The Empty Tomb
Mark 15.42-16.8
Easter Sunday
March 23, 2008
When Pepsi-Cola was launched in China in the 1960’s, the marketing slogan at the time was, “Come alive, you’re in the Pepsi generation.” Pepsi executives were mystified by the fact that sales were increasing everywhere else in the world, but in China they were dropping rapidly. Then they discovered how the translator had rendered their campaign slogan in Mandarin: “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.” Evidently a frightening prospect for the Chinese.
Easter Sunday is the commemoration of Jesus Christ being raised from the dead.
We have read the account from the Gospel of Mark, and I’ve met with several groups of people this week talking about this passage, and the questions you are asking break down into two broad categories.
First, did this really happen? Can the accounts of the resurrection be trusted? After all, these were ancient people, predisposed to miracles, and the accounts themselves were written years, even decades after the facts. Aren’t the resurrection accounts just fanciful legends? This is the question of truth.
And the second question is, “OK, suppose it did happen. What difference does it make? What does a man coming out of the grave 2000 years ago have to do with my life today? This is the question of relevance.
First, the word of truth. In today’s modern age of skepticism, Christianity boldly asserts that something happened that had never before happened in history – that a man came out of the grave on his own power. And furthermore, everyone should believe that it is true.
Let me point out three things.
One is the start of the Christian church. The Christian faith began as a very backwater sect of Judaism with leaders who were fishermen, carpenters, farmers – all of them uneducated and unsophisticated. Yet in the short span of 200 years the Christian faith took over the Roman Empire. It spread throughout the Mediterranean world like wildfire, despite the fact that for those 200 years believers were badly persecuted. The incredible spread of the church is a matter of historical record. How do you explain it?
The explanation that makes the most sense is the one given to us in the Bible, that Jesus Christ in fact rose from the dead. If you reject that, you have to come up with some alternative explanation for the founding and spread of the church. Eleven of the twelve original apostles were violently killed for their belief in the resurrection, and to quote Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher, “I tend to believe those witnesses who get their throats cut.”
In the decades before and after Jesus Christ there were dozens of messianic movements in Israel. In almost every case their leaders were executed, and the movement died. The adherents dispersed and moved on. But not Christianity. The leader died and His movement took off. Today it is by far the largest religion in the world. Why? Because Jesus did come back from the dead.
What about the accounts themselves. Can we trust them?
The four gospels, Matthew, Mark Luke and John all have slightly different versions of the resurrection. But the one thing that they all agree on is that the first witnesses to the resurrection were women, and Mark gives us their names.
Now you wonder why we have the names. In fact, the names of the women are given to us three times, twice in the account of the burial and once in the account of the resurrection. Mark is the most economical of all the gospels, his stories are clipped and spare. But he gives us this list of women three times. Why? Scholars tell us that this was a mark of ancient historians. Giving the names is a certain indication that these women were alive at the time of writing. If someone doubted this story and wanted to corroborate it, you could go talk to Mary Magdalene or Mary the mother of Joses or Salome. They were still around. In the ancient world the citing of live eyewitnesses gave a document much more credence than merely writing it down.
The Apostle Paul does the same thing in I Corinthians 15. He says after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to more than 500 people, some of whom have died, but most of whom are still alive. His implication – go check it out. Naming the witnesses was the first century version of footnotes.
But more than that. Do you know how scandalous it was to have women, and only women as the first witnesses to the resurrection? In the first century, women did not qualify as witnesses. If you had one hundred women but no men witnessing a crime, the charge would be dropped. Only men were reliable witnesses. In 170 AD a Greek pagan philosopher named Celsus wrote a cynical and many sided attack on Christianity called “On the True Doctrine.” He listed many reasons Christianity couldn’t be believed, but one of his main arguments was that it was founded on the testimony of women. And we all know that women are “hysterical and deluded.” (Wright, p. 521)
In his day, that was an incredibly strong argument. People would say, “That’s right, he’s got a point.”
Don’t you see the implication? If this was the prevailing view of women, and Matthew, Mark Luke and John were writing a legend to show the credibility of Christianity, then most certainly they would have had men be the first witnesses. Or at least one man come to the grave. The fact that all four accounts have only women at the grave means that it must be true. They wrote it down that way because that’s the way it happened. It can’t be a legend.
One last point on the truth of the resurrection. Modern critics today say that ancient people were much more disposed to miracles. Today we are scientific; we know miracles can’t happen. Back then they were superstitious.
The problem is that this doesn’t square with the facts. Nobody was expecting a resurrection.
Jesus had made it quite clear that he intended to rise from the dead on the third day. Mark, who does not usually say things more than once, has this three time. Chapter 8: “I will be rejected by the elders, suffer many things and be killed. On the third day I will rise.” Chapter nine, I will rise from the dead. Chapter 10. I will rise on the third day. He could not have been more clear.
But come the third day, nobody was expecting the resurrection. The men were nowhere to be found. The only ones there were women, and they were carrying spices which they had just bought to anoint the dead body against the stench.
Don’t you think someone would have remembered Jesus saying something about the third day? Don’t you think they’d be interested to see what might happen? “Hey Andrew, where’d you put those lawnchairs? Let’s go down to the grave and see what happens on the third day.”
The point is nobody is expecting this. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is completely off their radar. The women, even when the angel tells them that he has risen, just as he said he would, don’t leave the tomb jumping and shouting and happy. They leave bewildered and confused. They have no idea what to think.
Why did Mark write this account like this? Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ was as inconceivable for them on that day as it is for modern people today.
But they eventually did believe it. They were convinced by Jesus Himself after 40 days of resurrection appearances that He was alive, and they went out and died for it, and they went out and spread the Christian faith all throughout the known world. They courageously changed their lives because they were convinced of the facts. Are you courageous enough to do the same?
If you not a believer in the resurrection, then you must account for the birth and spread of the church. And you must account for the belief and the unexpected change in the lives of the early followers.
If you are a believer in the resurrection, then you must follow Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You can’t pick and choose among his teachings. If the resurrection happened, you have to believe everything He said.
So there is a word of truth. He has risen.
There is also a word of grace. The angel told the women, “Go tell his disciples, and Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.”
How is this a word of grace? Because He does not condemn them. Notice he does not say, “go tell those good for nothing, faithless cowards that I might see them in Galilee if they’re lucky.” They had all run from Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. None of them believed him when he told them he would rise from the dead. They would expect a tongue lashing at least. But what they get instead is grace.
Our view of a relationship with God is that we have to measure up. If we repent and behave, He might accept us.
But Jesus’ view is that He loves us already, even though we don’t measure up.
We think our repentance causes the grace of God.
But God’s grace comes to us even before we repent. “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” His grace and favor, freely given and deeply realized, bring us to repentance and love and devotion for God.
John Piper says imagine you and a friend were walking down a road talking about your friendship. Two thugs jump you and grab your friend. You take off, running for your life. The next day, you see your friend coming towards you on the road, with stitches and bumps on his face and a broken arm. And before you can say anything, he just hugs you with his good arm and says, “I’m so glad to see you my friend. I am so glad you’re OK.”
Wouldn’t that break your heart? Free grace always breaks our hearts.
The greatest grace He reserves for Peter. He says “tell the disciples, and Peter.” Why Peter? Because Peter was the one who denied him the most. He was the biggest failure. Peter was so convinced he had permanently ruined his relationship with Jesus that he might not even show up back in Galilee. Jesus had to specify – my grace extends to even Peter.
Precisely because Peter failed God the most, he was forgiven the most. And because he was forgiven the most, his repentance would be the deepest. And his leadership would be the most profound.
The world says the strongest person is the best leader. The ones who fail will never lead. Failure is disqualification. Repentance is weakness.
But Christianity says salvation is received when you admit you’re a failure. Repentance does not restrict, but enhances the flow of God in your life.
If you have been a failure. If you are a failure, and you let it drive you deeper into the gospel of grace, you will feel your forgiveness the most profoundly, you will live the rest of your life most humbly, you will respond to God and even your enemies most lovingly, and you will become great.
One last thought. He said “I will meet you in Galilee.” Why? Why not just meet them there in Jerusalem and convince them there that he was alive?
Galilee was back home. It was 100 miles away. And the journey of that 100 miles was in anticipation of meeting Jesus. They had to walk that road with a question in their minds. Will He really be there? Is He really going to forgive us? They had to make themselves go.
But when they got there they found he was already there, with all His love, all His forgiveness and all His power. Just as he said.
How do you experience God’s working in your life. By going right back to Galilee: your home, your office, your school. That impossible situation. That unbearable person. That thankless marriage. You go to Galilee, and there you will find Jesus Christ at work.
What did those early preachers of Christianity say to the world? It wasn’t “Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, but his inspiring life gave us a new hope, a positive outlook, and hope for the future. So rise and conquer!
It wasn’t that at all. It was Jesus Christ has risen from the grave. And He loves you, forgives you, and accepts you. You have no enemy that can defeat you. So rise, be strong, be courageous. You have received an eternal inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Amen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FOR FURTHER STUDY
English, Donald, The Message of Mark ((IVP)
Keller, Tim, The Reason for God, (Dutton: 2008)
Piper, John, Bible study on Matt. 6:26-32, www.desiringgod.org
VanderVaart, Richard, sermon and study notes “Putting the Pieces Together”
www.crcna.orgWright, NT, Mark for Everyone (SPCK: 2001)
Wright, NT, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Fortress: 2003)
