It seems so fitting that our study of the book of Mark would arrive at the account of the resurrection on a Sunday. We get to have some Easter on this cold January morning. I need a little Easter in my life, don't you? Without the resurrection morning, no morning of our lives would have any real hope, as the Apostle Paul points out, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." (1 Corinthians 1 15:17) If Christ had gone to the tomb and remained there, nothing would have changed for us. But He is alive forevermore, and He sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us who believe in Him, and because He lives we have a hope that can never be taken from us. To quote the Apostle Peter, a man who denied the Lord three times and who once believed the crucifixion meant the end of all his hopes, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade." (1 Peter 1:3-4a) Because Christ is alive, our hope is alive.
As soon as the Sabbath ends at sundown on Saturday, some of the women who were followers of Jesus got their spices ready to take to the tomb, "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body." (Mark 16:1) These women are not expecting a risen Savior at the tomb; they're expecting a dead body. They are no longer certain who Jesus really was because they can't reconcile the idea of a dead Messiah with the King who will reign forever. All they know is that He did great things for them and for countless others. In return they want to do for Him what they can, so they intend to give Him the dignity in His death that He did not receive on the cross.
"Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, 'Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?'" (Mark 16:2-3) As they walk sadly toward the garden tomb, carrying a load of spices and an even heavier load of grief, the women wonder how they will gain access to the body. The stone covering the doorway would have been quite heavy; some examples of these stones still exist and they are estimated to weigh anywhere from 3/4 ton to 2 tons. Such stones were put in place by rolling them downhill into a groove in front of the door. The stone in front of Jesus' tomb would not only have been very difficult to move, but it would have had to be rolled away at an uphill angle. The three small women know they don't have the strength to do it. They've brought no men with them because the disciples are too frightened to appear in public. They may or may not know Roman guards have been posted at the tomb, but they can hardly expect the soldiers to be sympathetic to them. Nevertheless, although they have no idea how they are going to accomplish their task, the women set out to do it. Their faith might not be strong enough to believe in the resurrection, but it's strong enough to trust that God will help them to perform a final loving service to a man who served Him.
"But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away." (Mark 16:4) Matthew tells us that an angel rolled back the stone and that at the appearance of the angel the guards "shook and became like dead men". (Matthew 28:2-24) I don't know whether Matthew means the guards freeze in place out of fright or whether they actually pass out. Because the doorway is open to them, the women enter the tomb. "As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed." (Mark 16:5)
The women are almost as frightened as the soldiers at the sight of the angel. "'Don't be alarmed,' he said. 'You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.'" (Mark 16:6) The tomb was sealed and under guard until just a few moments ago. No one has tampered with it. No one has stolen the body of Jesus. Jesus was gone from the tomb before the angel rolled the stone away. The angel didn't roll the stone away to let Jesus out, but to let others in. He says something like, "You saw where His body was placed late on Friday afternoon. No one has had an opportunity to remove it. And yet, when I rolled the stone away from the door, He was already gone. This is the proof you need to believe He has risen just as He said He would."
Matthew tells us that while this is going on the guards run into the city to report what has happened. They appear before the chief priests, shaking like leaves on a tree in a high wind, and relate a hysterical account of the ground shaking beneath their feet and a man in shining clothes coming to roll the stone away and a tomb that cannot possibly be empty and yet is. This is the last thing the enemies of Jesus want to hear. Despite all their precautions, the body is missing. They have been unable to prevent its disappearance so now they quickly move into damage control mode. "When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, 'You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep.' If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.' So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day." (Matthew 28:12-15) It was an offense punishable by death for a soldier to fall asleep at his post or to lose the person or object he was supposed to guard. Herod Agrippa put sixteen guards to death when an angel miraculously let Peter out of prison in Acts 12. The situation is dire indeed when a soldier would rather admit to sleeping on the job than tell the truth. The money involved must have been considerable. The assurances of the chief priests to keep them out of harm's way must have been trustworthy, perhaps because the soldiers know their governor (like them) will accept an enormous bribe and keep his mouth shut.
Back at the tomb, the angel is still speaking with the women, "But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.'" (Mark 16:7) We cannot know for certain why the Lord worded His instructions to the angel in this way, "tell the disciples and Peter". Is it because Peter no longer considers himself worthy to be called a disciple? Is it because the Lord doesn't want Peter to think that when He says "the disciples" He intends to leave Peter out? Whatever the intention, this specific mention of Peter's name displays the awesome mercy of a Savior who still loves the one who has denied Him. This is the same mercy Jesus shows us when He says, "Okay, you messed up. You and I both know it. But I also know how sorry you are that you messed up. Let me pick you up, dust you off, and set you back on the path again. Don't keep lying there wallowing in self pity. Put your eyes back on Me and keep moving forward. We've got places to go together, you and I."
The four gospel accounts differ somewhat when describing the events at the tomb. None of the writers were actually there and so they had to relate the details as they were told to them by various participants in this earth-shaking drama. Mark concludes his account of the women by saying, "Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." (Mark 16:8) Matthew doesn't tell us what the women did after speaking with the angel. Luke says the women did end up going to the disciples but that the disciples didn't believe them because "their words seemed like nonsense". (Luke 24:11) John says the empty tomb was reported to the disciples, but he only mentions the name of Mary Magdalene and not the names of the other women. (John 20:2) There's no reason for us to become unnerved by the slight differences in these accounts. Matthew and John were disciples but neither of them actually witnessed the early morning events at the tomb. When the women recovered enough from their experience to tell the disciples what had happened, Matthew and John, along with the other disciples, dismissed their tale as the ramblings of hysterical and grief-stricken women. (We must keep in mind that in those days the testimony of women was considered worthless. A woman could not appear in court, not even if she were the only person who witnessed a crime.) Because they did not believe the women, it's understandable that Matthew and John might not have remembered their exact words or the exact order of the events of Resurrection Day. This is no way casts any doubt on the resurrection itself.
In addition, Luke and Mark were not present at all during the events of Resurrection Day. Mark is believed to be the John Mark who was a cousin to Barnabas and who accompanied Barnabas and Paul on some of their journeys. He was probably a convert of the Apostle Peter, for when Peter is miraculously released from prison in the book of Acts we find him returning to the house of John Mark's mother where believers are gathered. Mark was not present at the resurrection and he didn't see the women finding the tomb empty and he wasn't in the room when the women told the disciples the tomb was empty. He relates the story to us as it was told to him by various participants. Luke was a Gentile who became a believer probably through the preaching of the Apostle Paul. Luke wrote his gospel account based on his interviews with eyewitnesses, and when it comes to eyewitness testimony we have to keep certain things in mind. For example: let's say ten people witness a bank robbery. All ten of them are going to remember that the bank was robbed. All ten of them will remember that the robbers wore masks and carried guns. But all ten of them may not agree on the exact order in which the events unfolded or the exact words the robbers spoke. This is what we have when we read the gospel accounts. Everyone agrees Jesus died on the cross. Everyone agrees that He was buried in a tomb. Everyone agrees that the tomb was empty on Sunday morning. Everyone agrees that the women were the first to find this out. Everyone agrees that Jesus appeared in the flesh following the resurrection and spent time with the disciples and others. Various miscellaneous details of Resurrection Day may differ here and there, but the fact remains that on Sunday morning the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, everything is changed. Remission of sins, salvation by faith, and the hope of eternal life in the presence of the Lord became a reality. Hope was born, a real and living hope based on fact: the fact of the resurrection.
Our worship song link for today is below. Let's listen to it together and celebrate the hope we have in our risen Lord.
In Christ Alone
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