Why was the stone in Jesus'tomb rolled out?

[AidanM32]

Hello,
If you remember their was an angel there, when the women went to anoint the body, maybe with the powers of heaven he moved the stone “the angel moved the stone”.

Aidan.

 

[Tamsulosin]

I think Christ put some sort of block on their minds, until He had finished telling them how He was the one indicted in the Scriptures. I think the Bible records they were kept from recognising Him.

I agree. Had He wanted the apostles or anybody else to recognize him immediately, He would have devised the event that way. We can only speculate about the reasoning behind that decision.I do not know though if it is our place to “state” why He did it .
Sometimes we may be carried away finding symbols or reasons without known foundation.
In a completely different field, art, I sometimes find myself listening to museum docents explain away the reasons for this or that in a certain piece of art, and I wonder if the artist really had that in mind,or the docent is just guessing but stating opinions as if they were known facts.
I do not wish to be disrespectful to any dear poster here, just writing my thoughts.
Thank you to everybody.Have a blessed Sunday,Tam

 

[Tamsulosin]

(the guards would not have moved the stone without authorization - remember, it had been sealed).

If there was such a red tape regarding permission from(Pilate?) to unseal the tumb, why Mary Magdalene found it so natural to go there with oils to anoint the body?In other words what made her assume that she would be able to go in given the aforementioned circumstances?
She obviously did not anticipate the resurrection of Christ’s body ,or she would not have carried the oils either.
She could not have imagined an angel would do the opening of the tumb either.
I wonder what was she thinking.

 

[JimFromPhoenix]

It does make me wonder. In the depictions of the Resurrection many of us western Christians are familiar with, Jesus is raised from the tomb looking like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Noel-coypel-the-resurrection-of-christ-1700.jpg

This question then arises. Where did the resurrected Jesus get clothes? It’s a bit hard - and rather odd - to imagine a naked man (or even one which has a piece of cloth slung over his shoulders) walking around at dawn in spring. Of course, He couldn’t have brought His grave clothes with Him - those were left in the tomb!

Where did the resurrected Jesus get clothes? Easy, God was the world’s first tailor:

“Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”
(Gen 3:21)

 

[Tamsulosin]

Many of the movies about Christ’s passion depict the tomb already open when the women arrive, not the angel opening it in front of them, with an earthquake.

I wish movies were accurate in details so as to teach the viewers what really happened.
I also still do not understand what gave Mary Magdalene the confidence that the soldiers would open the tomb for her to anoint the body, when the tomb was sealed under strict orders from PP .

 

[crazzeto]

This is correct, and I think, significant - the stone didn’t need to be rolled away for Jesus (who, after all, appeared within a locked room later). The angel rolled the stone away so that the women and the disciples could enter the tomb.

I think it goes further than this, more over Jesus did much to prove that he was truely raised. Take today’s reading from the NAB:

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,

and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,

he stood in their midst and said to them,

“Peace be with you.”

But they were startled and terrified

and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?

And why do questions arise in your hearts?

Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones

as you can see I have.”

And as he said this,

he showed them his hands and his feet.

While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,

he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

They gave him a piece of baked fish;

he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,

“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,

that everything written about me in the law of Moses

and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And he said to them,

“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer

and rise from the dead on the third day

and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,

would be preached in his name

to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things.”

Why did Jesus eat the fish? He wasn’t just hungry, he wanted to prove a point. He wasn’t a ghost, or any other such thing. He was truely raised.

 

[patrick457]

Many of the movies about Christ’s passion depict the tomb already open when the women arrive, not the angel opening it in front of them, with an earthquake.

Well, Matthew does not say that the women witnessed the blocking stone being removed by the angel - he only says it happened. I know The Message renders part of verse 2 as “came right up to where they were standing”, but this is an instance of paraphrasing - the Greek does say proselthon, the angel ‘approached’ or ‘came to’ something, but judging from the context what he approached was the tomb, not the women, who still seem to be absent from the scene.

