Station 6

(participant reads)
A summary of Jesus’ resurrection:
Three days after Jesus is buried, His tomb is found to be empty. The boulder is pushed aside.  The body is missing. 
An angel is there instead and he tells two women that Jesus is alive! 
People start to say that Jesus has been brought back to life.  
On the same day, Jesus appears to two men, although they don’t recognise Him at first.  
With sadness in their eyes, the men recount, “Jesus was a man of God, blessed by God.  He did incredible things.  We were all so hopeful that He was the Promised One who could bring peace to Israel.  We have been waiting so long for ‘The Messiah’.  Instead, He was sentenced to death.  We watched Him die.  It wasn’t supposed to be like that. 
Now, we’re hearing a story that He could be alive!”
When Jesus speaks, the men recognize Him.  “Don’t you see, these things had to happen.  It is written - ‘The Messiah’ would have to suffer and then return to God. 
I had to die — it is the death for everyone’s sin.  I choose to take on the weight of everyone else’s sin — and guilt and shame are completely wiped away.”  
Everything makes sense now.  The two men hurry back to where Jesus’ followers are.  They share the news that Jesus is in fact alive. 
Over the next few weeks, the resurrected Jesus appears to many of His followers — reassuring them He is back from the dead; and calling them to tell others what they have seen.
 
“At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared.” - from Luke 24
 
(guide reads)
The burial custom was very important to the Jews. It was part of their grieving process and a way they were able to show respect to their dead. John’s gospel details how 35-45 kilograms of spices were purchased to anoint Jesus body after His death. It is suggested that this was a lavish amount - more suited to the burial of a King than a crucified criminal. 
As they make their way to the borrowed tomb in which Jesus had been laid, walking together in the dark, the small group of women carry a heavy load of spices along with the heavy reality of:

The death of their friend
The death of the promised Messiah
The death of their hopes and expectations 

As they get closer to their destination, they are preparing to face a hopeless situation.
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“When they arrive, they find the stone is rolled away from the tomb entrance, and when they look inside, the body of the Lord Jesus is nowhere to be seen. They don’t know what to think.”
 
Take a rock in your hand. Hold it in the palm of your hand and stretch out your arm.  Feel the weight of it.
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Is there something you might carry when you enter into a hopeless situation? 
 
Think of a word or a phrase that symbolises what your rock represents to you.
Continue to hold the rock as you read the rest of the story.

(participant reads)
“Suddenly two men in clothes as bright as lightning stand beside them. The women are terrified. They bow down with their faces to the ground.
Then the men ask them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? Jesus is not here! He has risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that He would rise again on the third day.”
Then the women remember Jesus' words.
So they rush back from the tomb to tell everyone else what has happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who tell the apostles what has happened.”
 
(guide reads)
As you reflect on this story, spend some time wondering:
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What might have happened to the carefully prepared spices once the women realised that they wouldn’t need them?
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Think back to your rock and what it represents.
 
Everything changed for the women in the light of Jesus’ resurrection.
Everything changes in the light of resurrection.
 
Is there something you’re carrying, which is no longer necessary in the light of Jesus’ resurrection?
 
As you return your rock, think on what it means for you to let it go.