Wednesday Bible Study: the stones that roll

 

We are now in Holy Week- midway between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday.  And it struck me during Palm Sunday service that this week is also bounded by two sets of stone.  Observe, as Jesus fulfills the prophecy by riding into Jerusalem on the donkey:

Luk 19:37  As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 

Luk 19:38  saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 

Luk 19:39  And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 

Luk 19:40  He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 

Now Jesus is God; and if He commanded stones to shout, they would.  But let me take you back to stones we visited once before:

Mat 3:7  But when he (John The Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 

Mat 3:8  Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 

Mat 3:9  And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 

Living stones, surrounded by the living water of the Spirit; In essence, Jesus was telling the religious elite, "If you forbid the Jews to praise Me, I will go to the Gentiles."  And this is borne out in what He told them next:

Luk 19:41  And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 

Luk 19:42  saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 

Luk 19:43  For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 

Luk 19:44  and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” 

The Jerusalem that rejected Him later that week would be torn down, just as He prophesied, in 70AD by Titus.  At the beginning of this week's service, they showed a scene from The Chosen in which the Pharisees were begging Jesus not to come into the city.  "We know the significance of your riding on that donkey", they told Him, eluding to Zechariah 9:9...

Zec 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 

"...and the people will believe that you are the Messiah!" To which, the character of Jesus shrugged as if to say, and so I am."  Jesus had given them EVERY sign they needed to believe He WAS the Messiah; and yet, even at this extremis, they could not let themselves believe it.  So who were the believers, and who were the stones?

But there was one more stone to be dealt with- the stone rolled over the tomb where Jesus laid. This is the stone where all our works, all our deeds, all our ritual comes to an end.  And when we come to this extremis:

Mar 16:1  When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 

Mar 16:2  And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 

Mar 16:3  And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 

Mar 16:4  And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 

Who will roll the stone away for us? We ask.  But it is already DONE.  Jesus did it all.  There was no need of further anointing, no need for ritual, no need for human hands.  It is impossible for us- for me.  So Jesus did it.

So when this week's service finished, I had to look at the stone Jesus rolled for me.  Am I seeing just the effect I wanted- or am I looking for the overarching EVERYTHING it did for me?  The Pharisees couldn't see past their Rome.  Am I seeing past MY Rome, to the EVERYTHING He did for me?  That is the question I must ask.