Resurrection
MARK 16:1-8
“THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD IS the crowning proof of Christianity. Everything else that was said or done by the apostles is secondary in importance to the resurrection. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God, and the Christian faith is absolute truth.” (Henry M. Morris) …
WE WILL BE LOOKING AT MARK’S ACCOUNT OF THE RESURRECTION: Mark 16:1-8. Mark does not give us all the details the other gospel writers do. And in Mark’s brevity we find, I think, a certain poetic beauty. Mark may at times perplex us with his lack of details, but at the same time, I believe, we find ourselves swept away by the power of his unadorned phrasing. I think the key to appreciation in the book of Mark is to focus on what is said and don’t allow your mind to get sidetracked by speculating about what is not said. That is probably a good rule for all of our study of the Bible, and, I might humbly suggest, maybe even all of life…
“REJOICE, ALL YE PEOPLE, your mighty anthems raise; The Savior victorious, is worthy of your praise. All glorious Lord, Thy triumphs we proclaim, Who from the grave has risen, O praise His name!”
“ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA! Hearts to heaven and voices raise; Sing to God a hymn of gladness, Sing to God a hymn of praise. He who on the cross as Savior For the world’s salvation bled, Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, Now is risen from the dead.”
PEOPLE HAVE ASKED THROUGHOUT THE AGES, “Did the Resurrection really happen?” “The body of Jesus was taken from the Cross and, in accordance with Jewish burial customs, was wrapped in a lined cloth. As much as 100 pounds of aromatic spices, mixed together to form a gummy substance, were applied to the wrappings of cloth about the body. Then the body was placed in a solid rock tomb. An extremely large stone weighing as much as 2 tons was rolled by means of levers against the entrance of the tomb. A Roman guard of strictly disciplined men was stationed to guard the tomb. If anyone tampered with the tomb or if somehow someone were allowed to take the body, the Roman soldiers would pay for it with their lives. A Roman seal, the stamp of Roman power and authority, was affixed on the tomb. Anyone trying to move the stone would have broken the seal and thus incurred the wrath of Roman law… But, in less than three days the tomb was empty.” (McDowell)…
THE EMPTY TOMB STANDS TODAY AS PROOF OF RESURRECTION. A.M. Ramsey wrote: “I believe in the Resurrection partly because a series of facts are unaccountable without it. The empty tomb was too notorious to be denied.” Paul Althaus states that the Resurrection could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned. Paul L. Maier concludes, “If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable, according to the canons of historical research, to conclude that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has yet been discovered in any literary source or any archaeological discovery that would disprove this statement.” …
THE RESURRECTION IS A FACT NO ONE IN 2,000 YEARS HAS BEEN able to disprove… And that includes the DaVinci Code and the Gospel of Judas…
THE CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL CRITIC GARY BAUER SAID, “Ultimately, it is not the birth of a man born into this world that we celebrate; rather, it is His death and resurrection as the living Son of God. If Christ had not risen from the grave and ascended into Heaven, He would have been forgotten as a common criminal whose birthday would have no significance. It is Easter, not Christmas, that makes us Christians!” …
WHILE THAT IS CERTAINLY TRUE, the Resurrection, I would suggest, is not separate from the birth and Passion of Christ. They go together; they are inseparable. The Resurrection is the other side of the coin with the Cross, and the Cross includes the life and ministry of Jesus.
Without the Cross, there would have been no empty tomb. In order to have a Resurrection, you have to first have a Cross. Without first a death, there would be no Resurrection.
