Mark 15:40-16:8 ‘He was dead and he is risen—what are you going to do about it?

 

Gordon Bailey is a rather unorthodox evangelist and a poet who used to work around the area of Guildford.  One day he was doing some door to door work.  He went up to a house and knocked on the door.  A man opened and Gordon said, ‘If you have got a few moments to spare I would like to talk to you about Jesus.’

‘I am not interested in religion’, said the man.

‘Who mentioned anything about religion?’ said Gordon.

‘Well, you did.’

‘No I didn’t’, countered Gordon.

‘Well anyway’, said the man firmly, ‘you won’t get me to church.’

‘Who mentioned anything about church?’

‘You did,’ said the man ‘didn’t you?’

There was a moments silence and then Gordon suggested that the best thing to do was start the conversation all over again.  So they shut the door, Gordon rang the bell, and the man opened the door a second time.

‘Now listen very carefully’ said Gordon ‘If you have got a few minutes to spare I would like to talk to you about Jesus.’

The man looked at him, ‘well I am still not interested!’

‘What!  Not interested in the most famous man that ever lived?’

‘Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that!’

‘What do you know about him?’ asked Gordon ‘Do you know how he died?

‘Yes, he died on a cross, crucified!’

‘Correct, but do you know that thousands of other people were crucified at about the same time?’

‘No, I had never thought about it!’

‘So don’t you think it strange that out of all those people who were crucified you’ve only heard of one?’

The man said ‘come on in’ and they talked about Jesus for more than a few minutes.[2]

If you have got a few moments I would like to talk to you about Jesus.  To be honest you do have a few moments because I am not going to finish this service until I have said what I am going to say.  It would be pretty rude of you just to walk out, so unless you can fain illness or get your hands on a crying baby, your stuck!  I believe, however, that it is worth your while listening  because we are going to look at some staggering claims Mark makes about Jesus—claims, that if they are true, present each of us with an immense challenge!

When it comes to reading any book of the Bible one of the things that we should be trying to do is to get inside the head of the writer.  So, when we read a passage in Mark’s Gospel we should be asking ‘what is Mark trying to tell his readers (initially the church in Rome in the first century) in choosing to record this incident and in how he records it?’  I think that Mark wants do two things with these verses: he wants to assure his readers that Jesus was really dead and really did rise, and he wants to challenge his readers to share this truth with other people! 

We will divide this passage in two obvious parts—15:40-47 in which we see Jesus’ burial, and 16:1-8 where we hear of his resurrection.

Mark wants us to be sure that nothing suspect happened Jesus’ body (Verses 40-47)

We have a lot of people in these eight verses: we have the women watching Jesus die from a distance; we have Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Jewish ruling council—the Sanhedrin; we have Pilate, the governor of Judea; we have the centurion who had been on duty that fateful afternoon; and we have Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses seeing where Jesus was buried.  As we are about to see these people will all be witnesses to something very important—that Jesus really was dead and placed in Joseph’s tomb!

Joseph of Arimathea, we are told in verse 43, was waiting for the kingdom of God.  In chapter 1 we read that the central point of Jesus’ teaching was that the kingdom of God was near.  Presumably Joseph had taken what Jesus had said on board.  Now this secret follower wants to give Jesus’ body a dignified burial.  It is late on the Friday afternoon, he will have to act promptly if he is going to have Jesus buried before the Sabbath—which began at sundown.

So Joseph does something very courageous—he goes to Pilate to ask for the body.  Being a follower of Jesus demands courage!  For Joseph it was a risky thing to be associated with someone who had just being crucified.  As a member of the Sanhedrin you can be sure that things were never the same for him once he had publicly associated himself with the Lord.  Identifying with Jesus can be scary.  Maybe in our school or workplace, amongst our family or neighbours, or simply as we rub shoulders with people every day we need to have the courage to put up our hand and say ‘I identify myself with Jesus!’

Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was dead.  The victims of crucifixion normally suffered for two, three, even four days before dying.  So Pilate summoned the centurion who had been on duty to confirm that Jesus really had died.  Now this centurion had probably supervised hundreds of crucifixions.  He is an expert witness.  He knew when the victim was dead and he knew that Jesus really had died.  Having being assured that Jesus really was dead, Pilate allowed Joseph to take the body.[3]

So Joseph brought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock.  Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.[4]  This large stone,[5] which was designed to protect against robbers or wild animals,[6] would have been rolled down a slope to bloke the entrance—once lodged in place it would have been very difficult to open again.

Mark tells us that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

It seems clear that Mark wants to underline for his readers that Jesus really was dead and that nothing suspect happened to his body.  It is as if he anticipates the doubts that people might have or explanations they may have heard.  ‘Perhaps Jesus didn’t actually die and was merely resuscitated later on’—the women saw him die; Pontius Pilate would not release the body until he had confirmation from the centurion that Jesus was dead.  ‘Perhaps someone stole the body’—the stone was placed in the entrance to make sure this could not happen.  ‘Perhaps it was the wrong grave that was found empty’—Mary Magdalene (who Mark records was there when they went to the tomb) and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid, along with Joseph they could confirm that it was the right grave!  Jesus died, no-one took his body, his tomb was found empty!  Those are facts that are relevant to all of our lives.     

Mark wants us to see that the resurrection presents us with a challenge (16:1-8)

Our second scene begins on that Saturday night—the Jewish Sabbath ended at sundown.  Then Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to buy some spices to anoint the body.  Very early the next day (the first day of the week—that first Easter Sunday), just after sunrise,[7] they went to the tomb.

On their way they asked each other, ‘who will roll the stone[8] away from the entrance of the tomb?’  This was a real problem.  It would have taken several strong men to remove the stone from the entrance.

