Key Thought

The question about moving the stone is such a practical one for the women as they approach the tomb. The grave of Jesus has been sealed with a heavy stone. They couldn't manage it -- they needed help to move the stone away. Little did they know that God had already taken care of this problem in a far bigger way than they could ever imagine. At the same time, the question about who will figuratively move the stone from our graves is on that each human being really faces in his or her own life. If we view our own death as a problem because we don't have the answer for what happens next, then efforts to preserve our physical lives may become unreasonably important to us. Of course, those efforts will ultimately fail. So our Father in Heaven gives us the greatest present we could ever receive: he raised his Son from the dead and gives life to us through Jesus. God has rolled away the stone -- Jesus' stone at the tomb and ours as well.

Today's Prayer

Today's Verses in Context

The next day after the Sabbath day, Mary from Magdala, Salome, and Mary the mother of James bought some sweet-smelling spices. They wanted to put the spices on Jesus' body. Very early on that day, the first day of the week, the women were going to the tomb. It was very early after sunrise. The women said to each other, "There is a large stone covering the entrance of the tomb. Who will move the stone for us?" Then the women looked and saw that the stone was moved. The stone was very large, but it was moved away from the entrance. The women walked into the tomb. They saw a young man there wearing a white robe. The man was sitting on the right side of the tomb. The women were afraid. But the man said, "Don't be afraid. You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, the one that was killed on a cross. He has risen from death! He is not here. Look, here is the place they put him when he was dead. Now go and tell his followers. And {be sure to} tell Peter. Tell them, 'Jesus is going into Galilee. He will be there before you. You will see him there like he told you before.'" The women were very afraid and confused. They left the tomb and ran away. The women did not tell about what happened, because they were afraid. [Some of the oldest Greek copies of Mark end the book here.]

— Mark 16:1-8 (ERV)

Comments on "Rolled Away!":

Easy-to-Read Version copyright © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center. All rights reserved.