CHRISTIANITY BEGINS WHERE RELIGION ENDS: with the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the Key to everything! If Jesus Christ did not rise form the dead then the bible is not telling us the truth – BUT! He is risen!…
NAS 1 Corinthians 15:12-17 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
THAT’S HOW MUCH THE RESURRECTION MEANS: EVERYTHING!…
IN PERHAPS THE KEY VERSE IN THE BOOK OF MARK, 10:45, WE READ…
NAS Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
JESUS HAD INDEED “GIVEN HIS LIFE A RANSOM FOR MANY” by dying on the Cross. He had drunk the bitter cup of God’s wrath so that wrath would not be poured out on all who would come to Him by faith. And because of His obedience, because it was the predetermined will of God for Christ to die, God has now raised Him from the dead!…
SOMETIMES THE BIBLE SAYS GOD RAISED JESUS FROM THE GRAVE, sometimes the Bible says Jesus raised Himself from the dead… That reality, to me, is another proof of the Trinity. If the Bible says God raised Jesus from the dead, and if God is the only One who can give life, and the Bible says Jesus raised Himself up, then if Jesus is not God, and if there are not multiple Persons of the Trinity, then you tell me who Jesus is and how we can get around this without acknowledging the necessity of the Trinity – you tell me…
JESUS SAID…
NAS John 10:17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
WHO ELSE BUT JESUS CHRIST COULD MAKE SUCH A STATEMENT and have the authority and the power to make His words come about?… No one, no one but Jesus, the God-Man…
“RESURRECTION” IS THE GREEK WORD αναστασισ(a-na-sta-sis) 386. (42) to stand up. Resurrection, recovery. (1) A standing on the feet again or rising as opposed to falling. (2) Resurrection of the body from death, return to life…
“RESURRECTION” LITERALLY MEANS “to stand again.” A dead person does not stand. Unless it is otherwise supported, such as in the case of a mummy made upright by the casket, a dead body is horizontal, not vertical. When Jesus died, His body was laid down horizontally; He was not standing. When He rose again, He stood again…
RESURRECTION SUNDAY IS “THE THIRD DAY”… You may have heard of the term. A popular Christian rock group has called itself “Third Day”…
NAS 1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
THE BRIEF, EVEN BLUNT WORDS OF MARK as he tells about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ…
NAS Mark 16:1-8 And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. 7 “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you.'” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
LET US GO THROUGH THESE 8 VERSES INDIVIDUALLY AND make some observations…
- NAS Mark 16:1 And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.
The names of the three women were first given by Mark in chapter 15…
NAS Mark 15:40 And there were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses (Joseph), and Salome.
We know that at least two of the women witnessed the burial of Jesus…
NAS Mark 15:47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid.
There are so many fascinating – and, yes, sometimes confusing – details in the gospel accounts of Jesus resurrection…
“And when the Sabbath was over…” Jesus was crucified on a Friday. His body was taken down from the Cross and placed in the tomb before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath which began at sundown that night and continued until sundown Saturday. Then “when the Sabbath was over,” that is, after the sun had set on Saturday evening, the three women bought spices in order to anoint Jesus’ body. Spices were not used for mummification (remember, Jesus was wrapped for burial like what we think of as a mummy). Mummification was not originally a Jewish custom. The spices were meant to offset the odors from decomposition. One source I read this week wrote, “The desire of the women to ‘anoint’ the body indicates that the oils were to be poured over the head. The preparations for returning to the tomb in performance of an act of piety show that the women had no expectation of an immediate resurrection of Jesus. Since in the climate of Jerusalem deterioration would occur rapidly, the visit of the women with the intention of ministering to the corpse after two nights and a day must be viewed as an expression of intense devotion.” (Lane)…
Did they come to the tomb before or after midnight? The text tells us in v. 2…
- NAS Mark 16:2 And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
The Greek as well as the English is a bit difficult at first glance, but if you think about it, it’s not such a problem. Mark is, I think, simply telling his readers that the women came to the tomb Sunday morning as early as they could…
- NAS Mark 16:3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”
The tomb where Jesus was placed was that of Joseph of Arimathea, one of Jesus’ disciples. Since we know Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy, it is probable that the tomb was relatively large, large enough to hold an entire family. It was normal for people in those days to buy tombs large enough to hold their entire family…
The tomb was probably hewn in an exposed rock face, with its door perpendicular to the ground…
The stone which covered the entrance would have been set in an inclined groove so that it could be rolled down the incline and effectively seal the tomb. The groove was so cut into the rock face so as to cause the stone to lean back slightly against the wall, making it harder to move the stone. In order to roll the stone – which weighed probably 700 pounds to ton – back up the incline, it would take several strong men…
“Mark’s account is characterized by great restraint. The evangelist makes no attempt to explain how the stone was rolled back, but records simply that the women looked up and saw that it had been removed. That the tomb was empty is clearly implied, but this is not stated until the startling announcement of the divine messenger in v. 6.” (Lane)…
We read about the tomb and Joseph’s burying Jesus in Mark 15:44-46…
NAS Mark 15:44-46 And Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. And Joseph (of Arimathea) bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
- NAS Mark 16:4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.
Note that the text says the women “looked up”… This, of course, implies they had previously been looking down. The empty tomb should cause us today to look up… Mark does not even mention the earthquake and the angelic visitation which had moved the stone according to Matthew…
NAS Matthew 28:2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
As usually, Mark restricts himself to the bare facts necessary for his story…
- NAS Mark 16:5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.
