Role Away Your Stone

(Happy Resurrection Sunday – 04/04/2021)

Luke 24:2 – “They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.”

Luke 24:5 – “The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?”

Happy Blessed Resurrection Sunday! I pray that the writing below will bless you and encourage you to look within yourself to make sure that there is no STONE currently in your life that is keeping Jesus from being alive and active in your life. And if there is one there… Role Away Your Stone!

Let’s go back two days (the Sabbath) prior to The Resurrection. Jesus had begun to fulfill what He was sent to do. He was betrayed… falsely accused… beaten… and crucified. And the religious leaders wanted to make sure that Jesus didn’t fulfill His Words that after three days He will rise from the dead. They wanted to make sure Jesus stayed dead and in the tomb, so they had the entrance of the tomb sealed with a Stone.

That Stone served a significant purpose. That Stone represented blocking the physical body of Jesus because of who He was and what He represented. That Stone was to block the memory of Jesus (remember the saying out of sight out of mind… so if you don’t see Him you won’t think about Him). That Stone was to make sure no one had access to Him again. That stone was to stop Jesus from getting out the tomb, if His Words were to become reality.

The Stone was to block what was and what was to come, but God Almighty made sure that the Words spoken by His Son were to come to life. Our Heavenly Father made sure that no men and no Devil in hell would stop The Resurrection.

Luke 24:2 tells us that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb entrance. With The Stone rolled away that means Jesus’ Words that He would rise in three days came to be. That means Jesus was Resurrected. That means Jesus LIVES and won’t DIE again. That means that there is nothing blocking Him from US and nothing blocking US from Him.

Luke 24:5 tells us that the men (Matthew 28:5 tells us an angel) questioned the women (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women), “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?” Mary Magdalene and her friends forgot The Words that Jesus spoke. Sometimes we forget what Jesus can do. Sometimes we forget what Jesus said. Sometimes we forget that Jesus is ALIVE. With this forgetting we knowingly or unknowingly put Jesus back in the tomb and roll The Stone back on the entrance to block Him from us and us from Him.

We block ourselves from Jesus because of life happening, life situations, not understanding life or agreeing with it, and life not going the way we think it should. We ignore Jesus by being too busy or consumed with fleshly, earthly, selfish things. With our negative or selfish thoughts we mentally block Jesus. We block Jesus with a cold heart because of life and people letting us down. We block Jesus by not feeding our spirit because we feel lonely hurt, betrayed, un-loved, misunderstood, etc. These things we block ourselves from Jesus with is The Stone.

A lot has happened since this pandemic. This pandemic has interrupted and changes things. Even we as Christians have not been exempt from the trouble, loss, heartache, headache, death, loneliness, financial strain, etc. This pandemic has caused people to question Yahweh. This pandemic has caused people to turn their backs on Jesus. Christians are included in people questioning God and turning their backs on The Lord. The questioning if there is a God… the loss of loved ones and jobs and homes… the hurt because lives have been drastically changed… the doubt that things won’t get better… the giving up because no positive can be seen… losing faith because one trying thing after another keeps happening… constantly listening to the negative chatter of likeminded people, surroundings, the news… all this is The Stone that we roll back in front of the tomb after we put Jesus back in.

We roll The Stone to block Jesus from our entire life or part of our life that we have come to the conclusion that He can’t fix. We treat Jesus as if He was never resurrected. A weak relationship with The Father/Son can cause us to roll The Stone closing us off from Them. Fear can cause us to roll The Stone closing us off from Him. Taking our eyes off of Jesus can cause us to roll The Stone closing us off from Him. Depending on/Trusting self more than Our Savior can cause us to roll the Stone closing us off from Him. Jealous/Worried about the good going on in someone else’s life and not our life can cause us to roll The Stone closing us off from Him.

Rolling The Stone to cut self off from Jesus is a personal decision. If you don’t have the strength to roll The Stone back out the way, don’t be ashamed to ask for help. Remember the saying “It takes a village to raise a child?” Well it may take a village to help a fellow Brother or Sister in Christ to roll The Stone away so that they can reconnect with The All Knowing.. Never Changing.. Forever Loving.. Quickly Forgiving.. Grace Giving.. Patient.. May Not Be There When You Want Him But Always On-Time.. Redeemer.. Lord and Savior.. Christ Jesus.

Jesus is Alive. Jesus is Active. Jesus is still in the blessing business. Jesus is still in the healing business. Jesus can restore what you have lost. Jesus can give you double for your trouble. Jesus is still able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. All you have to do is Roll Away Your Stone!

WBFWE

Song: Someone Watching Over You by Yolanda Adams