Title: The Story Behind the Story
Text: Mark 16:1-8 (Matthew 28:1-10 and I Corinthians 15:12-20)
Thesis: If Christ has not been raised our faith is useless, but the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead… and because he lives, we too will live!
Introduction
Did you know that Napoleon loved to take long soaks in soapy, scented water? During one of his baths he had invited his two older brothers in so he could seek their advice while he soaked in the tub. He had already made up his mind but he asked the advice of his brothers anyway. One of the brothers was adamantly against what Napoleon planned to do, so much so that Napoleon called for his towels and enraged was trying to get out of the tub. He had one hand on the edge of the tub and was gesturing with the other toward his brother when his foot slipped and he fell back into the tub, sloshing soapy, scented water all over his equally enraged brother.
They say Napoleon began to laugh and his brothers began to laugh and Napoleon then continued to splash and splash covering his brothers with bath water… it was as if they were once again little boys splashing each other in the bath tub.
When it was over the animosity was all washed away and the issue was never spoken of again. And Napoleon sent word to Thomas Jefferson that he would sell the United States the Louisiana Territory.
Paul Harvey is famous for his broadcast segments, “The Rest of the Story.” In his this closing segment of his broadcast he would speak on a variety of subjects in which he would uncover little known facts about something that hinged on a key-element of the story which was often a famous person. And when he had completed his tale he would say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”
This morning we will not only relive the familiar resurrection story, we will also unpack a lesser known story upon which our faith hinges.
While the resurrection story ends with joy it was not a happy occasion early on. Our story begins with a long night punctuated by grief.
I. A Night too Long… Grief!
The next evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene and Salome and Mary the mother of James went and purchased burial spices to put on Jesus’ body. Early on Sunday morning, as the day was dawning they went to the tomb. Mark 16:1-2
Journalist and author Bob Greene tells the following story in his book And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Lifelong Friendship: When, during an already painful juncture in my life, my wife died, I was so numb that I felt dead myself. In the hours after her death, as our children and I tried in vain to figure out what to do next, how to get from hour to hour…
The next morning—one of those mornings when you awaken, blink to start the day, and then, a dispiriting second later, [you] realize anew what has just happened and feel the boulder press you against the earth with such weight that you fear you will never be able to get up…
The night before Mary Magdalene, Salome and Mary the Mother of James had gone to the market to buy burial spices. In the Middle East people were usually buried soon after death, usually within 24 hrs. The Jews did not normally cremate or use coffins nor did they embalm. Rather, the body was simply washed and wrapped in a cloth or bound in bands. Perfumes and spices were applied if it could be afforded. These spices would be placed next to the body and tucked between the layers of the cloth in which they wrapped the body. Their intent was to get up early, go to the cemetery and properly prepare Jesus’ body for burial by washing and wrapping the spices into the grave clothes.
It had undoubtedly been a long night and when they woke they may well have felt the boulder of grief pressing them against the earth with such weight that they feared they would never be able to get up.
Garrison Keillor said, “Grief always goes on longer than your friends expect and it is stronger than they can appreciate.”
Grief is a young widow trying to raise her three children, alone. Grief is the man so filled with shocked uncertainty and confusion that he strikes out at the nearest person. Grief is a mother walking daily to a nearby cemetery to stand quietly and alone a few minutes before going about the tasks of the day. She knows that a part of her is in the cemetery, just as part of her is in her daily work. Grief is silent, knife-like terror and sadness that comes a hundred times a day, when you start to speak to someone who is no longer there. Grief is the emptiness that comes when you eat alone after eating with another for many years. Grief is teaching yourself to go to bed without saying good night to the one who has died. Grief is the helpless wishing that things were different when you know they are not and never will be again. Grief is a whole cluster of adjustments, apprehensions, and uncertainties that strike life in its forward progress and make it difficult to redirect the energies of life. (Robert Slater, Moscow, Idaho. Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 1.)
The women who went to the cemetery that morning were in the grip of grief.
But grief was not the only emotion they were feeling. They were worried.
II. A Stone too Large… Worry!
On the way they were discussing who would roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb… Mark 16:3-4
In November of 2010, an article published in Time Magazine observed that Americans are among the world’s leaders in sleep deprivation (along with the French and Taiwanese). And the primary reason Americans can’t sleep is because we are worriers. The study found that 66% of Americans who can’t sleep are worried about money. (Meredith Melnick, "Why Americans Are Among the Most Sleepless People in the World," Time, 11-11-10)
So we are big into managing our stress. We listen to music, exercise, read, hang out, watch TV or movies two or more hours a day, we nap, play video games, pray, eat, hobby, go to church, drink, shop and smoke… and I add, in that order. (Adrienne Lewis, "How Americans Manage Stress," USA Today, 10-7-08)
Sometimes worry paralyzes us and sometimes we just get busy… we just keep going. I think that is what the women were doing that morning.
After a restless and perhaps sleepless night, the women in our story are on their way to the cemetery and as they walked “they were discussing who would roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb.” It means they were talking among themselves and they were worried about how they were going to do what they were planning to do when there was a huge stone rolled over the entrance to the tomb where Jesus had been laid.
