One Stone

On February 27th of this year, at 3:34am local time, an earthquake of 8.8 on the Moment Magnitude Scale, lasting approximately 90 seconds in duration, struck the country of Chile, south of the capital of Santiago. The quake caused tsunamis that destroyed several coastal towns, and caused damage as far away as San Diego and Japan. This earthquake, caused when the Nazca Tectonic Plate slid under the westward moving South American Tectonic Plate, was so strong and so immense, that the details are almost too amazing to comprehend. The name that scientists use for these rare massive earthquakes hint at their enormity. They are called “megathrust earthquakes”, and the one that struck Chile in February, was one of the most powerful ever recorded. For perspective, it was 500 times more powerful than the earthquake that devastated the country of Haiti just a month beforehand. 500 times more powerful.

Electrical power was knocked out for over 93% of the entire country. Over 500,000 homes were damaged and destroyed. Insurance estimates put the monetary damage at around 7 billion dollars total. Thankfully, the loss of life was much less than what occurred during and following the earthquake in Haiti, mainly due to tough imposed building codes, and the immediate availability of post-earthquake aid by the Chilean government.

The earthquake was so powerful it was felt thousands of miles away. It caused standing waves known as “seiches” (sayshes) to occur on Lake Pontchartrain, just north of New Orleans…that’s 5,000 miles away from the epicenter of the quake. This quake was so strong it actually moved the Chilean city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west; it moved the capital city of Santiago 11 inches to the southwest. Buenos Aires, Argentina, which is over 1500 miles away, was physically shifted close to 2 inches westward. This was a massive earthquake.

But maybe the best way to understand the size and power and enormity of this quake, is by hearing what scientists now say it did to our planet as a whole. The latest scientific findings show that the earthquake, caused by the movement of these massive plates of the earth’s crust, shifted so much mass of earth and rock, that it has actually affected the earth’s rotation. The entire balance of our planet’s mass was shifted by this earthquake, and it has changed the gravitational axis of the earth.

Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, used a computer model to determine that the quake has moved the Earth's figure axis about 8 centimeters, or three inches from where it previously stood. The figure axis is the one around which the Earth's mass is balanced. Scientists explain this through the image of a figure skater. When a figure skater is spinning around ina cricle, and then pull their arms in tight, they spin faster, because their figure axis bring their body mass inward which causes them to spin tighter and faster. When the skater puts their arms outward away from their body, then their mass is spread out more and they spin slower. The immense movement of mass during the Chile earthquake has caused a shift in the earth’s figure axis, and our planet’s rotation has actually sped up. And since the rotation of our earth determines the length of our days, our days have grown shorter, as it takes less time for the earth to now make one full rotation. Time, as we know it, has been altered. The amount less is small so that you don’t notice it, but each day on earth since the earthquake is now 1.26 microseconds shorter than it was. The earthquake changed time as we know it. Can you imagine something so immense, so powerful, so incredible that it actually alters time?

From the Gospel of Matthew…

At dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then quickly go and tell his disciples…”

No one knows exactly how big that earthquake was on that first Easter morning. Whether it was a 5.2 or 9.1, we have no idea. We don’t know how much mass of earth’s crust was moved on account of it. We don’t know how far away the quake was felt, or what damage occurred to the surrounding area. The only thing we know for sure is this: one rock did move. One rock was rolled away from in front of the tomb. And that movement of one rock, that rolling away of one stone from in front of the tomb that contained Jesus’ body, has affected the earth more than any other movement of rock and mass ever has, or ever will. That one rock, rolling away, defeated death, and has changed time completely and totally for you and for me. Not just by 1.36 microseconds. But for eternity. One rock moved that day, and because of it, time is shattered.

One of my favorite scenes in all of scripture takes place right at this moment, when we’re told that the angel who has rolled away the stone stops and sits on top of it, and from there he talks with the women. He’s sitting on the stone that up until just a few minutes earlier was trapping Christ in the grave. He’s sitting on the stone that signified to the world that evil had won, that death was victorious, that the darkness had triumphed. He’s sitting on top of that stone, and I imagine he is smiling and laughing with uncontrolled joy, for he knows what no one else on earth yet knows. That the stone has been rolled away. That Jesus lives. That evil, and death, and darkness have not won…they have lost. That the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The angel knows, as he sits on top of the stone, swinging his legs back in forth, mocking the power that death thought it had over Christ, he knows that time no longer holds us under it’s spell. That for us, those who will proclaim Jesus as our risen Lord and Savior, time means nothing, for like Christ, we too will be raised, and the gift of eternal life is ours.

The apostle Paul later writes, “death has been swallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

An earthquake in Chile, changed time. Each day here on earth is now a tiny fraction of a second shorter than it was. But for us, who gather here today in the name of Christ, it matters not whether our days grow longer or shorter, for time has lost all meaning for us. We are a people this day invited into eternity, into time without end. For the stone of death has been rolled away by the awesome, and immense, and majestic, and incomprehensible power of love. God’s love for you.

My friends, that quake on Easter morning, the quake that moved one stone from in front of Christ’s tomb, is a gift for you and for me. It shows that death will have no power over you. That in Christ you can live as a free person, free from the power of sin and death and time, and so live now, today, as if you have already gained the victory of eternal life that is offered to you in Jesus Christ.

This is the day that the Lord has made! Thanks be to God! Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Amen.