A Devotion from William Sangster

“The stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.” —Mark 16:4

“Why was the stone rolled away?

Surely it was not rolled away that the risen Lord might come out? Of whatever nature was his resurrection body, the Lord Jesus was independent of doors and indifferent to walls. And yet the stone was rolled away! I think I know why. It was not rolled away that he might come out but that they might go in. It was not part of the fact, it was merely a part of the demonstration. It was not the means of his exit but the means of their entrance. This it is that makes the resurrection more than a piece of history; it makes it also a pledge. This lifts it above the level of mere news and makes it a promise, for God rolled away the stone not that his Son might rise but that we might know he had risen, that we might steal into the empty tomb and see only “the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6).

What did the rolled-away stone reveal?

Let us follow the women into the tomb. It is a great hole, you see, hewn in a rock. What? Do you shrink a little because it is a tomb? Did you say it makes you feel eerie?

Not here! Not in the Savior’s tomb! It’s empty! There’s nothing to be seen, only the place where they laid him.

How calm and private that blessed sepulcher must have been after all the dreadful and shameful publicity of the Crucifixion. How quiet and still! How blessedly secluded. Jesus loved solitude, and he had no solitude between Gethsemane and the sepulcher. Working out the time is difficult, but it seems that eight hours after his arrest he was on the cross.

So as he hangs there—the noise, the dust, the pain, the thirst—and perhaps the incessant noise was not the least of his pangs; the crowds, the jeers, the curses, the sobbing women—and he hangs stark naked between earth and heaven.

“It is finished. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (John 19:30; Luke 23:46).

And then the sepulcher. Do you still think of a tomb as being cold and eerie? No! No! It is quiet and calm, and our crucified God rests for hours and hours on a cool bed of rock.”

William Sangster