The Happiest Of Endings Series

Introduction

A. In an old poem called “The Widow in the Bye Street,” John Masefield depicts a scene of heartbreaking agony.

1. He depicts a young man about to be executed by hanging for crimes he had committed.

2. In the crowd witnessing this fatal event was his mother.

3. As the trap door opened and the rope did its work, his mother fell to the ground lost in tears.

4. Part of the woman’s anguish, no doubt, was her memory of her past failures as a mother and her sense of shame before others.

5. But part of her anguish had to do with her future – she was now left all alone in the world – for both her husband and son were now dead.

6. As she sobbed she kept saying, “Things are broken, too broken to mend.”

B. That woman’s anguish and despair give us insight into what the disciples of Jesus must have been feeling when Jesus died that Friday afternoon.

1. When Jesus died, the hopes of so many people died with Him.

2. They had believed that He was the awaited Messiah and so they had followed and obeyed Him.

3. Just as quickly as His popularity had risen so the tide turned against Him.

4. Before they realized what was happening Rome had executed another Jewish “criminal.”

5. The Saturday after the death of Jesus must have been the darkest day the disciples had ever experienced.

6. What Rome had succeeded in breaking seemed for all the world too broken to mend.

7. But, then, as Mark tells us, the absolutely unexpected happened and one of the saddest stories turned into one with the happiest of endings.

I. The Resurrection Verified (Mark 16:1-8)

A. Mark wrote: 1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they could go and anoint him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise. 3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?” 4 Looking up, they noticed that the stone—which was very large—had been rolled away.

5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side; they were alarmed. 6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they put him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there just as he told you.’”

8 They went out and ran from the tomb, because trembling and astonishment overwhelmed them. And they said nothing to anyone, since they were afraid. (Mark 16:1-8)

B. Mark tells us that early on Sunday morning, a group of woman made their way to the tomb of Jesus to finish anointing His body.

1. As they went, they were worried about how to move the huge stone away from the entrance.

2. But when they arrived at the tomb, they noticed that their problem had already been solved – the stone had been moved away from the entrance.

3. They entered the tomb and found that it was empty, except for a young man dressed in white – the other Gospels identify the young man as an angel.

4. They were understandably alarmed, which is the very thing the young man told them not to be.

5. The angel explained to the women that Jesus who had been crucified was risen and that they were to go tell His disciples and Peter that Jesus would meet them at the place in Galilee where He had told them He would meet them.

6. The women immediately left the tomb and were astonished and overwhelmed by what they had learned.

7. Mark said that they said nothing to anyone since they were afraid, but I think what Mark meant is that they said nothing to anyone on the way home, because the other Gospel tells us that they went and found Peter and the apostles and told them what had happened at Jesus’ tomb.

C. Let’s pause and consider the fact that the tomb was empty that Resurrection morning.

1. There is no doubt that the tomb was empty and no one has ever been able to produce Jesus’ corpse.

2. The fact of the tomb was empty has been problematic for skeptics throughout time and many have tried to explain it away.

D. A book called “The Passover Plot” was written by Rabbi Schonfield in an attempt to deal with the empty tomb.

1. Schonfield put forth the argument that the disciples of Jesus stole the body and hid it.