MPC, 15th April 2001.Mark 15:40-16:8 "Resurrection Raises the Tension"
Maurie Cropper MPC, 15th April 2001.
Not long after I became a Christian, I attended the North Sydney TAFE College for a year studying for the High School Certificate. It was in my English class that I was introduced to the 17th century writings of the poet John Donne. Over the years since a number of his poems have had a profound impact on me. One of them is from his collection of Divine Sonnets called: "Death be not proud".
In the poem Donne addresses Death in a one-sided conversation, ...telling Death that it has nothing to be proud of or to boast about, ...and in one part mocks Death as a slave to everyone, ...from kings to desperate men. Death doesn't even have a choice of the company it keeps.
And as if to have one final sling at Death, ...Donne concludes the poem with these words:
"One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."
When writing to the church in Corinth about matters to do with the resurrection, the Apostle Paul quoting from the Old Testament book of Hosea comes to a similar conclusion as did John Donne. Paul writes: 15:54b "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?" ....and concludes: 15:57 "...thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ".
But not everyone agrees with the Apostle Paul or John Donne.
In his article titled: "Why I Don't Buy the Resurrection Story (2000)", Richard Carrier suggests that "the evidence casts suspicion on the event being a true resurrection" ..and having raised a question about "the odds of [it being] trickery", follows it up with the comment: "And it is in the nature of trickery for the evidence [that being Jesus' body] to be buried".
Richard Carrier is not alone in not accepting the resurrection of Jesus. Listen to some of these theories. Some of you might have heard them before.
The Wrong Tomb Theory. The proponents of this thought suggest that due to the emotional condition of the women and that "early in the morning" suggests it was still dark, ...that the women visited the wrong tomb.
The Hallucination Theory. This theory holds that the resurrection of Jesus just occurred in the minds' of the women and the disciples.
And then there's The Swoon Theory. Which suggests that Jesus never died on the Cross but merely passed out and was mistakenly dead. After three days in a cool tomb he came to, exited the tomb, and appeared to his disciples who believed he had risen from the dead.
And we've all heard of the Stolen Body Theory, sometimes spoken of as the The Soldiers Fell Asleep Theory,.... which changes according to who is supposed to have stolen the body. The disciples? Other followers? The Jewish authorities? The Roman authorities?
All of these 'theories' have huge flaws in them. Yet so many people want to believe them! They want to believe anything but the literal account that Mark has recorded here in chapter 16:6 "He is not here. He has risen!"
The Apostle Paul knew of the importance of trusting in what you believe. Let's leave Mark for a moment, and turn to 1Corinthians 15:12. Paul has just stated his belief in the resurrection of Christ. He now declares the implications or consequences of NOT believing in any resurrection.
In essence Paul says that if Christ has not been raised then his preaching is useless, ...as is their faith. His witnessing and preaching has been a waste of time, ...in fact everything including their faith has been a waste of time, completely futile.
Pick it up at v.12
"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, OUR PREACHING IS USELESS AND SO IS YOUR FAITH. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead."
Don't misunderstand Paul. He's not saying these things in any context of doubt! He's completely convinced of the resurrection of Christ. What he's amazed at is that they would have any doubt about it! And he tells them that doubt in the resurrection carries dire consequences.
Reading from v.17
"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."
THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION ARE CENTRAL TO ONE'S FAITH IN CHRIST. There is no way that we can separate our faith from the Cross and the Resurrection. It's just not possible.
Okay, back to Mark.
Let's look a little more closely at what Mark is saying here.
Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, and sends for the Centurian to verify the story. We're told that Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Jewish Council, ...and someone who has been waiting for the coming Kingdom of God, ...offers his own burial site, a tomb, ...as a place to put the body of Jesus.
In v.46 of chapter 15 we're informed that Joseph takes the body of Jesus down from the cross, wraps it in linen that his bought, and places it in the tomb cut out of rock.
Note that Mark makes mention of the women standing by watching, just like at the crucifixion. They watch where the body of Jesus is laid, and later take spices to anoint his body. But they are alarmed at what they find.
Chapter 16 v.1
"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, 'Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?'
I mean it must have been a huge stone. But before they had time to draw straws, ...picking it up at v.4 "But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, [Mark reports] they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed."