So in addition to being in the grip of grief, they were stressed by a stone too large. Who among us has not known experiences deep grief and worried about big obstacles?
As if grief and worry were not enough, they were about to experience yet another emotion… alarm!
III. A Tomb too Empty… Alarm!
So they entered the tomb, and there sat a young man clothed in a white robe. The women were startled, but the angel said, “Don’t be afraid. You are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here! He has been raised from the dead!” Mark 16:5-7
Cemeteries are places where the remains of deceased people are buried or otherwise interred. We commonly inter our loved ones in the ground or above ground in crypts or mausoleums. And we typically mark our graves with some sort of marker.
Where and when I grew up in Iowa it was common for families to visit the graves of our loved ones on Memorial Day weekend… it was called Decoration Day so my mother would cut fresh flowers from our yard to place on the graves. We would then drive to cemeteries in Osceola, Iowa where my mother’s side of the family are buried and Kellerton, Iowa where my father’s side of the family are buried.
The places we inter our loved ones are sacred places because we believe that one day Christ will return. The bible says: “For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then together, with them, we who are alive on the earth will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:14-18
However, until then, when I go to the gravesite I expect my loved one to be there! I do not expect to find an empty hole in the ground.
Perhaps you remember the scandal at Burr Oak Cemetery in Chicago a few years ago. Cemetery employees disinterred approximately 300 graves, scattered their remains and were reselling the plots. They were caught when families came to the cemetery and discovered that their loved ones were not there. (BJ Lutz, Special Place in Hell for Grave Robbers, Chicago Tribune, July 28, 2009)
When the women arrived at the tomb where they had seen Jesus laid to rest and discovered Jesus had gone missing and in his place, found a young man dressed in white sitting in the tomb, they were alarmed.
Not only was the presence of an “angel” startling… where was Jesus’ body?
Their startled expressions did not go unnoticed and the angel immediately reassured them that though Jesus was not in the tomb he had in fact risen from the dead.
When they left that empty tomb that morning their grief and worry and alarm had given way to bewilderment!
IV. A Story too Incredible… Bewilderment!
The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered... too frightened to talk. And as they went, Jesus met them. “Greetings!” He said. And they ran to him, held his feet and worshiped him. Mark 16:8 and Matthew 28:8-1-10
When they ran from the tomb they were trembling and bewildered and too frightened to talk. Their emotions were running amok. They were amazed and puzzled and astounded and confused and stunned and dumbfounded and even befuddled. Who wouldn’t be?
They were initially alarmed and then they heard the Jesus was in fact alive, they were bewildered.
In Matthew’s account they were filled with joy and as they ran to deliver the good news to the disciples they literally bumped into Jesus and saw for themselves that Jesus was not dead but was in fact, very much alive.
Conclusion
But the story behind the story is a story of doubt. Here is the rest of the story.
Not everyone bought it! Not everyone believed Jesus had really risen from the dead.
• Some suggested that Jesus never really died…
• Islamic tradition says Jesus swooned on the cross, was revived in the tomb, and fled to Arabia where he preached Islam for forty years.
• Some suggested that Jesus’ disciples had stolen his body to perpetuate the myth of a miraculous resurrection from the dead.
• Some thought that the Jewish religious leaders or the Romans had kidnapped his body and disposed of it in some unknown place so there would be no sacred site or shrine to Jesus’ memory… think burying Osama bin Laden at sea to deny terrorists a rallying point.
• Some thought that despite the biblical record of some 11 post resurrection appearances of Christ, one in which there were 500 eye witnesses, all those people were wrong.
So the story behind the story is a story of doubt and even a desire to discredit Jesus and his followers. The story behind the story is that some of Jesus’ followers were questioning the possibility of a bodily resurrection much less the reality of Christ’s resurrection.
• Some even thought that Christianity did not need a resurrected Christ to continue as a viable movement… Jesus would simply live on as another dead prophet. And we could all just live good Christian lives and die without hope of anything more. Today we might say, “Even if Christ’s resurrection is not true, Christianity is the best way to live.”
It is the notion that Jesus need not be a risen Savior that most needs to be refuted. Our faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If there is a resurrection we have a viable and living faith and a viable and living hope of life after death… if not, we have the teaching of another dead prophet.
Just as we heard the ringing of the nails being driven at the cross, hear the ringing of the nails of truth driven into our hearts and minds this morning:
Hear the Word of God: But tell me this… since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some saying there is no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless. And we are lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that cannot be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under the condemnation of your sins.
In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished.
And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most pitiful people in the world. But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of all those who will be raised to life again! I Corinthians 15:12-20
Yes, we are deeply emotional people. We grieve. We worry. We get alarmed. We are sometimes bewildered. But we also know the deep joy and surety of hope that comes in knowing our Christ lives and because he lives, we too will live in everlasting life.
In going let us affirm together, our hope in the living Christ:
Christ Is Risen!
He Is Risen Indeed!