Now after the sabbaths, at the dawn toward the first of sabbaths, came Mary the Magdalene and the other Mary to see the tomb. And behold, there had been a great earthquake, for a messenger of the Lord had descended from heaven; and having approached, rolled away the stone, and was sitting upon it (now his form was as lightning, and his clothing white as snow). Now from the fear of him the guards shook, and became as dead.

The other gospels themselves infer that the tomb was already open when the women came in:

And the sabbath having past, Mary the Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome bought spices that they might come and anoint Him. And very early on the first of the sabbaths, they come to the tomb at the rising of the sun. And they had been saying among themselves, “Who shall roll away for us the stone from the door of the tomb?” And having looked, they see that the stone had been rolled away – for it was very great…

And on the first of the sabbaths, at deep daybreak, they came to the tomb carrying the spices which they prepared. Now they found the stone having been rolled away from the tomb, but having gone in, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus…

And on the first of the sabbaths, Mary the Magdalene comes early (there being darkness still) to the tomb, and she sees the stone having been taken away out of the tomb…

 

[rcjones]

I wish movies were accurate in details so as to teach the viewers what really happened.

I wish the cartoon versions were more accurate, I have a short attention span

 

[Tamsulosin]

rcJones, I said that because there are many people that do not have bibles, so they go by what they see in the movies.
Others have bibles, but do not read them that much, bibles are in the bookcase gathering dust.
I recently have started to read mine more, so I have a lot to learn. Most of my family are non practicing cradle catholics.

 

[rcjones]

rcJones, I said that because there are many people that do not have bibles, so they go by what they see in the movies.
Others have bibles, but do not read them that much, bibles are in the bookcase gathering dust.
I recently have started to read mine more, so I have a lot to learn. Most of my family are non practicing cradle catholics.

I said it as self-deprecating humor, which is why the winky is there. Not as a jibe against anyone else.

 

[miamijoe]

Maybe Mary was not well versed on Roman Law customs regarding the tomb’s stone being sealed? It is a great question (about why she would be on the way to anoint when the rules specifically said “no opening”)… any other thoughts? I love these topics that turn into “micro Bible studies.”

 

[mistfall]

That information has totally clarified my doubts.I am grateful for the help of all the posters in my thread.
Now, his glorified body appeared somewhat different than his earthly body,so people did not recognize Him at first.Am I right?
Tam

I’m not sure that is the only possible conclusion. For example, in the Road to Emmaus story. . We don’t know how close those 2 disciples were to Jesus before the crucifixion. The gospels give the impression that there were hundreds of people who followed Jesus’ preaching career like fans follow a rock band. They may never have spoken to him one-on-one before. They may never have gotten closer than several yards away before. And how many times do you see somebody “out of context” who strongly resembles somebody you know, so much that you’re not sure whether to speak to them or not. And if you know that the person they resemble is dead, wouldn’t that be enough to make you decide “nah, he just looks like him”?

Another case is Mary Magdalen at the tomb, where she mistakes Jesus for the gardener. She certainly knew him well enough, so what’s up with that? First, it wasn’t light out yet; in that dim light where the sun’s just barely at the horizon, amid a shadowy quarry full of caves, when she’s been crying her eyes out, it’s entirely possible that she just plain didn’t recognize him.

As someone who is seriously nearsighted without my lenses, it also occurs to me to wonder what life was like before corrective lenses were invented. How many adults do you know who would be able to recognize you across a street, or even a room, without their contacts in?

I know it’s popular to point to these non-recognition episodes with suspicion (for a skeptic), or with hints that the Resurrection was somehow a metaphor for the early church seeing Jesus in the community (for some “progressives”) but I think there’s no need to suspect something hinky was going on when ordinary explanations are sufficient.

