I joined Mennonite Action and many other interfaith groups to protest Christians United for Israel in Washington, D.C., in July. It was moving to gather with people across the spectrum of faith united against apartheid and genocide, confronting the Christian Zionists gathered in the convention center. God was among us, and we were following our God in the name of peace and liberation.

We linked arms with Jews and Muslims and Buddhists to oppose the majority Christian support of Israel and its genocide in Gaza. U.S. complicity in the war is horrifying to me. I am often at a loss for what to do. So we sing, we march, we pray, we protest. Sometimes it feels like it is in vain. Sometimes it feels like pushing a stone that is too heavy to move.

On one of the evenings, Mennonite Action led a worship service, and I, along with Amy Yoder-McGloughlin, reflected on Mark 16, an account of the resurrection. One portion stood out to me in light of the seeming impossibility of a cease-fire. The women gather to anoint the body, and they are befuddled: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” It turns out the stone has already been moved. Who did it? God did it, and Jesus was resurrected.

The story ends with a man in white telling the women that Jesus has been raised. He instructs them to go and tell Peter and the disciples. But “they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” That’s it. That’s the end of the story and the end of Mark, as originally written.

The impossible happens — resurrection — and the witnesses are terrified. Truly, resurrected bodies and empty tombs are frightening. 

Something supernatural happened. The impossibly heavy stone rolled away. The grip of death loosened — hopeful from our vantage point, but terrifying in the moment.

The women do eventually share this good news. That’s why it was written down and why we profess it today. But the stone being rolled away, a miracle unto itself, was enough. God brought a material change, and it bore witness to the resurrection.

When I consider a cease-fire today, it seems exactly like that heavy stone. It seems impossible to move. The United States still arms Israel with taxpayer money. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing Congress, was resolute to continue the violence and not inclined to negotiate a cease-fire. He mocked the protesters in his speech. He said we were funded by Iran and served as “useful idiots” for the Iranian theocracy. It was discouraging to hear.

But I still cry out for God to do what can’t be done. Doing so with others makes me feel less alone. Peace and liberation for Palestinians seem impossible. Coexistence across faith and ethnicity in Palestine also seems impossible. 

But God does impossible things. God empties tombs and resurrects bodies. I cry out for God to do the same today. 

The work of liberation and peace, like a stone rolled away, is evidence of God alive in the world. Our work preaches the gospel; it demonstrates God’s presence and faithfulness. We don’t need to say anything else. The miracle of peace is enough, just like the miracle of moving the stone was enough.

Holding our grief with others of faith is essential to my hope that God can indeed make the impossible happen. I am proud, then, to stand with Christians, Jews and Muslims to cry out for another way, a way that seems impossible. 

When I think of Western-backed Israel waging a genocidal war, my cry for peace seems feeble. But with others, and with God among us, the impossible can happen.

Christianity is a faith of defying death and doing what seems impossible. That is what the resurrection of the Son of God is about. It is in this spirit that I act for a cease-fire, holding my grief and despair, crying out for God to put an end to the violence. I ask God how long we will have to wait for peace and liberation, and sometimes the doubt feels like it is too much to bear. 

But the stone was rolled away. The impossible happened. The Good News flourished. So I again stand in the firm belief that God can do the same today. Doing so with Mennonite Action, linking arms with others, grows my confidence and my faith, it lightens my load, challenges my cynicism and confronts my doubt.

God resurrected Jesus. God moved the stone. God can bring us a cease-fire. Lord, hear our prayer.

Jonny Rashid is pastor of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship and the author of Jesus Takes a Side (Herald Press, 2022).