| “My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.” |
| —Psalm 62:7 |
Did you ever think of what it might be like to be placed in a small tomb-like cave and have a heavy stone rolled over the entrance to seal you inside with no possible way out? That’s exactly what happened to Jesus after He died on the cruel Roman cross of torture to pay the penalty for our sin.
The stone was supposedly to keep His followers from stealing the body and then claiming that He had risen from the dead. After all, He had made it very clear that He would rise from the dead. Of course, virtually no one believed Him. And, the Roman government, spurred on by the Jewish leaders, were so fearful that His disciples would, indeed, steal His body that they determined this was not going to happen. So, the authorities not only rolled this huge stone over the entrance to the tomb, they posted armed Roman soldiers to guard the entrance.
When we read about Roman soldiers we may tend to think about the individuals we may know who are members of our own military. But, Roman soldiers were not at all like the men and women who serve in our military today. Roman soldiers were a crude, coarse, angry bunch of battle-hardened men. Many had been conscripted into service, ripped from the bosom of their families, and they were not at all happy with being sent to godforsaken Palestine. So, these men guarding the tomb were definitely not men with whom one should trifle.
You may remember that the disciples, and particularly the women who wanted to go to the tomb to make certain our Savior had received the proper Jewish ablutions necessary for burial, discussed how they would possibly be able to roll the stone away from the tomb. Yet, on that glorious resurrection morning, as the women approached the Savior’s resting place, they found the stone lying next to the open tomb and the tomb was empty. Jesus had risen from the dead!
At that point in our lives when we recognized what God has done for us through Christ and when we acknowledged Jesus as our Savior and Lord, the sin-filled tomb of our hearts was cleaned thoroughly by the Holy Spirit. God then filled our “inner tomb” with a great outpouring of His mercy, grace, and unfailing love. Next, God sealed the tomb of our hearts with a great stone—a mighty rock. And, that rock is Jesus. He is the guardian of our hearts. He is the stone that cannot be moved. He is the rock of our salvation. This is what King David was talking about when he penned these words found in Psalm 62:7:
My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
God is our mighty rock. Jesus is the Rock of Life for those of us who believe. With His guarding care, we can begin this new day knowing that through His birth, His life on earth, His suffering, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension to heaven, we are vouchsafed for all eternity. What a glory and majesty is our Rock!
On this new morning, let’s lift our voices in praise to God. Alleluia! Christ is indeed risen! He is risen from the dead! He has won the victory over sin, death, and Satan. And, He has done so on our behalf.
Based on a blog originally posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2017