 

[Tamsulosin]

If I recollect correctly, it was not only Mary Magdalene that did not recognize the resurrected Jesus by the way he looked.The apostles when they were unable to get any fish from the boat, and Jesus was in the coast talking to them,they thought he was an stranger.Consider that they lived with him for so long,yet they did not recognize him at first.I think the trauma of it all, the passion, the dying, the coming back from the dead had to have an effect on how the body looked.I had a personal experience with my elderly mother,when I travelled to see her after her hospitalization,I tell you I would not have known she was my mother if I had seen her out of the context of the house.She had lost so much weight, it was a different person.Only when I peered into her green eyes I confirm it was her.So it is very possible.Actually this detail makes the story more believable, because it would have been easier to say that every body knew him right away.

 

[patrick457]

If I recollect correctly, it was not only Mary Magdalene that did not recognize the resurrected Jesus by the way he looked.The apostles when they were unable to get any fish from the boat, and Jesus was in the coast talking to them,they thought he was an stranger.Consider that they lived with him for so long,yet they did not recognize him at first.I think the trauma of it all, the passion, the dying, the coming back from the dead had to have an effect on how the body looked.I had a personal experience with my elderly mother,when I travelled to see her after her hospitalization,I tell you I would not have known she was my mother if I had seen her out of the context of the house.She had lost so much weight, it was a different person.Only when I peered into her green eyes I confirm it was her.So it is very possible.Actually this detail makes the story more believable, because it would have been easier to say that every body knew him right away.

That’s one thing why I think the resurrection accounts are something the early Church couldn’t have just simply invented.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that Jesus did actually look physically different during these events (Mark 16:12’s hetera morphē, “in another form/appearance”): He appeared in a form different from the one in which they recognized Him as Jesus. But no matter how different the outward appearance was at the time, it was the same Person: kind of like the Transfiguration (a Latin rendering of the Greek metamorphōsis!).

Now, if I could drift into the minutia if I may again, the stuff which we don’t even need to talk about - but I will anyway. I’ve noticed that when most pictures and movies show the resurrected Jesus, they show Him as almost invariably wearing freshly-laundered spotless white clothes. This is one good use of symbolism from an iconographic standpoint, but I’m also wondering whether there is also a possibility that Jesus wore ‘normal’ clothing (probably not much different from His ‘old’ set of garments).

 

[Tamsulosin]

Also, a previous poster may be right when he or she refers to the possibility that Mary Magdalene may not have been aware of the strictness surrounding the grave, for the conversations and plottings about guarding it, etc between the chief jewish priests and the Romans must have been private.

 

[patrick457]

Also, a previous poster may be right when he or she refers to the possibility that Mary Magdalene may not have been aware of the strictness surrounding the grave, for the conversations and plottings about guarding it, etc between the chief jewish priests and the Romans must have been private.

That certainly wasn’t something that would have been publicized. It’s not like the chief priests faxed the apostles, warning them that the tomb was sealed and guarded or something.

 

[Tamsulosin]

Isn’t it wonderful when for once we all agree:extrahappy:?

 

[hansard]

Good on you, Mistfall. That makes perfect sense. Conjecture, of course (you know it), but sensible nonetheless.

 

[Cristian_B]

The stone was rolled out so He will show us that He can rolls stones out in our lives as well. It was impossible for the women, but it is possible for Him. And He did it to show us that when we have a problem we cannot solve (our ‘stone’) He will held us get over it or solve it (He will roll out the stone for us).

It’s not like Jesus needed it … He could pass trough walls after all.

 

[miamijoe]

Good point Cristain B… which leads me to expand on your thought and tie-in with the other previous posts about the angel removing the stone, that God can also delegate, and work through, His angels, and likewise if angels, then also those Saints in Heaven that have gone before us.

[It’s like]<–strike that. We have a whole Heavenly Kingdom both on earth and in Heaven, a Body of Christ, family that is ready to hear us, our petitions, and like our earthly families, desire to help us on our own journey, in removing our own “stones,” in loving union with our Almighty Father. Profound and Awesome!

All the saints and angels in Heaven… Pray for us!