S T O N E S
What Stone Will You Let Jesus Roll Away Today?
May 3rd, 2023
IDENTITY – the ‘ME’ I Am When No One is Looking
Luke 24:2, ‘But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.’ (NKJV)
“I love the imagery of the stone that covered Jesus’ tomb rolling away when He defeated death. The reality is, we all have stones in our lives…but the good news is: Jesus Christ rolls stones away!” (Christine Caine)
Perhaps it is for you as it is for me. The idea of my identity is convoluted and confused, and I have spent an entire lifetime trying to find me; a me I can accept, a me I can love. One that I don’t have to keep make-believing. One who is the same yesterday, today and next year. The me I am when no one is looking, but also the me I am when everyone is looking. My character. Who is the me that God sees?
For so long, I wrapped me up in burial rags, trying to silence what I didn’t like to hear—the cry of my heart—hoping to close my eyes to who I didn’t want to see—the me God intended me to be—and I stuck me—the me God dreamt into being and purposed for a high calling—at the very back of a dark burial site. What happens when we entomb the greatness God placed inside of us for safekeeping? In the very depth of your being, God entrenched deposits of His image and forbearance, His grace and goodness. He dug deep to amass within you and me a vast accumulation of His richness.
But, as life would have it, we hide behind many things—whether it might be status quo, prestige, privilege, material belongings, wealth, the trappings of this world. I think about the short little man Zacchaeus who hoarded great affluence by taking advantage of his influence over those he should have instead served. But when Jesus arrived and revealed the true intent of Zacchaeus’ heart, the rubble of greed was left in a pile of atonement as the scales fell from his eyes. When we leave behind the masks cloaking our identities and we step before His piercing gaze, so much debris falls away. We are in truth exhumed by the Creator of the Universe, the Giver of life, the One in Whose image we are made!
“IT IS FINISHED!”
