Questions on Easter Morning

Harxovmnyr #arov;yan A-av0d

Mark 16:1-8

What questions can you raise on Easter morning?

What difference does Easter make?

Why do Christians make a big deal of this event?

If Jesus Christ was resurrected in person, does it mean anything to us?

Does the resurrection of Christ have any transforming power for our mind and spirit?

We might have our own questions. However, on Easter morning there were also others who asked questions. Can we learn anything from those questions?

The story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is told in all four gospels. I read all of them many times before I started preparing my sermon today. Each author writes with a different emphasis. On Easter morning, a number of questions were raised by several people. Those questions are my sermon outline for you this morning.

According to Mark, early Sunday morning Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome the mother of the Zebedee brothers went to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus' body. That was the Jewish custom. According to Matthew, these women also witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus from a distance (Matthew 27:55-56) as well as the burial of Jesus (Matthew 27:61) (Salome is not mentioned this time).

That morning while they were walking with grief and disappointment in their hearts, they were also talking and asking each other the first question.

QUESTION ONE: “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (Vs 3)

It is a realistic worry. Indeed who could roll this heavy stone? The three women were facing an impossible situation, yet they did not stop from going. They went with doubt and in confusion.

Today we face similar situations. When we look at our lives, we see obstacles and impossibilities. Who will remove the stones that are blocking our life? Who will help us face unbearable situations? Who will save my broken family? How am I going to live with this person? Who can change our economic situation?

Here is the answer. “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away” (vs 4). You see, God had already moved it. God already had solved their problem, even without them asking.

This should comfort us on Easter morning. There is nothing wrong if we have questions, realistic questions about matters that bother us every day. Here is the answer. Ask God, and ask in faith. He has the answer according to His will, not your will. It was His will that the stone be removed. There was a message in that event. God is fulfilling His promises. God is fulfilling the prophecies. Death cannot stop our Lord. Death does not have the final word. The tomb cannot detain our Lord. Just we need faith to see it.

Isaiah describes it well how God removes obstacles according to His will:

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them (Is. 42:16).

God prepared the way so our Lord Jesus will enter to this world, to our space and time. He came, and became one of us. He taught us, he loved us, he healed us, he discipled us, then he died on the cross. The stone is moved. Nothing, no obstacle can stop God’s plan. Therefore if your life is like a “desert”, dry and not paved, full of rocks and obstacles, this morning your question about who will remove the stone is answered by God.

He will do it.

We will continue in English.