Pushing a Pebble

In December 2009, I completed a Master’s Degree in Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. My thesis examined how shared leadership emerges when people from different public safety disciplines and a variety of jurisdictions have to work together. The research question in a nutshell: Can police officers and fire fighters get along? (By the way, the answer is yes.) 

I started my work by looking through books and articles on shared leadership. The dreaded Literature Review. After a few months, I had more information than I knew what to do with. I feared my thesis would be 300 pages and I struggled to get the focus of the paper to something manageable. One of my advisors offered a perspective on how to narrow the scope of my academic work. He told me to think about my thesis like a pebble. The pebble was the topic of shared leadership. My job was to move the pebble a short distance to discover something new about the subject. It would be up to others to continue the work and push the pebble a little further.  

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the Passion Week and ends with the greatest finale ever, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The week is epic, and yet, the journey to the cross happened by pushing the pebble of salvation over four millennia. The general consensus is that there were 4,000 years between Adam and Jesus. That’s a lot of pebble pushing.

The Book of Luke and Matthew list the genealogies of Jesus. Together, these disciples take us through 40 generations that tell God’s story of redemption for mankind. There were men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon. There are women as well: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary. All are part of the reconciliation of God to man. All moved the pebble of salvation from father to father, mother to mother, one after the other.

The family tree was only part of the story. Consider that 1,948 years separated Adam from Abraham. God gave Israel 450 years of judges to lead His people until they cried out for a King. The Kings of Judah spanned another 513 years. The shortest reign was three months, the longest 55 years. Some leaders were righteous and others wicked. The salvation pebble got pushed back and forth but always towards Calvary.

There were also prophets who spoke the word of God to the Nation of Israel over hundreds of years. They told the world that judgment and punishment was the outcome for a sinful, fallen world; but they also shared the hope that a savior would come. Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

It was only after thousands of years of genealogies, judges, kings and prophets that the pebble was in the right place for one last miracle. The pebble became a stone.

“After the Sabbath, 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. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

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 go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” Matthew 28:1-7

Next Sunday, we will celebrate the resurrection of the Jesus Christ, Savior of the World. It was not something that happened over night. It happened over 4,000 years. God moved through men and women; lifetimes and families; tribes and nations to reconcile us to Him. Be at peace this Easter week and know that Jesus is God and crushed the power of sin and death.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The LORD has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.” Psalm 118:22-24

It is our time to push the stone of salvation throughout the world and be part of God’s story like all those who lived before us. The path is not easy, pushing a stone is work; but Jesus pushes with us and the Holy Spirit gives us the strength for the work at hand.

“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” Luke 20:18

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-10