I mean place yourself in their shoes. What would you have thought. They had seen Jesus' body placed in the tomb. They had seen the huge stone rolled across the opening. Wouldn't you be alarmed? They obviously looked alarmed. Because the 'young man' sitting inside the tomb said: v.6
"Don't be alarmed, You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified."
Yep! He's right on all counts! He knew about Jesus. He knew that he'd been crucified. He must have known that Jesus' body had been in the tomb. And yes, they were looking for him. SO WHERE IS HE?
Well what a bombshell! The women are then told that this same Jesus who was crucified, ...had died, ...had been buried, here in this very tomb, ...all before their eyes, ...HAS RISEN! HE'S NOT HERE! HE'S RISEN!
I imagine that they could have been knocked over by a feather! I mean, ...what news!
I mean being alarmed might have been an understatement on Mark's behalf!
Imagine being there. You might have thought you were in the wrong tomb. Or that you were hallucinating! Or your hopes might have risen that Jesus didn't die in the first place. Or maybe, just maybe, he's body was stolen.
BUT RISEN? Would we have had our doubts? Maybe then, but why now, ...when we have so much more detail after the event and about the event.
Let's think about that for a minute.
Jesus was a well-known figure in Israel. His burial site belonged to a prominent named member of the Jewish Council. It would have been stupid for Mark to invent a person of such prominence, and name him specifically with so many eyewitnesses. He would have been easily discredited.
Matthew even states that the chief priests invented the stolen-body story to discredit the disciples and to keep the guards out of trouble (Mth. 28:11-15).
All the Jewish or Roman authorities would have had to do to put an end to Christianity, ...right then and there, was to produce the body of Jesus.
But along with the fact of the empty tomb is that the body of Jesus was never found.
The former president of the California Trial Lawyers Association said this:
"Let's assume that the written accounts of Jesus' appearances to hundreds of people are false. I want to ask this question. With an event so well publicised, don't you think that it's reasonable that one historian, one eye-witness, one antagonist ...would have recorded for all time that they had seen Christ's body?
The silence of history is deafening when it comes to the testimony against the resurrection."
For us, we have the completed text before us. We're able to cross-reference with the other recorded accounts. And we also have the Holy Spirit to "guide us into all truth" (John 16:13).
But the women inside the tomb, even though they were encouraged not to be alarmed, and were told to go and tell the disciples including Peter that Jesus was risen and was going ahead of them into Galilee, ....they trembled in fear, and bewildered they fled from the tomb saying nothing to anyone.
So what is our approach to the resurrection? What do we do with the all this stuff?
Remember Richard Carrier? The person who was doesn't buy the Resurrection? Well I agree with one thing that he said, which was this: "Nothing can be gained from a game of make believe. We either trust what we are told, or admit we cannot trust it."
Do you stand with the likes of the Apostle Paul and John Donne? Do you trust in what the Bible tells us about the Resurrection of Jesus? Are you like the women at the end of this story, frightened and silent?
One thing is for certain, if you doubt the resurrection, you will most likely fear ever being placed in the position of having to explain it, yet alone share your faith. But our silence is wrong. The time that we live in. This time between the resurrection and when Jesus returns to share the Kingdom of God, is a time for gospel-telling, for gospel-proclaiming, for gossiping the Gospel, ...so that people everywhere can be invited to enter the Kingdom of God.
The proclamation of the Gospel began with Jesus, ...it went on the back-burner for a short while after his death, but our next sermon series in the book of Acts, beginning in May, will tell us how the Gospel, the good news of Jesus, was dramatically picked up by his followers ....and was spread to the four ends of the earth.
But for us there's no time to wait. There's no time to waste! There's no time like the very present, ...to cast aside our doubts, ...leave our fears and silence behind, ...and together tell others about the empty tomb, about the God and King that loves us. And about the risen, living Jesus!
Have you made it your mission to introduce others to Jesus?
Will you join me in that mission?
Allow me to close by drawing your attention to this week's MPC Core Value for the week, it's inside your weekly bulletin.
Maybe you could stick it on your fridge with a magnet. Nail it to the wall or paste it to your pillow, anywhere to remind you of what we as a church family see as the core of what we are on about here at Mitchy. Here it is this week's core value:
We value the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave up his life for the sins of the world,and rose from death to rule the world.
We seek to share this news!