By Jeff Cranston

I can recall when I was eight years old being out at a pond on my uncle’s property with a couple of my buddies. The water in the pond was absolutely calm, almost mirror-like. So what do you think we decided to do? We found the biggest, heaviest rock we could find, walked out to the end of the dock, swung it back and forth a couple of times, then let it fly—utterly destroying the tranquility of that pond. The ripples lasted and lasted and lasted.

Ripples give evidence to the fact that something happened—something entered and things were no longer the same. And that’s exactly what happened when God gave His Son Jesus Christ to us. Jesus entered our world—fully human yet fully God—and the world has never been the same.

Read Matthew 28. Leading up to this passage of Scripture, Jesus of Nazareth had been killed. Hopes had been dashed. The disciples had fled. But, in the midst of the confusion, a couple of faithful women, friends of Jesus, arrived at the tomb and saw what they had not expected to see: The huge stone had been rolled away!

Just like the big stone my friends and I threw into the pond, the stone that stood in front of Jesus’ tomb created ripples, and these ripples have a message for us:

Death comes to us all.

Death came to Jesus, and one day, it will come to you and to me. The stone rolled to the mouth of the tomb says that Jesus died a real death. On the Cross of Calvary, Jesus died in your place in payment for your sins. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The stone speaks of the reality of death. Christ died, and we must also die. But the stone is not silent at this point. There are yet more ripples. 

Christ Conquered Death.

The Bible tells us that an angel of the Lord came to the tomb and rolled the stone away. What does this say to us? The stone was rolled away so that we could look in! The empty tomb stands as evidence to all that Jesus is not dead, that the bonds of death could not hold Him. The stone rolled away reveals that Jesus Christ is a victor over death! Acts 2:24 says: “… God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

Skeptics have denied it, and philosophers have tried to explain it away, but the tomb is empty. Had Jesus not come forth from that tomb that day, He would have been a fraud. He would have not been our Savior. We would still be in our sins. There would be no hope for the future. But on that first Easter morning, Jesus arose, and He is alive today! 

There is yet another ripple! What is it?

We have hope for the future.

We dwell in the midst of time. We see birth, life and death, and that is all. God sees birth, life, death and life beyond. The resurrection of Christ means that there is hope for us for the future, even beyond death (see Romans 5:9-10). Salvation has been provided for us, because Jesus, was indeed who He said He was, the Savior of mankind. His death on the Cross was the final payment for all of our sins, and because of that death, we can now be forgiven.

The gospel is true. Jesus is our Savior. There is forgiveness. There is freedom. There is eternal life. The resurrection of Christ proves one indisputable fact: He is Lord.

There’s only one requirement for entrance into resurrection life—it’s not a matter of trying to be good or even going to church—the only requirement is that you personally believe that Jesus exchanged His life for yours by absorbing your sins on a cross and that He rose again so that at the moment of your death you will rise too.

The stone speaks. The ripples point to His death, victory over death, and hope for the future through Christ. The stone was rolled away so we could encounter the risen Lord!

Jeff Cranston is the lead pastor of LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, South Carolina.

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