Mark 16:1-8 Who Do You Say That Christ Is?

 

Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed! The grave is empty! We begin this day filled with joy and excitement, but that first Easter morning was a lot different. For Jesus’ followers and family, it began as a day filled with grief, uncertainty, and then fear. The way Mark ends his gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God leaves us a little confused and wondering, can the young man’s words in the tomb really be true? There’s the potential for room for a lot of doubt in how Mark ends his story.

Good Friday ended with Jesus in a tomb, his followers are hiding, and now, after having to leave Jesus’ body in the tomb over the Sabbath day, the women at the cross make their way to the tomb to clean Jesus’ body and anoint it with oils, creams and perfumes to honour this amazing man who has meant so much to them over the past three years. He had healed some of them, filled all of them with hope; encouraged and built them up, something most rabbis never even thought of doing for their female disciples. Now they’re filled with grief and shock. How could this have happened; how could anyone hate Jesus that much?

On the way to Jesus’ tomb, Mark adds a personal, and even humorous touch, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?” As one commentary puts it, the women have thought of everything they need to honour Jesus’ body, carrying everything with them, but it’s just now as they approach the tomb that they remember, “Oh no, there’s a big stone we need to get past.” It’s big enough that even three women are unable to roll it aside since it sits in a trench. They’ll need to roll it uphill in order to get into the tomb. This worry just adds to all the other emotions that are flowing inside them as they come closer to the tomb.

Now imagine the women’s surprise when they get closer to the tomb and see that the stone has been rolled away from in front of the tomb. As they approach the dark entrance, they receive a second surprise. Inside Jesus’ tomb, there’s a young man dressed in a white robe sitting there and Jesus’ body is gone. The women are alarmed, to put it mildly. Mark uses a word that shows their alarm is combined with a sense of awe and amazement. If this young man rolled the stone aside by himself, there’s definitely something superhuman about him.

The young man speaks, “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. 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.’” The disciples, especially Peter, are told to go and meet Jesus in Galilee, a long way away from Jerusalem and the powers that be. Galilee is where Jesus was raised, as the young man reminds the women when he called Jesus “the Nazarene.” Jesus is heading back to a place where he can concentrate on being with his disciples and not worry about enemies and possible violence. In Galilee, Jesus can focus on connecting with his disciples, helping them to see and remember that everything that occurred needed to happen to reveal that he is the Son of God, Messiah, and king.

The women are silent, trembling and bewildered, yet there’s also awe and amazement. Can this be? Can Jesus really be alive, waiting for them to join him in Galilee? Can they trust this young man’s message, this angel’s message? The women are overwhelmed by everything that is happening. I remember back in Nova Scotia after great storms would sweep through the region and ships would be lost at sea. Family and community members would line the shores after the storms, hoping to see their loved one’s ship appear over the horizon and when a ship appeared, everyone would hold their breath until they could identify whose ship it was. When the ship was identified, the families of the crew would often sink to their news, weeping with joy that their loved ones were safe. I imagine the women feeling something like that here.

The women are silent. As they leave with a sense of fear mixed with the bewilderment, awe and amazement, there must have been so many questions. This is going to take faith to believe since they haven’t seen Jesus’ body. This echoes ahead to Thomas’ doubt after Jesus appears to all the other disciples except for him. It is difficult to believe. Jesus gets it. In John 20 we read, “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

J. Warner Wallace wrote a book Cold-Case Christianity, where he applies his skills at understanding forensic evidence and comes to the conclusion that God, Jesus, and the resurrection is real. Lieutenant General William G. Boykin, Retired United States Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, writes “Today Americans are searching for truth. The most fundamental truth is the reality of a sovereign God. During his journey from agnosticism to apologetics, J. Warner Wallace uses his ‘cold case’ investigative techniques to prove the reality of the divine. READ his book. You will not regret it.”

The women face some challenges as they leave. This is going to take faith to believe since they haven’t seen Jesus. They’re going to have to take the young man’s word and go to Galilee to see Jesus. Mark ends with their silence, mentioning that they’re afraid. Are they afraid to have hope that Jesus is alive? Are they afraid to actually see Jesus? The last time they saw Jesus, they saw a dead body covered in blood, sweat, and grime after a horrible death. Are they maybe afraid that Jesus is actually waiting for them? Because if Jesus is waiting for them, he probably has plans for them. I remember one young lady I had talked to about profession of faith. I asked her why she was waiting and she said, “If I do Profession of Faith, then I’m admitting that Jesus is real and that he can put his claim on my life, my whole life.”

Jesus’ resurrection brings us back to our original question this Lent, “Who is Jesus?” Mark has been leading us to this moment, giving us everything we need to figure out the answer. He’s revealed who Jesus is through the experiences and confessions of the people around him. Mark has led us to the place where, when someone asks us, “Who is Jesus,” we’re able to say, Jesus is God’s Son, the Holy One of God, the son of Mary and a brother to his siblings, Jesus is the Messiah, the One who comes in the Name of the Lord, and the Son of God as seen through the eyes of a Roman soldier. We know, that because of the cross and empty grave, we are right with God again; washed clean and given new life in Jesus.

The young man in the tomb told the women, and the disciples, to go to Galilee to meet Jesus. Esau McCaulley writes, “The women did not go to the tomb looking for hope. They were searching for a place to grieve. They wanted to be left alone in despair. The terrifying prospect of Easter is that God called these women to return to the same world that crucified Jesus with a very dangerous gift: hope in the power of God, the unending reservoir of forgiveness and an abundance of love. It would make them seem like fools. Who could believe such a thing? Christians, at their best, are the fools who dare believe in God’s power to call dead things to life. ... As we leave the tombs of quarantine, a return to normal would be a disaster unless we recognize that we are going back to a world desperately in need of healing. For me, the source of that healing is an empty tomb in Jerusalem. ... "

As I reflect on these words, they echo forward to Jesus’ last command to the disciples to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Easter is a reminder of the gospel news, that Jesus loves us to death and offers us new life and hope that our past doesn’t have to shape our future because Jesus has changed everything, destroying the power of Satan and sin in our lives through his resurrection. It’s a call to go meet Jesus and then go and share the good news of Easter!