John 20:1-10
[1] … Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. [2] So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” [3] So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. [4] The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; [5] and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. [6] And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, [7] and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. [8] So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. [9] For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. [10] So the disciples went away again to their own homes. …
The stone that was in front of the tomb of Jesus was not rolled away by the angel to let Jesus out, but it was rolled away so that the followers of Jesus could see in. Later in that same chapter in John 20 Jesus walks through the wall in the upper room to show himself to the disciples, so walking through solid matter was that a problem with Jesus, he could’ve easily just walk through the stone in front of the entrance to the tomb. When we personally have a revelation of Jesus, who is our life, risen from the dead, it totally changes how we view reality. When John went into the tomb and saw more clearly, up close, the evidence that Jesus was no longer there, he believed. When he came out of that tomb having seen what he saw, can you imagine how he saw everything else. It says in 1 Peter 1:3 that Christians are “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ…” For those in Christ, the resurrection of Jesus was also their resurrection, and in union with His resurrection life, and resurrection power, nothing is perceived the same again. Everything in my life is governed by the resurrection principle, and resurrection power, and therefore everything in my life is now seen through the lenses of hope. He is risen from the dead, having conquered the most impossible thing to be overcome, and I am in union with him who is the resurrection, then there is nothing I will ever face in life, whether trial, or temptation, that he can’t overcome. That is hope, the confident expectation of a victorious outcome in every issue of life.