S T O N E S
What Stone Will You Let Jesus Roll Away Today?
May 12th, 2023
GUILT: Shamed
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)
How do you face another dawn when even tattered remnants of shame and guilt refuse to unravel? All the studies reveal today that more Americans than ever before are struggling with their own forms of isolation and loneliness, much of it imbibed from the pandemic, leaving people worldwide shellshocked by their choices and admissions of how they survived months of no contact. Many assert they remained inebriated the entire time, whether drunk on porn or high on drugs, they passed the time in a haze. The problem is, just because it has been decided COVID is no longer a threat to mankind, the fallout from that time period only accentuates the pandemic humanity already wrestled with, and that is the weight of shame and guilt on our lives and the stain sin leaves behind.
I have sat hour after hour hearing the effects of shame pour from someone’s soul. I see the blemishes guilt leaves behind in the track marks on someone’s arms and the tearstains on one’s face. I have been given the honor of having a front row seat in the arena of watching prisoners walk out of prison and dead things creep out of the backs of tombs and caves, all the places where dead things go to die. I hold the hands of people coming back to life again, men finding forgiveness for past choices, women discovering their worth and the richness of the spirit that dwells inside of them. But it’s Jesus Who alone rolls away the boulders of guilt and the stones of shame.
I know because He works on me daily too. He holds my hand when I weep at the choices I made in the past that hurt my loved ones and my family. He walks through the garden of my soul in the dismal dusk of my life and asks, “Where are you?” He pleads with me, gently demanding, “Who told you that you were naked and not enough and not worthy and unloved?” He calls me out of the dead places in my life, into the sunlight; out of the muddy pits I crawl into, and He brings me to life again, He forgives me and sets me on a higher place with a new song on my lips. Jesus does all that, so that I then can help someone else come away from the places where they find themselves, where I also have been.
There is no cure for guilt—the act of committing something dishonorable; and there is no healing for shame—the painful feeling that arises and disables humanity after doing something wrong. Except for Jesus, that is. His forgiveness, His grace, His lovingkindness that leads to repentance.
“IT IS FINISHED!”