(Most probably) “Inside the large opening in the façade of the tomb was an antechamber, at the back of which a rectangular doorway about two feet high led inside. Small low doorways between the antechamber and the burial chamber where the body had been laid was perhaps six or seven feet square, and about the same height.” (Lane)…
Even though our texts rightly read “young man,” this is an angel…
“Immortal Hope dispels the gloom! An angel sits beside the tomb.” (Adams)…
The Greek word here for “robe” is stolh, (sto-lay), from which, as you may have already guessed, we get our English word “stole.” The Greek word refers to a long, flowing robe. This word points toward refinement, dignity. In extrabiblical literature a cognate term (similar term from the same root) described robes worn by kings. In the famous parable of the “Prodigal Son” it was a stolh, that the forgiving father told the servants to put on his repentant son…
NAS Luke 15:22 “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet;
“They were amazed”… To be amazed is to be affected with great wonder, to be astonished. The word used to also mean “bewildered” or “perplexed”… The Greek word evkqambe,w (ek- tham-bay-o) is only used 4 times in the N.T., all by Mark. Aside from this verse and another use in v. 6…
NAS Mark 9:15 And immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed, and began running up to greet Him.
NAS Mark 14:33 And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled.
- NAS Mark 16:6 And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.
Actions of God are not all self-evident. Sometimes God will plainly tell us exactly what He has done or is about to do by an accompanying Word of revelation that interprets the significance of the event for us. “The emptiness of the tomb possessed no factual value in itself. It simply raised the question, What happened to the body? God, therefore, sent His messenger to disclose the fact of the resurrection. The announcement of the angel is the crystallization point for faith. The women had been misguided in their seeking of Jesus. They came to anoint the body of one who was dead, but Jesus had risen from dead!” (Lane)…
Note how “the other side of the coin” is brought into view. Note how the death and burial of the Lord Jesus precede the announcement of the Resurrection: “who has been crucified”…
The fact that women were the first to receive the announcement of the resurrection is significant in view of contemporary attitudes. Rabbinic law (not the same as Scripture but held in even more regard by most Jews) pronounced women ineligible as witnesses. We even see this bigotry on the part of the disciples in Scripture, for example in Luke’s account…
NAS Luke 24:9-11 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also, the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. And these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.
If you think about it, the fact that the Bible records women as being the first to the tomb and the first evangelists, all but entirely dispels the possibility that the early Christians made up the story of the Resurrection. One scholar writes, “That the news had first been delivered by women was inconvenient for and troublesome to the Church, for their testimonies lacked value as evidence. The primitive Community would not have invented this detail, which can be explained only on the ground that it was factual.” (Lane)…
It is doubtful that another person, an unbeliever, who may have stopped at the tomb and looked in would have seen the angel. “It is to the eye of faith that angels appear, for the unbelieving do not see them; and furthermore, it is the eye of faith that interprets angels for what they are. Whenever God acts, it must always be with sufficient ambiguity for us to need the interpretation of faith if we are to see the happening as an act of God. Christian faith is, in the last resort, an understanding by faith of every event in the activity of a God who is at once all love, all holiness, and all power. Faith is an appropriation for oneself of the act of God, a grasping hold of that which is real, even if at present unseen.” (Cole)…
- NAS Mark 16:7 “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you.'”
