Mark 16:1-8 – The Empty Tomb
Milton Berle once told a story about hope. Four widows are playing cards in the retirement home they lived in. A good-looking older fellow walks in, bags under each arm. "What’s a good-looking man like you doing here?" one asks.
"I’m moving in," he says.
"Oh," says another. "Where ya from?"
"I’ve been in the can the last fifteen years."
"The can?" they ask.
"Yeah, the can, the clink, the slammer, the state penitentiary."
"Oh," says one. "What did you do?"
"I murdered my wife. I cut her up and buried her in the back yard."
There’s a long pause, and then one of them pipes up: "Oh, so you’re single!"
Sometimes hope runs contrary to common sense. Sometimes holding out hope is silly. You know, some would look at our faith and see a useless hope. To hope in Jesus, to hope in forgiveness, to hope in an empty tomb is useless and silly.
But today I want to show you how it really does make sense to hope in an empty tomb. As we continue to look at the FEAT of Easter, the greatest FEAT of them all, the Resurrection, we come to the letter E – the Empty Tomb. Let’s read from Mark 16:1-8.
Now, this is only one of the versions of the Resurrection. The different writers emphasize different parts and different people within the actual occurrence. I’ll try to synthesize the different elements into one accurate re-telling the events of that 1st Easter morning.
The women – Mary the mother of James, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Salome, and others – went to the tomb early Sunday morning. They went to anoint Jesus’ body with perfumes and spices. Although they saw from a distance Joseph of Arimathea taking Jesus’ body, perhaps they did not know that Joseph himself prepared Jesus’ body. Or perhaps they wanted to do one last act of service themselves. Either way, they went to say goodbye to their loved leader.
But there was a problem: who would move the stone? The stone weighed 2000 lbs. That would be a problem. But when they got there, they found that it was already moved. Apparently they didn’t feel the earthquake, when an angel rolled back the stone. Well, the guards posted at the tomb sure felt it – and saw the angel too. The angel just plopped down on the stone, and the guards passed out because of fear and shock.
So, by the time the women got there, the grave was open and empty, and the guards were unconscious nearby. The women entered the tomb. Suddenly the angel appeared, along with another one, sitting where Jesus had been. They stood up and said, “Don’t be afraid or alarmed. I know you’re looking for Jesus, who was crucified. But why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here – He’s risen! Remember the words He spoke when He was with you in Galilee? He said He would be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, but would rise again. Come and see where He was. Now, hurry – go tell His disciples, and especially Peter, that they will see Him in Galilee.”
So they women ran out, trembling, bewildered, confused and afraid. They said nothing to anyone until they reached the place where the disciples were staying. They told them the good news, with Mary Magdalene singling out Peter. Peter and John both ran to the tomb, and just found the strips of linen that Jesus had been wrapped in, which were neatly folded. They both went away confused, but John knew there was something. He thought, just perhaps, that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Eventually Mary Magdalene trickled back to the scene. Peter and John didn’t stop to let her know what they had figured out. She went into the tomb again, and saw the 2 angels again. They asked why she was crying. She said that she didn’t know where Jesus had been taken. Suddenly Jesus appeared behind her, even though she didn’t recognize Him. He spoke her name, and she knew that Jesus was alive. She ran back to tell the good news. Meanwhile, the other women came back to the tomb also. Jesus appeared to them as well.
And the events kept happening. Jesus appeared to Peter that day, as well as to 2 disciples on the road, and to 10 disciples that evening. Virtually every one of His followers by nighttime knew about the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus.
Now, you see, that this all depends on the empty tomb. This would all be unbelievable if the tomb were not empty. If Jesus had still been in the grave, the Easter Sunday events would have been very different. So would our lives. Our faith rests very much on the empty tomb. Without the empty tomb, our faith would be useless. Writer Paul Althus said, “The resurrection proclamation could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as fact.” So, can an intelligent, thinking, rational person believe that the tomb was empty? Can you be intelligent and a Christian? Can a thinking person be a Christian? Yes, absolutely. We can believe in an empty tomb.
Well, the tomb that Jesus was placed in were not empty, what other explanations are there? 1) The women went to the wrong tomb. Jesus wasn’t there because He had never been there. An interesting theory. But full of flaws.
A) The women knew where the tomb was because they had seen Joseph put Jesus in it.
B) The men went to the wrong tomb too. That many people getting it wrong seems a little far-fetched.
C) It wasn’t a public cemetery. It was a private burial plot. There were no other graves around to get it mixed up with.
D) Somebody would have proven them wrong. Joseph of Arimathea might have. But even if he hadn’t, the chief priests certainly knew where Jesus was buried. They made sure Pilate posted a guard there. They would have proven the disciples wrong if they could have. No, most assuredly, everyone went to the right tomb and found it empty.
What other explanation then? What about “somebody stole the body”? Well, who? Who would have stolen the body?
A) The priests? Well, they didn’t want the disciples to steal the body. They didn’t want to make Jesus a martyr AND a hero. If they had stolen the body, they would have produced it again soon, to shut all the Christians up. They had no idea where the body was. No, the priests would not have stolen the body.
B) The Romans? No, of course not. Stealing the body was about to produce a great amount of unrest in the country. The Romans wanted peace at all costs. They would not have done anything to rile up the people more.
C) The disciples? Well, at first thought this sounds rational. But it’s not. To know that Jesus was not alive, but did indeed die, would be party to a great lie. And all the disciples either died or suffered for their faith. Let me ask you: would you suffer or die for something that you knew were a lie? People die for lies every day. But, if they KNEW it were a lie, they likely wouldn’t. The disciples would not have died for what they knew was a conspiracy or lie. Nobody stole the body. Nobody had any reason to.
Hmm – we’re running out of other explanations. A common argument people have is that the Bible was all made up – all fictional. Since the whole thing is just a lie, one is not compelled in any way to believe the resurrection story. This is a fairly ignorant position. Believing, or rather not believing, simply because one does not want to consider other viewpoints is not intelligent, and is as guilty of bias as Christians get accused of. The overwhelming Biblical and extra-biblical evidence that a guy named Jesus really lived and died is impossible to ignore. And then we are left with the question “what happened to him, then?”
There is plenty more evidence to believe in the empty tomb. 1) Jesus said it would happen. He spoke several times of rising from the dead. 2) Something happened to the guards. They weren’t beaten up. They could have held up against that. No, they fainted. Sleeping on the job would cost them their lobs and their lives. They would not have done that. So what caused them to faint? The angel who rolled the stone away. 3) The Jewish leaders didn’t fight back against it. In fact, their silence speaks as loudly as the sermons of the new believers. The Jewish leaders didn’t try to prove them wrong because they couldn’t. There was nothing they could say. So, they tried to use bullying. That didn’t work either. They said nothing because there was nothing to say. They couldn’t un-prove the empty tomb.
And neither can the world today. They would love to prove us wrong. But they can’t. The empty tomb is a reality. And because of that, we have a hope. Jesus defeated the grave, and all who trust in Christ will too. The grave is not the end. It shows that Jesus is alone worthy of our worship. It shows that no matter how big a problem is in our lives, God can make a way through it. It shows that death is now a toothless dog, scary but unable to really hurt us. It shows that we can trust God for whatever comes into our lives. It shows that we can take Him at His word.
Folks, the resurrection is not just wishful thinking. It is absolutely essential. Romans 4:24 says that He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. That is, we are made right with God because of the empty tomb, because Jesus was raised. In fact, our salvation depends upon this fact, and our faith in it. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Writer Jim Kane said this: “I would suggest this day that the empty tomb represents an emptied, not empty heart and life. The stone represents the sin that blocks the heart and life from being liberated and freed from the darkness that it contains. God, through Christ, has rolled that stone away! Freedom is possible and we remember this day and give thanks.”
We have freedom. We have forgiveness. Let us rejoice in the empty tomb, and in the life that it brings.
