Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter
by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“Yet I was like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
not knowing that they were hatching plots against me”.

(JEREMIAH 11:19)

“The stone that rolled away from the tomb of Jesus continues to roll away from every sort of grave. Goodness cannot be held, captured, or put to death. It evades its pursuers, escapes capture, slips away, but forever rises all over the world. Such is the meaning of the resurrection.

We see this already in the earthly life of Jesus. There are a number of passages in the Gospels that give the impression that Jesus was somehow highly elusive and difficult to capture. Early on in his ministry, when his own townsfolk get upset with his message and lead him to the brow of a hill to hurl him to his death, we are told that he slipped through the crowd and went away. Later when the authorities try to arrest him, we are told simply that he slipped away. 

These stories of his slipping away are highly symbolic. The lesson is not that Jesus was physically deft and elusive, but rather that the word of God, the grace of God, the goodness of God, and the power of God can never be captured, held captive, or ultimately killed. They are adept. They can never be held captive, can never be killed, and even when seemingly they are killed, the stone that entombs them always eventually rolls back and releases them. Goodness continues to resurrect from every sort of grave” (37).