As you can tell from my last few posts, I love rocks. A a teenager I considered becoming a geologist. I always have my eyes open for new specimens to add to my collection.
In Sunday’s Easter sermon, I was reminded that rocks or stones, are important in the Biblical story too. As for me, they can provide a focus for prayer or become memorials and reminders of the events of God in the past. They can also be stones of promise, providing pathways that connect our activities here on earth to the heavenly realm.
On Sunday, I was reminded of other aspects of stones. They can block our view and establish what seem to be impenetrable barriers to the work of God. The disciples and the women went to the tomb not in expectation of resurrection, but to weep and mourn for the hopes that seemed to have been shattered.
The Empty Tomb – He Qi
In the resurrection of Jesus we do not see the stone being moved away from the tomb as we do in the resurrection of Lazarus. All we see is the empty tomb and interestingly (at least in John’s account) Peter and John do not hang around long enough to see the risen Jesus.
How often I wonder does God want to roll away the stone so that we can see the full glory of the risen Christ and we don’t hang around long enough to see him?
In Sunday’s scriptures (Acts 10:39-42) I read
“And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead.
The empty tomb is not the important event of Easter, the living presence of God in the resurrected Jesus is. It wasn’t the empty tomb that transformed the disciples and the women who followed him, it was Jesus appearing to them, eating with them, interpreting the scriptures for them. They met the risen Christ in the 50 days after Easter, and it changed their lives so that they went out not just talking about the things Jesus did, but living them.
So my challenge to all of us today is: will we hang around long enough to enter into the full joy of the risen Saviour? Now that Easter Sunday is over are we back to life as usual or are we ready to encounter Jesus over the next 50 days, which is the true season of Easter, and have our lives radically changed and redirected as a result?
We know what true love looks like because of Jesus. He gave His life for us, and He calls us to give our lives for our brothers and sisters. If a person owns the kinds of things we need to make it in the world but refuses to share with those in need, is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? My little children, don’t just talk about love as an idea or a theory. Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love. (1 John 3:16-18 The Voice.)
Easter Sunday is over. Â Jesus is risen but what have we done about it? Â It grieves me that so many people who call themselves followers of Christ live in exactly the same way as their non Christian friends. Â It grieves me even more that the United States has the highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation and the second highest poverty rate. Â (Only Mexico has higher )
Jesus’ last command to his disciples was “Love one another as I have loved you.”  and by that he meant give up our self-centred, self-involved lives and give ourselves to the things that really matter – the work of God’s kingdom – healing the sick, feeding the hungry, setting the oppressed free and preaching the good news in both word and action.
What is Your Response?
Find a quiet place to sit. Make yourself comfortable. Take some deep breathes in and out to relax yourself. Let your mind wander back over the season of Lent and Easter. In what ways has God prompted you to change your inner life and spiritual practices? In what ways has God prompted you to change your outer life and relationships to those around you? What actions can you take in the next couple of weeks to accomplish this?
How many of us are still sitting at the empty tomb with Mary weeping because we are worried about what has happened to the dead body rather than focusing on how to encounter the risen Christ in our lives? Â Or perhaps like Peter we have gone back to our pre Christ encounter jobs totally unchanged by all that Jesus has said and done.
If we really believed that Christ’s resurrection meant that the world was changed and that his resurrection life now flows in us too surely we would live very differently. We would live by God’s law of love which is the only law in the kingdom of God. NT Wright tells us that love is the language of God’s kingdom.  If we truly lived transformed lives like those early disciples who gave up homes, jobs and sometimes family, maybe our world would be a very different place.  And if we truly lived as citizens of God’s kingdom speaking the language of love maybe we would see our world transformed in the ways that we say we want it to be.
What is your response?
Imagine yourself walking with the risen Christ into the kingdom of God. Listen to the language of love all around you. How well do you think you understand that language? What “language training” is God prompting you to take in order for you to become more comfortable with that language?
To live by God’s law of love, to become comfortable with the language and culture of the kingdom of God would mean we need to change our lives and become people who care for those at the margins in deed as well as word.  It would encourage us to not think about our own needs first but to live into a culture of mutual love and care – one that provides abundantly for all peoples and places particular value on the vulnerable and despised.  You know a little like it talks about in the book of Acts.
What is your response?
