Roll away your stones and sit upon them

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. ² And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. ³ And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. ⁴ The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. ⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. ⁶ He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. ⁷ Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

⁸ And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. ⁹ And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus *said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.” (Matthew 28)

I find it most interesting that the angel rolled away the stone and then sat upon it.  It is like the Angel showing the world that nothing can hold Jesus in.  He has already risen, and is already going ahead of them into Galilee.  The angel then invites them to see where he was lying.  We are invited to see this too.  God often shows us the remains of the past, what has happened to us, in order to compel us to see that He is Lord over our pasts, our presents and our futures.  What thing in your life needs the attention of God right now?  I know for me, it is trust.  I keep faltering when things go wrong, one thing after another.  It triggers my fear of things that happened in the past.  I need to look back with Jesus and see that He was right there, when it all went wrong.  I need to remember that He did go ahead of me and prepare the way of escape from the terrible things going on.  I need to trust that just as the stone was rolled away from the tomb of Christ to reveal His victory, I too have risen with Him to a new life.  And so have you, dear Believer.  Let us follow the example of the angel here and roll away the stones of our past and sit upon them, knowing that Christ has triumphed over all.  Nothing can ever change what He has done.  It is finished!  We are now already seated with Him in the Heavenly places in Christ and nothing can ever steal our joy, except our own lack of faith.

Jesus, I do believe, Help my unbelief!  Amen!