HE WAS ALIVE!
The women didn’t mourn at the tomb. Mary never wept over the dead body of her dear Lord Jesus. Instead, she saw and held the Risen Lord Jesus, the first witness to God’s salvation plan being fulfilled.
Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday! He is risen!
Your turn: What difficult circumstance are you in today? How is Jesus with you at this moment?
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