Sit quietly once more breathing in and out the fragrance of God’s presence. What do you think it looks like to live as God’s resurrection people? You now have ahead of you 50 days of the Easter season to live into the changes God is prompting you to make. What will you do this week to walk that path beyond death into resurrection life?
Now listen to This is Our God The Servant King. Is there any other response you feel God is asking of you.
I wrote this a few years ago but thought I would share it again for your enjoyment.
Jesus Christ you have risen and we see you,
In the faces of the poor,Â
In the hurting of the sick,Â
In the anguish of the oppressed
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
In the weakness of the vulnerable,Â
In the questions of the doubting,Â
In the fears of the dying.
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
In the celebration of the saints,
In the generosity of the faithful,
In the compassion of the caring.
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
You transform our world with love and hope,
You ignite our hearts of stone with compassion and care,
You transfigure our world with the spirit of life.
Hallelujah, Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you. Â
It is Holy Saturday, that day between death and resurrection when most of us pause to draw breath. In my pausing this year I found myself thinking about the coming weeks. It is so easy after the hype of Easter Sunday, to allow our faith to fade into the background. Yet Easter is not a day but a season. It extends from Easter Sunday to pentecost. All of us need something to help us focus, something that keeps our eyes on Jesus and the meaning of the resurrection. Â This year I decided to create an Easter garden to sit on my desk, something to catch my eyes and encourage me to focus.
I used a recycled bowl, and even some recycled plants – offshoots from succulents that have grown too big for their pots. Then I collected some rocks from the garden. I sat in silence for several minutes asking God “What should be my focus for the season of Easter? As I sensed God speak to me, I wrote the words on the stones and placed them in the garden. Now I wait to hear what God will continue to say over the 50 days of Easter
What could you create that would draw you close to God and God’s purposes during this season of Easter?
by Christine Sine,
This morning as I sat contemplating the events of the last day of Jesus life, I was struck as never before by the confusion, disillusionment and betrayal that Jesus followers must have felt as they watched him walk through his final hours. The powerful Messiah they had hoped for became instead a humble servant. The one they thought would be crowned as king was crowned instead with thorns. Crucified not worshipped. Spat upon and disgraced.
Today many of us suffer the same disillusionment. Every time we turn around there is another report of chaos, death and suffering. We live in a broken world that desperately needs a saviour, but can a dead messiah who washed feet and welcomed lepers possibly be the Way, the Truth and the Life? Can this Jesus really be the One our hearts long for? Today’s prayer comes out of these reflections
Walk today into the wisdom of God.
Jesus does not mislead us.
He who is the Way,
will not guide us into blind alleys and desert wastes.
He who is the truth
does not mock us with deceit and lies.
He who is the life
will not betray us with delusions that bring death.
Let his wisdom sustain not just us
but all who are weary.
Let his strength give courage to all who endure,
So that none will falter or lose heart.
Let his faith bring light to all who believe,
So that together we will cry out for justice,
And live with grace and mercy.
Beyond brokenness is love inexhaustible,
Beyond death is love incomparable.
Breathe your spirit over the whole earth, O God,
Show us your resurrection world.
Make us your new creation.
Here are two beautiful reflective songs for Holy Week by Jeff Johnson, one of my favourite Celtic musicians.
No one knows more about the need to forgive than Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Writing with his daughter, Mpho, in The Book of Forgiving, he lays out about the simple but profound truths about forgiveness and provide a pathway to assist us to accomplish it. They remind us:
Forgiveness is how we bring peace to ourselves and our world.Â
The Tutu’s bring the practicalities of forgiving to life with the promise that forgiveness is good for you. This book will lead readers to healing of affronts, injuries and old hurts and open pathways to a fuller life. They know from deep personal experience that when you forgive you become an extraordinary person.
This book is my reading for Holy week. It is both refreshing and healing to read the stories and perform the exercises at the end of each chapter. This is not a book to be taken lightly, or one to be read rapidly. It is more a journey than a book and a journey that I heartily recommend to you.
The authors suggest that the reader get a journal specifically to use while reading the book, something which takes both time and discipline. Yet it profoundly enhances the experience and will, I am sure contribute to the healing of each person who makes this commitment.
They also suggest finding a stone “small enough to carry in the palm of your hand and large enough that you won’t lose it” This stone becomes the focal point for a series of spiritual exercises. Â I am loving this refreshing approach which is simple yet deeply impacting. I hope that you will join me in this journey of forgiving.
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.Â
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!