The reference to Galilee connects directly with Jesus’ earlier statement in…
NAS Mark 14:27-28 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”
Galilee is the areas which comprises the northern third of Palestine…
In the immediate context of this earlier passage in Mark all the news is dark and gloomy. Jesus spoke of His violent death, prophesied that Peter, His most loyal disciple, would thrice deny Him the very night He went to the Cross. “The one note of comfort was the assurance that after Jesus’ resurrection the disciples would be regathered in Galilee.” (Lane)…
Peter is the first and last disciple to be mentioned in the book of Mark (1:16). “This special nod to Peter hints at his full restoration despite his extraordinary breach of faith in his three denials of Christ. Jesus does not give up on His disciples, no matter how great their failure or how many their faults.” (Garland). That is comforting to us today, is it not? Another lesson for us from this message…
“There is a note of irony here. The disciples have fled and have presumably begun their journey for home, leaving behind their dead Master. But it is not to be so; Jesus will arrive in Galilee before they do and will ‘go before’ them, implying that the resurrected Jesus will continue to lead His disciples in their ongoing ministry. Therefore it is possible to see that the mission of the disciples, chosen and commissioned earlier, may now continue with renewed vigor and vision, greater than before.” (Evans). I believe there is another lesson for us there. We don’t need the physical presence of Jesus in order to be empowered and led by Jesus…
Finally, in v. 7, “The command to go to Galilee does make one thing clear: Jerusalem is no longer the center of God’s movement. The disciples’ future lies elsewhere. Jerusalem has
become the city of the fruitless and doomed temple, the stronghold of hostility to the gospel, and the place of Jesus’ savage execution. In Mark’s gospel (as the Wednesday Night Bible students are learning), Galilee is the place of calling, faith, compassion, healing, power, and authority. By going back to Galilee where Jesus will be, the disciples go back to the promising birth of their call to discipleship. There they can regroup and begin again the journey of discipleship.” (Evans)…
- NAS Mark 16:8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Yes, the women were afraid. Certainly no one can blame them. They had just been confronted with a shocking reality, the reverberations of which we still feel strongly today. For the first and only time in the history of the world, someone rose from the dead. They understandably did not know how to react…
But… “They went out”… Note that in spite of their fear, they did go out and eventually they told others of what they had seen. We can learn another lesson here…
Isn’t it interesting that early Jewish religious leaders never sought to dispute the fact of the Resurrection? When Peter gave the first sermon of the church on the Day of Pentecost, no one raised a voice of objection even though they were just a few moments from the gravesite. No one said, “I don’t think the tomb is empty and I’m going to go prove Peter wrong”…
The different endings of Mark have been the source of great debate for centuries, some believing the short ending (at v. 8) is the more authentic; others believing the longer ending (to v. 20) to be preferable. After studying the question for years, I would respectfully submit two thoughts: (1) based upon current evidence, we will never be able to resolve the debate conclusively, and (2) in the end, it really doesn’t matter. If the gospel ends at v. 8, nothing is lost to us as the material in vs. 9-20 may be found elsewhere in the N.T. And if the gospel is found to end at v. 20, nothing in the book of Mark is disturbed. In my humble opinion, the shorter ending is to be preferred. One writer summarizes my studied opinion when he says, “V. 8 is a complete thought. There is nothing grammatically wrong with the passage to force us not to think that Mark fully intended to end his gospel with the startling disclosure that the women spoke to no one because they were afraid. If we want to understand Mark, we must grapple with this awkward conclusion no matter how unsatisfying it might be.” (Garland)…
Others disagree. Here is an example of those who hold to the long ending: “It is hard to believe that Mark would have ended his gospel with such a clause as ‘for they were afraid’
[this assumption has been repeatedly proven erroneous – TAR]. His book concerns the strong Son of God, who was fully subject to the Father’s will, who finished the Father’s work, and who will come with the clouds in heaven. The last clause leaves too much unaffirmed and unfinished.” (Broadman’s Commentary)…
EASTER IS NOT ONLY A PASSPORT TO ANOTHER WORLD; It is a quality of perception for this one…
NAS 1 Peter 1:20-21 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
“FOR YOU”! He died on a Cross for you (and for me); He rose from the tomb for you (and me and everyone who has placed his/her faith in Him); and He now wants to life His life through you (us)!…
NAS Romans 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
NAS Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
NAS 1 Corinthians 6:14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
“DEATH IS OUR GREATEST ENEMY, AND IT HAS CONQUERED ALL MEN BUT Christ. No man is wise enough outwit death of wealthy enough to purchase freedom from death or strong enough to vanquish death. The grave always wins the victory, and every person sooner or later returns to the dust.… The universality of the reign of decay and death is the measure of the absolute uniqueness of the resurrection of Christ.” (Morris)…
WHEN WE DIE, GOD WILL RAISE US. WHILE WE LIVE, He is calling us to live a resurrected life for Him by faith and good works. There is no greater promise; there is no greater hope…
“I SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR, HE’S IN THE WORLD TODAY; I know that He is living, whatever men may say; I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, And just the time I need Him He’s always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives: He lives within my heart.”
“ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA! Now the iron bars are broken, Christ from death to life is born, Glorious life, and life immortal, On the Resurrection morn; Christ has triumphed, and we conquer By His mighty enterprise, We with Him to life eternal By His resurrection rise.”
BY HIS RESURRECTION WE RISE! Because He lives we can face tomorrow! “You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart!” God is alive! Jesus is alive! We serve a risen Savior! And because of that, we have hope. Because of that, no difficulty we face is too great, no darkness too deep. Because He lives we can face anything!…
THAT’S WHAT THE RESURRECTION MEANS TO US TODAY – HOPE!…
NAS John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies,
HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!…
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm