An Easter Message for the Ages (Mark 16:1-8)
We’ve been on a long journey through the gospel of Mark. We started this in January of 2023. Throughout Mark’s gospel, he has been building a case that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He opened his gospel with this declaration and has spent the last 16 chapters stacking up the evidence. Today we're looking at this question: What would it take to convince you that Jesus is the Son of God?
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We’ve seen testimonies:
- Mark 1:11 And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”
- Mark 1:24 (NLT) “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
- Mark 8:29 (NLT) Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”
We’ve seen teachings:
- Mark 2:17 (NLT) “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
- Mark 7:15 (NLT) “It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”
- Mark 10:15 (NLT) “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
We’ve seen his miracles:
- Physical miracles
- cleansing the leper
- giving sight to the blind
- Healing the lame
- Resuscitating Lazarus
- Nature miracles:
- Feeding the multitudes… twice!
- Walking on water
- Calming the storm
- Even a spiritual miracle:
- casting out evil spirits
TRANS: But there’s one miracle that stands out above them all. It’s the final and most important piece of evidence to point us to the true identity of Jesus. Today we’re looking at the incredible resurrection of Jesus.
The resurrection is the climax of Mark’s gospel. Without the resurrection, there is no good news. Jesus’s death would simply be the most tragic case of injustice in history, with not an ounce of goodness to it. It was the resurrection that changed the minds of his disciples. It was an encounter with the risen Christ that changed them from cowardly, sniveling men who deserted him and were always arguing about who would be the greatest… to brave, faith-filled men who unashamedly proclaimed Mark 1:1 – that Jesus is the Son of God.
NOTE: As we dig into Mark 16, we’re going to go through verse 8. If you’re reading in your Bible, you’ll likely have a footnote that says the “earliest manuscripts stop at verse 8.” I want to talk about that for just a moment. I want to share with you why this strengthens my confidence in the accuracy, historicity, and authority of God’s Word. I’m going to give you some reasons why we’re choosing to stop at verse 8 today and why many Bibles still include verse 9-20.
- Earliest manuscripts we have don’t contain 9-20
- Overwhelming majority of early manuscripts do contain it.
- Early church fathers quoted from verses after verse 8
- Elements of verses 9-20 are found in other gospels and nothing in it contradicts scripture.
- (honesty/transparency) - we can trust the Bible
Mark 16:1-4 Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. 3 On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.
They purchased burial spices. They had no expectation of an empty tomb. They expected to find a dead body. This anointing was not an attempt to preserve the body. Jews didn’t practice embalming. It was an act of love and devotion. They bought the spices at the first opportunity and made their way to the tomb at the first safe opportunity (as soon as it was daylight). They didn’t put off showing their devotion to Jesus. The touching of a dead body would have made them ceremonially unclean, another sacrifice they were willing to make for Jesus. What are we willing to sacrifice for him?
It’s powerful testimony that all of the gospels record women being the first to hear/see the good news of the resurrection. If you were making the story up, you’d never have women be the first to confess the resurrection. Their testimony wasn’t admissible in court. (honesty/transparency)
- (Pillar New Testament Commentary) "This is the general rule: any evidence that a woman is not eligible to bring, [usurers, dice-players, pigeon-flyers, traffickers Sabbath year produce, and slaves] are not eligible to bring" (m. Ros HaSh. 1:8). Further: "Sooner let the words of the Law be burned than delivered to women" (b. Sot. 19a); "Happy is he whose children are male, but alas for him whose children are female" (b. Qid. 82b). Especially indicative is the morning prayer of Jewish men, who blessed God for not making them heathens, slaves, or women!
- (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Some two centuries after the Gospels were written, the pagan Celsus could still needle Origen on "the gossip of women about the empty tomb" (Origen, Contra Celsum 2, 55).
- 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (NLT) Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
Who will roll the stone away? We know from Matthew’s gospel that there was an earthquake and the angel is the one who rolled the stone away and then sat on it. We also know from Matthew’s gospel that the Roman guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb shook with fear and passed out at the sight of the angel.
Mark 16:5-7 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, 6 but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth,[b] who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. 7 Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”
He is risen. Resurrection vs. resuscitation. Jesus is the first to be resurrected. There were resuscitations in the Bible prior to Jesus - Elijah raised the son of the widow from Zarephath back from the dead, Elisha raised the Shunammite’s son, Jairus’ daughter, Lazareth - but all these would die again. Jesus didn’t resuscitate, he resurrected. He came back to life never to die again. Jesus was the first to do this. This had never before been seen in history.
Look The angel challenged the women to see for themselves that the body was not there - “Look, this is where they laid his body.” God is always willing to prove himself to anyone who’s willing to seek. But he won’t force you to go looking. You’re listening today; are you willing to really look into Jesus?
Including Peter. The women are specifically told to communicate the news to Peter. Had he withdrawn because of his shame at denying Jesus three times? Had the other disciples ostracized him because he had failed in the moment after being so adamant that he would die with Jesus? He was supposed to be the rock, but had crumbled like a cookie. The last interaction Peter had with Jesus was looking into his eyes after he had denied him three times. How miserable these past days have been. He probably no longer considered himself a disciple because of his denial. He was too ashamed to be counted among his followers. This is why the personal invitation is so important. Jesus extends that same personal invitation to you today.
You will see him in Galilee. The women are commanded to go and tell the Good News that Jesus is risen. The women went to the tomb looking for closure; they got anything but closure! Now they would be on mission again with Jesus, meeting him in Galilee - the place where he first called his disciples. The place that represented the whole world, not just the Jews!
Mark 16:8 the women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened.
What a way to end Mark’s gospel! Five admissions of the women’s weakness:
- Fled
- Trembling
- Bewildered
- Speechless
- Frightened
Not surprising. After all, we’ve learned throughout this gospel two simple truths over and over: people are broken; Jesus can fix us.
So the women fled, broken but convinced. How could they not be? They just heard that Jesus performed his ultimate miracle: he was raised from the dead. Their lives would never be the same.
Back to the question for today:
Q: What would it take to convince you that Jesus is the Son of God?
Mark’s gospel lays out all the proof we need. The testimonies. The teachings. The miracles. And now this: the resurrection.
What we think about Jesus and how we respond to that is the most important thing about us. It is what determines where we spend eternity.
