“The women were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’ And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back - it was very large”                                                                                                                                                                            - Mark 16

Jesus died late on a Friday afternoon. In that day, the Jews anointed the bodies of the dead with oil and spices as a sign of respect and to cover up the odor of decaying flesh. Because of time restraints… before the Sabbath, to prepare Jesus’ body according to all the proper customs, the body of our Lord could only be wrapped in a cloth and laid in a tomb before the Sabbath  began. (Mark 15:46)

The first witnesses to the resurrection were the same women who were there when Jesus died - Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome. They came to the tomb in order to finish the burial customs and anoint Christ’s body, clearly not expecting to find anything there but His body. In Mark 16:1–4, we see that they were most worried about who would roll the stone away. Since Jews sometimes used caves carved into the rock for tombs, the stone covering the entrance of Jesus’ tomb would have required several men to roll it away. The women wondered who would roll the stone aside because the disciples were in hiding.  Apparently, they hoped to find someone who would help them. It could also testify to their confusion and grief. The loss of the Lord had affected them so deeply that they could think of nothing else to do but follow through with the customary burial procedures even though they did not know how they would get into the tomb of Jesus.

When they arrived, the women found an unexpected sight -the stone was already gone (verse 4). Scripture tells us that angels rolled the stone away.  The women went to the tomb not expecting anything out of the ordinary. Often, we go about our days the same way. And here is a great lesson…we serve a God who loves to delight us by surprising us with good things, many times we find good from His hand that we have not expected. The women experienced this at the tomb, and they feared God. As we think on Christs resurrection…let’s honor and fear the Lord when He intervenes in an unexpected and powerful way…