The Rolled Away Stone

God desires all men to encounter Him, yet He only wills to be known by those who persistently seek and yearn for Him. To those who look for and welcome Him in their hearts, He reveals Himself; to those who live indifferently or are aggressively against Him, He remains hidden. It is as if He provides sufficient evidence so as to be discovered to the minds that seek Him, but just that lack of evidence to the minds that are hardened to Him so as to remain unknown. A revealed God to those who seek, a hidden God to those who rebuke.

The resurrection story is a good example of this. In it, the same evidence of the rolled away stone either confirmed the disciples in their trust or frightened the guards in their distrust. The same situation brought about drastically different responses. For it was the guard who, in fear of the event ran away. After distancing himself from the empty tomb, he diverted himself by seeking the companionship of those who disregarded the Lord during His ministry. With them he found consolation, comfort, and, in the end, his instructions to lie. On the other hand, it was the disciple who, upon hearing the news of the rolled away stone, ran towards it. Yearning to find the Lord, he entered into the darkness, entered into the desolation of the tomb and there encountered the messenger from Heaven and eventually Heaven Itself.

For one, the rolled away stone represented the dark death of the sepulcher invading the light of day. For the other it represented the life-like light of day invading the darkness of the sepulcher. But the latter's perception requires a challenge that the former will always flee from: an entrance into the darkness to embrace the light hidden within, an entrance into death to embrace the resurrection.

So the finding of God will always be preceded by a yearning for Him, a yearning that can be halted by nothing, not darkness nor even death itself. Dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus!