Christians at the Cross: "He Isn’t Here"
(Mark 16:1-8)
Main Idea: The facts about the empty tomb become the message of hope for the realities we face in life.
How did Mark feel when he wrote the words read to you earlier? I wonder what went through his mind when he finished the words, "Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid." (15:46-47) As he began to pen his last story he had already seen its power. He was writing some thirty years after the event he is about to record. He had seen scared and cowardly followers of Jesus become flaming torches of living evidence of what the resurrected Jesus could do. He has seen the explosion of the church beginning in Jerusalem all across the western world. He is writing, scholars believe, as he accompanies Peter as he is in prison in Rome. Now he takes his pen and writes eight verses that are the source for all that his world had seen since that Sunday morning. I just wonder how he felt.
What fascinates me is the simplicity of the record. It is simply the facts. There are no elaborate explanations, no scientific discussions of metaphysics and no arguments to prove what he wrote really happened. He writes what we call eight verses and then stops. His comments are so brief and abrupt that the rest of Mark 16:9-20 scholars believe that the early church, most likely in the 2nd century, felt they needed to add more to it. Yet there it is—stark, simple, clean—facts about the resurrection of Jesus. Through the voice of the young man dressed in white he simply says, "He isn’t here! He has risen from the dead!"
This morning I want us to meet once again the facts about the resurrection of Jesus. I’m not going to give you so much evidence that proves Jesus rose again. There are plenty of resources that can do that. I want to move you beyond defending the resurrection to hear the message of hope for the realities we face in life. Too often we come to the story of the resurrection of Jesus and say, "Well Easter is about the assurance that all Christians will live again after they die." There is truth in that but I don’t believe that was the central message of the story that Mark tells.
In a conference in 2005 I heard theologian N.T. Wright make a statement about the resurrection that I have never forgotten, "We live in a world where God raised his Son from the dead." The reason it has stayed with me is that it tells me that the impact of the resurrection is for now, today! He says in recent book, "Something has happened in and through Jesus as a result of which the world is a different place, a place where heaven and earth have been joined forever. God’s future has arrived in the present." (Simply Christian, p.116) The message of the empty tomb is more about living the resurrection than it is dissecting the resurrection or even the conviction that we will go to heaven when we die. What real value is the magnificent event of God raising his Son from the dead if it is only or merely a delayed promise for when we die? I want you to understand that the facts about the empty tomb become the message of hope for the realities we face in life.
The first message of hope is that God plans the unexpected in the impossible. (Mark 16:1-4) The last thing the women expected to find was any sense of hope when they came to the grave of Jesus. If anyone had reason to be positive, it certainly wasn’t them. Now the Jewish religious leaders, they could be positive. They could celebrate—Jesus was dead, out of their way. Pilate could be relieved. It was Sunday. All of the tension of Friday was behind him. He could start a new week not having to worry about Jesus.
The women came very early that Sunday morning to do something that was for the most part irrational and strictly out of emotion. Jesus was buried on Friday afternoon. At that time (the other gospels tell us) Joseph of Arimathea wrapped his body in over 75 pounds of spices to prevent the stench of decay. The tomb had been sealed and a guard placed around it but the women came anyway to place more perfume on his body. Somewhere along the way reality hit—who will move the stone? The anointing wasn’t needed and they couldn’t move the stone. Emotion often causes us to do the most abnormal, irrational things and then we are confronted with reality that challenges our limits and our problems.
When they arrived at the tomb they got the surprise of their lives: the stone had been rolled away. They no doubt wondered if the body had been stolen by thieves or by the Jewish leaders. Where were the guards? They did not understand at the moment that what they faced was the unexplained reality of the resurrection of Jesus. They were confronted with the fact that all along God planned the unexpected in the impossible. God, who seemed to have no miracles left, saved his greatest surprise for that Sunday morning – the stone had been rolled away!
The impossible has never stood in God’s way. Whatever the reality might be that your emotions are facing God is bigger than all of them. Stones regardless of their size have never stopped him. Not then and not now. God plans the unexpected in the impossible. He plans surprises where we least expect them. God’s greatest joy is surprising us with his power. That’s a fact! If God has become to you predictable and out of touch, then walk again with the women and see that the stone has been rolled away. The resurrection of Jesus means that God is still able to do the unexpected in the impossible. It means that the places where hope seems to have died will be the places where hope truly lives. The first message of hope for the realities we face in life is that God plans the unexpected in the impossible.
There is another message of hope and that is God gives failures a second chance. (Mark 16:5-7) The women could hardly believe their eyes when they see a young man dressed in a white robe who is sitting where the body of Jesus had been. We have come to understand this as an angel. Mark says they "were shocked." Now let me explain to you what that word means in its epistemological form for our modern ears: "they were freaked out." The angel tells them, "Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body." In those few words he gives them the very message and heart of the gospel. He tells them that Jesus was alive, crucified and rose again and then offers visible proof by pointing to where his body was. As he tries to calm them down he gives them the message that would change every reality we could face in the world: "He isn’t here. He has risen from the dead." As if that were not enough, he has one more piece of information: "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." (v.7) He gives them a purpose, a direction, a reason for living the rest of their days. He tells them that they will never be in a place where God is not there already-"Jesus is going ahead of you."
Yet did you catch the one phrase that stands out: "…including Peter"? Wasn’t Peter a disciple? Wasn’t he one of the twelve? How embarrassing! Even heaven—angels—knew of the failure of Peter. Now one who announces the resurrection of Jesus announces a second chance for Peter. "Be sure and tell Peter to be there. Jesus can’t wait to see him again!" Do you remember what Peter did? On the night of Jesus’ betrayal Peter promised everyone else would deny Jesus but Peter never would. Yet not six hours later outside the house of the high priest he denies knowing Jesus three times. It was a rooster that crowed that brought back the memory of his promise and then confronted him with his betrayal. Mark says he did what we would do – he began to weep.
"…Including Peter." There are two words that give us another message of hope: God gives failures a second chance. We don’t give a lot of second chances these days. They are hard to come by. They are rarely a gift of grace. Yet a message of hope from the empty tomb is that God gives failures a second chance. This reality is all because of the angel’s words, "including Peter."
How many doors have you had slammed in your face? You thought you had it all going for you and it flopped miserably. You knew you could do a better job with a second chance but you still were fired. You knew you blew that relationship and resolved to make it right but there was no way. You have asked for forgiveness and a new start but all you get in return are words that hurt. You feel like a failure. There seems to be no way out. Then two words: "…including Peter" and we know that for all eternity and every day – God gives failures a second chance.
There is one last message of hope from the empty tomb and that is: God overcomes fear with faith (Mark 16: 8) We struggle with verse 8 because if we leave it as Mark originally wrote it, it stands so raw and dark it makes us uneasy. Listen to it again: "The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened. (v. 8) Look closely at four words – fled, trembling, bewildered, frightened. Those were the first feelings recorded about the resurrection: They were emotional wrecks. They were undone by an entire system overload. Nothing was as they expected or planned and they said nothing to anyone.
What was God going to do? I mean the first people to ever be witnesses of the empty tomb are so overcome they can’t speak. How will they tell the other disciples "and Peter"? They were given a direct command from a messenger of God and couldn’t follow through. The news of hope and life hangs in the balance around a group of women who are shocked out of their minds. What’s God going to do? Go to plan B? No, he overcomes their fear with faith.
The other gospels tell us how he did it:
Their fear that it wasn’t true was overcome when he gave them something to believe! God overcomes fear with faith. While Mark ends with their being silent and frightened they did not stay afraid nor did they stay quiet!
Of what are you afraid? Growing old? Being young? Choosing wrong? Being sick? Someone dying? Someone living? Someone leaving? When we are overwhelmed with fear Jesus is anxious to give us faith. Just when the cold hard fact of reality begins to sink in that’s when the truth of Jesus’ power starts rising to the top. It’s amazing—the moment our fear seems to have us by the throat the presence of Jesus is ready to take us by the hand.
The message of hope for the realities we face in life is that God overcomes fear with faith. You can’t pretend the fears aren’t there. It will do you no good to hide. Fears can only be faced. When they are faced they are drained of their power. It’s there for you to start listening for his words: "Don’t be alarmed!"
The doctor said, "If you are a believer in miracles, this would be one." The doctor was talking about Alcides Moreno. By every law of physics and medicine, Moreno should have died. Moreno was a window washer in Manhattan. He rode platforms with his brother Edgar high into the sky to wash skyscrapers. On December 7, 2007, catastrophe struck the Moreno family. As the brothers worked on the 47th story of a high rise, their platform collapsed, and Alcides and Edgar fell from the sky. Alcides Moreno didn't have anything amazing happen like you see in the movies; he fell the entire 47 stories to the pavement below. As would be expected, his brother Edgar died from the fall, but somehow Alcides did not. He lived. For two weeks he hung on to life by a thread. Then, on Christmas Day, he spoke and reached out to touch his nurse's face. One month later, the doctors were saying that he would probably walk again someday. (Craig Brian Larson, editor of PreachingToday.com; source: "It Wasn't All Bad," The Week (1-18-08), p. 4)
The doctor said, "If you are a believer in miracles, this would be one." What Alcides Moreno experienced was the unexpected in the impossible, given a second chance and all of his fears overcome by something humans are unable to explain. Today we come once again to face an empty tomb and find the message of hope for all the realities we face in life. All gathered in the words, "He isn’t here!" We find that God does the unexpected in the middle of the impossible, gives failures like us second chances and is willing to disregard our fear and swallow it with faith. The fact of Jesus rising from the dead and the reality of an empty tomb releases a world full of new potential and possibilities for every one of us right now! All of that hope gathered in the words, "He isn’t here!" Today, because of that one reality, you can never face a problem that the risen Christ isn’t already there. If you are a believer in miracles, this would be one! "He isn’t here! He has risen from the dead!"
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Jonesboro, Arkansas
btippit@fbcjonesboro.org