But when they looked up they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.  So they entered the tomb, but they did not find what they were looking for.  The body of Jesus was not there.  Instead there was a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side.  Mark clearly wants us to understand this to be an angel.[9]  And they were alarmed.

The fact that Mark has women as his witnesses to the resurrection is striking.  In that society women were very much second class citizens and their testimony was inadmissible in a court of law.  If Mark was making this story up he would not have portrayed women as his witnesses to this amazing event.  The angel tells them “Don’t be alarmed.  You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.  He is risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid him.

 

Then there comes a wonderful word of mercy.  The angel commissions them: But go, tell the disciples, and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee.  There you will see him, just as he told you’[10]  Have you ever looked at some failure and thought ‘I wonder could God ever forgive me for that?’  Undoubtedly the disciples were feeling great shame that they had forsaken Jesus, particularly Peter who had let him down so badly.  Yet here is a message for them, and for Peter—Jesus is risen, and he wanted them to come and met with him again. He had some wonderful plans as to how he was going to use them.  We may have let Jesus down many times and in many ways, but in his mercy he longs to restore us.  He longs to restore us and use us in his service again!

 

The women are given the command to ‘go tell’ but what do they do?  Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.  They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.  

 

There is some confusion about the ending to Mark’ Gospel.  The words that we see in verses 9-20 were almost certainly added by someone else who thought this gospel can’t end at verse 8 and so gave it an ending that they thought was more appropriate.[11]  Some scholars think that the original ending to this gospel was lost.  However, it actually makes sense to end at verse 8.

 

In verse 8 the women were afraid.  Mark has shown that same reaction, at other times in the gospel, in the face of the miraculous.  So when Jesus calmed the storm and walked on water we read that the disciples were ‘afraid’, and when a man had a legion of demons cast out of him the people were ‘afraid’.  Mark underlines that this is another miraculous work of God as he records the same reaction, that of fear.  On each occasion the appropriate response should have been to act with faith, but each time the people responded instead with fear.  In faith the women should have gone out with joy to tell the disciples the great news that Jesus has been raised from the dead but in fear they said nothing.

 

Verse 8 is an appropriate ending because in it Mark is leaving his readers with a challenge.   Will we react to the amazing news that Jesus is had been raised from the dead with faith or with fear?  Will we keep silent, like these women did at that moment, or will we go and tell?  As one study book says, ‘Even if we’re afraid, it is still time to speak, because there is an empty tomb, Christ has risen, the kingdom of God has arrived.’[12]

 

Conclusion

In recording these verses in the way he does Mark wants us to be clear that nothing suspect happened to Jesus’ body.  Jesus really was dead and really has been raised from the dead.  This is of the utmost of relevance to each one of us hear this morning, whether we call ourselves a Christian or not.  For if Jesus has been raised from the dead then he lives today and as the risen Christ he demands our utmost allegiance.

 

And Mark ends this gospel with a challenge: are we going to respond to the fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead with fear or faith?  Are we going to keep this message to ourselves or are we going to share it with others?  Are we going to delight to tell people that Jesus has died for their sins and longs to bring them his forgiveness and restoration?  Are we going to point to the risen Christ who demands that all people serve him as their king?  May the Lord give us courage for this task!  

 

 

Copyright note:

All Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE,

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by

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[1] There are a number of minor differences in the gospel accounts of the resurrection.  These are actually easy to reconcile and are to be expected from an authentic account of an actual event.  As Professor Sir Norman Anderson, the former Director of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London, writes,   ‘It is common experience for a lawyer to note how a number of witnesses will almost invariably give accounts which differ widely from each other, initially at least, about any incident at which they have all been present.  Each individual will see it from a different angle (both literally and metaphorically); will note some, but by no means all, of the relevant facts; and will usually be highly selective in what he actually remembers.  To a considerable degree, therefore, the minor differences in some of the resurrection stories may be regarded as actually strengthening the evidence rather than weakening it; for if a number of witnesses tell exactly the same story, with no divergences, it is nearly always a sign that they have been ‘coached’ as to what to say, or at least have conferred together on the subject.’ (N. Anderson, A Lawyer among the Theologians cited in P B-M The Message of the resurrection.)

[2] Adapted from Roger Simpson, preaching at All Soul’s Langham Place.

[3] It was an unusual thing for the body of someone condemned for high treason to be released, particularly to someone who was not a relative—perhaps he allowed this because of Joseph’s prominent position or perhaps Pilate was still feeling uneasy about his part in Jesus’ death.

[4] Matthew tells us that Joseph was a rich man, so it would be natural to assume that he was helped by his servants to take the body from the cross—he couldn’t have easily done it on his own.  John also tells us that Nicodemus helped him. Joseph, Nicodemus and their servants probably washed the body, certainly they anointed/embalmed it, they wrapped it in linen cloth, and they placed it on a stone slab in the tomb. 

[5] ‘This could be either a flat stone disc that rolled in a sloped channel or simply a large rock that could be rolled in front of the opening.’ Wessell.

[6] Barnett.

[7] John (20:1) writes that while it was still dark Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.  John may have been referring to when the women left home, and Mark when they arrived at the tomb.  Alternatively the women may have come to the tomb in groups.

[8] ‘A circular stone, though relatively easy to put in place usually was set in a sloped track, once established in place was very difficult to remove.  It would either have to be rolled back up the incline or lifted out of the groove and then removed.  Any other kind of stone placed in front of the tomb’s entrance would be as difficult or even more difficult to remove.’  Wessell.

[9] Matthew, Luke and John tell us that he was an angel—indeed Matthew tells us that there were two angels.

[10] In 14:28 he had told the disciples, ‘But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.’

[11] In the Greek the style and vocabulary of these verses are significantly different from the rest of the Gospel.

[12] Bolt and Payne, News of the Hour.