Dear friends

It's Sunday, the sun has just come up, three women are walking to the tomb of Jesus, so that they could anoint his body. Things had happened so fast when he was crucified and buried they were not able to properly prepare his body for burial. After his burial, the Jewish women rested on their Sabbath and now, on Sunday morning, they came to finish taking care of his body. But they had forgotten something very important. How were they going to gain access to the tomb? They had forgotten that the tomb had been sealed with a massive stone. They were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other 'who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb? (Mark 16: 2-3)

Mark tells the rest of the story in the next few verses of Mark 16. The women arrive. The stone has been rolled away. The tomb is empty. The body of Jesus has gone. An angel tells the women, 'don't be alarmed, you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He is risen!' (Mark 16:6)

That question the women asked each other is still a good question for you and me today. Who will roll the stone away? Who will roll the stone away from the places in our lives where death and decay have locked us in, and where we find ourselves trapped?

One of the great lessons of the resurrection is that the solution to the problem does not depend on us. Thank God for that! The solution to our problem has already risen! The resurrection teaches us that He still moves stones! Many Christians spend much of their time acting and behaving as if their salvation depended on them. And of course we become depressed and discouraged when we find ourselves in impossible circumstances. Each of us faces our own tombs where our hopes and dreams seem to be buried and sealed. Each of us faces our own personal Red Sea, when our enemies appear to outnumber us, and when God seems to have forgotten us.

The resurrection of Jesus teaches us that God will not forget us. He still moves stones. Consider Moses, he seemed to have been given a hopeless mission to liberate and save his people from centuries of slavery in Egypt. God asked him to lead them out of Egypt. Egypt was the oldest, strongest, most powerful and advanced civilisation in the known world. Moses didn't seem to have a chance, but it was at the Red Sea when all hope seemed to be gone, when all seemed lost, it was here God intervened. God said to Moses 'Ok, you have done your part now stand back and let me do mine.' Those were the words that empowered Moses to stand before the Red Sea, to believe that when he lowered his staff the sea would open, and say to the Israelites 'Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance of the Lord this day.' Deliverance, salvation, redemption and freedom, those are the words and those are the themes that Christians think about every Spring - and we can do so with confidence because the tomb is empty.

You see the truth of the matter is He still moves stones.

Pam and I wish you all a truly blessed Easter.