FIVE POWERFUL WORDS: RISEN
MARK 16:1-8
Introduction
Welcome, everyone, to Resurrection Sunday. For the month of March we have been looking at five powerful words from the last week of the life of Jesus: Rejection, Love, Remember, Forsaken, and today RISEN.
Our text opens with the women going to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus with spices. The women seek to perform one last act of service to the Lord the loved.
Wright: “They were not going in order to witness Jesus’ resurrection. They had no idea any such thing was even
thinkable. They were going to complete the primary burial. …They got the shock of their lives.”
Mark 16:6 “…You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.”
Today we celebrate the greatest news the world has ever heard: The Tomb is Empty!
This is the theme of the preaching of the Apostles (Acts 4:33 "And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.")
The weekly remembrance of the Early Church as they communed together.
The theme of the Gospel is that “[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead … For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:4, 16)
Other than Jesus, there was one other main character of Mark’s Gospel. His name was Simon, but Jesus gave him a new name (Mark 3:15), Peter - which means Rock.
1. Peter’s Story in the Gospel of Mark
Peter was outspoken, impulsive, open, a man of action. Many scholars believe that Mark’s Gospel is an account of the preaching and teaching of Peter. Most believe that Mark is the earliest of the Gospels and that Matthew and Luke would have had a copy of it. They follow the same sequence of events.
It is important to see Peter’s role in the Gospel of Mark. He shows up in our text for today, in the resurrection account.
Peter was an inner circle friend of Jesus, along with James and John. These three were allowed to come into the room when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Mark 5:37) These three who had the holy privilege of seeing the transfiguration in person and observing Jesus having a conversation with Moses and Elijah (Mark 9).
In a discussion about the identity of Jesus, it was Peter who confessed, “You are the Christ.” (Mark 8:29). But a few verses later Peter was bold enough to rebuke Jesus about his revelation that he would suffer and be killed. Jesus spoke back sharply, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Mark 8:33)
Proclaimed Loyalty when Jesus revealed that they would all fall away. Mark 14:29-31 Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you…”
Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to with him into the Garden of Gethsemane in that moment of intense prayer before his arrest, Mark 14:37-39 “…he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” That was a prophetic.
Denied Jesus. As Jesus was arrested, Peter follows from afar. When he is questioned about his connection to Jesus, and after two denials, “… he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, ‘I do not know this man of whom you speak.’ And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.” Mark 14:69-72
The painful events of the cross are near the end of Mark, but not the end of the story.
2. The Great News: The Tomb is Empty (Mark 16:1-6)
Mark 16:1-6
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.
The resurrection demonstrates that Jesus is a living presence! His body was not in the grave. He was seen by many witnesses after the resurrection. Acts 2:24 "God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it."
The resurrection demonstrates that the power of Death is stripped away! “The powers of darkness are losing their stranglehold as the power of death is stripped away.” (Bookout) Romans 6:9 says, "We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him."
The resurrection gives us the assurance of HOPE! “The Disgrace and decay of death are turned into the glory of new life in Christ. In a world of resurrection there is always hope.” (Bookout) 2 Corinthians 4:14 “Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence." 1 Corinthians 6:14 “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.”
The resurrection of Jesus is our confession. Romans 10:9 “…If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
3. Tell Peter
Peter doesn’t appear again in Mark’s Gospel until almost the very end. (Mark 16:7-8 "But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.")
Barclay: "How that message must have cheered Peter’s heart when he received it! He must have been tortured with the memory of his disloyalty, and suddenly there came a special message for him. … Jesus was far more eager to comfort the penitent sinner than to punish the sin.”
Tell Peter … those words open up the door to sinners and failures, people who fall short and can’t get it together, all the ragamuffins - all of us. Jesus doesn’t reject or leave us behind - He invites us to continue on along with him.
Peter would later write:
1 Peter 1:20 “…God … raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
(Our hope is in the resurrected Jesus!)
1 Peter 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…”
(our inheritance is promised through the resurrected Jesus.)
1 Peter 3:21-22 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
(Our response is to the resurrected Jesus!)
Our baptism is a re-enactment of the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus! Colossians 2:12 “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Peter never again failed to confess Jesus in his life!
Conclusion
Mark ends abruptly, leaving us with a sense of an unfinished story.
“In one sense this unfinished story puts the ball in the reader’s court. It puts us to work; we must decide how the story should come out.” (Williamson)
How will the story end for you today? Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! His presence, your hope!
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Questions For Discussion
1. Mark is as brief with the account of the resurrection as he is with most everything else he has reported. He introduces some women who came to the tomb of Jesus. What was their aim in coming there and what were their concerns? What is the purpose of the spices? How does their action reveal how they feel about Jesus? Why do you think the “young man” says “do not be alarmed” - because he is an angel or because Jesus’ body is not present?
2. Sometimes “Easter” celebrations can neglect to be concerned with the resurrection. What, to you personally, is the most important aspect of the resurrection of Jesus? How important is the resurrection to your life of faith?
3. What are some things that would have been a reality for us today if Jesus had not risen from the dead? (1 Corinthians 15:14)
4. How is the resurrection connected to our initial steps of being baptized? (Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21) Since Paul and Peter connect the resurrection to baptism, what do you gather about this step of faith?
5. Mark ends abruptly at verse 8. Most scholars agree that verse 9 through the rest of the chapter was added later (the earliest manuscripts do not have this section and the language is much different than the rest of Mark.) Travis Bookout wrote, “That unsatisfying conclusion is where our earliest copies of the Gospel of Mark end. Mark ends with fear, silence, ambiguity, and more questions.” What do you make of that? How does that fit in with the book of Mark as a whole?
6. As we conclude Mark, was there anything that stood out to you as we read through His account of the life of Jesus?
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Resources
Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Mark (Revised). Westminster, 1975.
Bookout, Travis J. Cruciform Christ: 52 Reflections on the Gospel of Mark. Cypress Press, 2022.
Williamson, Lamar Jr. Interpretation Series: Mark. John Knox, 1983.
Wright, N. T. Mark For Everyone, 20th Ann. Ed. Westminster, 2024.
