Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Today’s text

Mark 16:1-3

When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices with which to go and anoint him. And very early in the morning on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. They had been saying to one another, 'Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?'

Reflection

Who will move the stone? This is the most human question of all and the most understandable.

What is less understandable is why the women would set out on their mission of final mercies without knowing how they could get to Jesus body. But they didn’t let that stop them, which makes them a little unusual.

It’s a wonder their question didn’t stop them in their tracks. Who will roll away the stone?

It is profoundly human to see what is wrong, to focus on the threat, the problem, the negativity--and to stop cold until a solution to the problem appears.

But they didn’t stop. They continued on. I have no idea what they expected to find or whether they believed they would arrive at the tomb and be blocked from their mission by the weight of the stone.

I can’t know their thoughts. I doubt that they believed there would be some miracle to remove the obstacle from their path. I suspect sadness filled their hearts more than any vain hope.

All I have is this verbal picture of them as they move slowly on, their hearts broken as they try to perform a final act of mercy for a brutalized, lifeless friend.

But I feel the invitation of Resurrection in their actions.

The invitation is to trust and continue, to go on, to do the deeds of mercy, recognizing that, like them, I do not know what is to come. I have no idea what wonder might appear. I can’t know what God has up his sleeve.

The Resurrection invites me to do what I can, leaving to God what I cannot do, trusting that divine power and mercy can and will do more than I imagine.

But like the women, I will never see it, never feel it, never enter the wonder of a love that cannot be stopped unless I continue forward even when great obstacles seem insurmountable.

Life holds many heavy stones. Don’t let them stop you. Continue on. You know who will move them.

Pr. David L. Miller