Mark 16:1-8

Easter morning dawned without hope or joy or confidence. It had love and devotion and the utilities of embalming, but no hope. The women went to perform the final act of love for Jesus, to embalm His body. After they embalmed the body they would leave it and try to get on with their lives. Their concerns and expectations were natural. Even having witnessed Jesus’ power and having heard His promises on this first Easter morning their concerns were natural.  A concern that they had not yet resolved was who would roll the stone away. This was natural. Mark makes no mention of the guards or the Roman seal. Peter who had strongly influenced Mark had fled and kept a low profile and so he would have been unaware of these arrangements. The women expected that the stone would still block their way. This large, thick, round disc that was rolled into place to keep out grave robbers and scavengers was an issue they would deal with when they arrived on site. 

What they did not know, what they could not have known was the super natural had occurred.  They did not know that the supernatural, the resurrection made all their cares and anxieties unnecessary. That which they themselves could never do God had already done. What was an impossibly difficult situation simply no longer existed because of the Resurrection. 

This is not an invitation for us to live in some sort of Pollyanna world pretending that there will never be hardships or difficulties. It does not mean that the Resurrection is some kind of fairy dust that we can sprinkle in advance on every difficulty of life. What it does mean is that nothing, absolutely nothing whatsoever, will ever come between our Lord and us.  The biggest obstacles that could come between Jesus and us are removed as easily as that stone that was rolled away.