He has risen! (Mark 16.1-8)

The First Day of the Week

The scene opens with the women coming to the tomb very early on the first day of the week. Nothing happens by chance in God's ordering of things. The first day of the week is the day creation began, when God said "Let there be light." And so this day — the day Jesus rose from the dead — is like the beginning of a new creation week, marking out the start of a new era for humanity.

In their eagerness and grief, the women have not stopped to think how they will get inside the tomb. They were there when they saw that massive disc-shaped stone — over a metre in diameter — being rolled down its track to seal the entrance. It was not hard to close, but it would be very difficult to open. Three women certainly could not manage it. But as they arrive, they see the stone is already rolled away. And that was not to let Jesus out — the locked doors of the upper room obviously presented no obstacle to the Lord in his resurrected body. The stone was rolled away to let the witnesses in, to see that he was gone.

Inside the tomb they find a young man dressed in a white robe — clearly an angel, a heavenly messenger. Just as Mark began his Gospel with God's messenger announcing what God is going to do in Christ, so he finishes with God's messenger announcing what God has done in Christ. The angel brings a word of assurance — "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here" — and a word of commission: "Go, tell his disciples and Peter. He is going ahead of you into Galilee."

That specific mention of Peter is wonderfully tender. Even though Peter fulfilled the terrible prophecy that he would deny the Lord, he is singled out — just in case he might feel that this did not include him. And the word "going ahead" in verse 7 is much more than just that Jesus is preceding them. It is a military term — used of a commander leading a charge, making a strategic advance that will impact the enemy. Jesus is not simply arriving first in Galilee; he is leading his people forward into battle.

Why Do the Women React as They Do?

Mark uses very strong language to describe the women's response. They were "alarmed" — a word only Mark uses in the New Testament, describing dread and terror. In spite of the angel telling them not to be alarmed, their terror builds until they flee in panic: "Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." Why?

They were surprised. These women did not come to the tomb hoping to find it empty. That was the last thing they expected. They were laden with spices to anoint the corpse of Jesus. The only reason they came on the third day was not because Jesus had predicted he would rise on the third day — it was simply the first morning after the Sabbath when they were allowed to come. They were discussing how to move the stone. The last thing in the world they expected was the stone rolled away, the tomb empty, and an angel with a personal message from God. And that detail — the women's utter surprise — argues powerfully for the truth of the resurrection. The idea that these women hallucinated, that they were so desperate to see Jesus alive that they imagined it, simply does not fit the facts. They were terrified and astonished because it was the last thing they were expecting.

The presence of the angel. Throughout the Bible, whenever people encounter angels, they are afraid. Angels are not those little cherub things floating around with baby faces. An angel is a radiant, terrifying warrior carrying a sword, an instrument of judgement. Mary, one of these women, had encountered the angel Gabriel — but that was thirty years earlier, and her response then was just the same: "Do not be afraid, Mary," Gabriel had to say, because the poor girl was out of her mind with terror.

They misunderstood the resurrection. When the angel said "He has risen," we think that is perfectly clear. But these Jewish women probably understood something quite different. When the Jews thought about resurrection, they thought of the general resurrection at the end of the world — when all the dead rise from their graves. That is exactly what Martha thought when Jesus told her "Your brother will rise again" — she replied: "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24). She completely missed that Jesus was about to raise Lazarus there and then. So when these women heard "He has risen," they presumably thought the end of the world was upon them. Imagine how we would feel if an angel appeared in church right now and said: "The second coming is taking place. Jesus is returning right now." It would be wonderful — our hearts would leap — but it would also be terrifying.

Astonishment at the mighty work of God. Mark has shown us this pattern all through his Gospel. After Jesus cast out thousands of demons from Legion, the people came and saw him sitting there — "and they were afraid." After Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples "were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this?" At the transfiguration, "they were terrified." If that is how people reacted to those other acts of power, is it any wonder that when it comes to the climax — the most powerful of all Christ's acts, his resurrection from the dead — people are terrified? This has never happened before in the history of the universe. Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. Lazarus was brought back, the widow's son at Nain was brought back — but those were resuscitations. Those people died again. Never before has anyone been raised with an imperishable, glorious, eternal body.

As one commentator puts it: "Mark's account more emphatically than any of the others underlines the mystery and awfulness of the resurrection, and warns against all attempts to sentimentalise or domesticate or reduce to the measures of our mental capacity the decisive intervention of God." Remember that line from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: "He is not a tame lion." You cannot domesticate the Lord Jesus Christ as though he were some sort of pet or pussycat. There is a very great danger of Christians losing the right sense of dread as we approach the God who is "a consuming fire." The Psalmist says: "Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling" (Psalm 2:11). Joy and trembling — together.

Why Does Mark End Here?

There is nothing worse than an unsatisfying ending to a story — you have ploughed through a book, got gripped by it, invested in the characters, and then the ending is weak and you are left hanging. That may be how we feel at verse 8. But Mark is not being clumsy. The clue may lie in his equally abrupt beginning: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1). Perhaps it is that word — beginning — that holds the key. Mark's book is just the beginning of the story. The resurrection is the end of the beginning and the start of the next stage of redemptive history.

We are left hanging because we are the next chapter. Mark has given us the beginning of the gospel, and now the church takes the story forward until Christ returns. The challenge of this ending is: what are you going to do with the news of Jesus' resurrection? Are you going to keep quiet, like these women did? It is easy to look down on them — but whenever you point the finger, four fingers are pointing back at you. How many people have you told this past week that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead?

It is like that story of the lepers outside Samaria in 2 Kings 7. The entire Syrian army had fled in the night, and these lepers were the first to discover it. They started gathering up all the spoil — and then they stopped and said to one another: "We are not doing right. This is a day of good news and we need to go and share it." If that was true of the spoils of an army, how much more true is it of the resurrection of the Son of God?

The fact that we are reading Mark's Gospel two thousand years later is proof that the women's silence was only temporary. In spite of the weakness and fear of these first witnesses, the message of the risen Christ was proclaimed — and has continued to be proclaimed ever since. The power of God is not hamstrung by human timidity. So let us go out and share this amazing good news. He has risen.

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