Who Can Roll Away The Stone?

Mark 16:1-8

16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Study Notes

 What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, its filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild and extravagant nature of the spirit I seek.

-Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 159)

This line from my favorite book reminds me that there is a whole lot going on in God’s world without me. And yet, God is somehow inviting me into the epic told through Jesus. God is training and tuning my heart to this inexhaustible love found on the way of Jesus. As Mark ends Jesus has gone ahead of the disciples to Galilee. Discipleship is geographic in Mark’s gospel, the disciple is to be behind their rabbi, ‘covered in the dust of their feet’  as Rabbi Yoezer once said. Jesus tries to get ahead of the disciples in Mark 6 while they are on a boat and he even tells Peter to ‘get behind me’. With this in mind, as we live into the message of God’s kingdom, of justice in love, we believe God is out ahead in creation—opening, answering and inviting us into deeper connection with our neighbors and even ourselves. As you study on your own or with friends, what do you see in the texts you ponder? We trust too that God’s Spirit is active in these words, what is the Spirit inviting you to do, be or say?

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Genesis 1.1-4; 2.4-9
Exodus 14.15-20
Jeremiah 31.31-34
Hosea 6.1-6
Joel 2.21-29
Luke 24.13-53
John 9
Acts 1
Galatians 6
Revelation 21-22