Mark 16:1-8: The Empty Tomb
(1) Bible Study Questions
Discuss: You’ve finished shopping. You go to the car park with arms full of shopping to drive home, but your car is not where you thought you left it. What are the possibilities?
1. What are the alternatives to the teaching that Jesus rose from the dead?
2. Does it matter if Jesus rose from the dead? Why or why not?
3. Did Mary and her companions expect that Jesus’ body would be in the tomb? Why or why not?
4. Why do you think Mary and her companions were afraid?
Note: Contemporary Jewish sources held that women were not eligible to give witness in the law courts. If this story were a fabrication, why would the perpetrators choose witnesses who were not legally competent to give evidence?
5. Who is the young man in white? (16:5; cf. Matt 28:2-3)
6. Why is he in the account?
7. If we just had Mark’s account, what evidence do we have that Jesus rose from the dead? Do you think that is enough? Why or why not?
Note: All modern editions of the New Testament such as the NIV and ESV show Mark’s Gospel breaking off abruptly at 16:8. The last 12 verses printed in the King James Version are missing from the two oldest and most important Greek manuscripts (Vaticanus and Sinaiticus), and other important witnesses, including several Church fathers. Eusebius and Jerome say that the passage was unknown in all copies of Mark to which they had access (Edwards, Mark: Pillar, 497).
Stop and thank God for giving us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
(2) Sermon Script
Introduction
You’re in a rush. You’ve got half an hour to do the shopping. So you jump in the car and drive to the shopping centre. You park the car, do the shopping, and carry it back to the car. But when you return to the place that you think you left your car, it’s not there. All you see is an empty parking spot, but your car’s not there. What are your options?
Maybe, you’re having yourself on. You’re hallucinating. Your mind is playing tricks on you. You think you came by car, but really this time you came by bus, or walked, or hitchhiked, but you didn’t drive.
Or maybe you’ve come back to the wrong spot. Ever done that? You thought you parked on blue level, but you really parked on green level. That is inconvenient, but not fatal.
Or maybe you’ve left the handbrake off again. Your car’s gone rolling down the hill. You’ll find it in a ditch somewhere. How do I explain that to my wife? That one is slightly more fatal.
Or maybe your car has been stolen. Someone’s pinched it—those joyriding hoons who put your Tarago through its paces, or black marketeers wanting Falcon EA parts. Now it’s time to ring the insurance company and a cab, pay the excess, and get that car alarm.
While you stand there wondering what happened, an NRMA guy comes straight up to you with a real purposeful look. He just looks like he knows what happened to your car. He says:
You’re looking for your car, aren’t you? Well, it’s not here. You wouldn’t believe it, but the engine started up by itself, the headlights came on, and it just drove off. Go home. You’ll find it there.
How would you feel? Bewildered? Trembling? Is this an episode of the X-files or Ripley’s Believe it or Not? Who’s pranking me and where’s the secret hidden camera?
Of all the explanations, the NRMA man’s explanation is this least likely. I’d probably first look for my bus ticket, or look on green level, or ring the police, or look down the hill to see if I’d left the handbrake off—I’d do each of those things before I’d believe that my car just started up and took itself home.
Mark’s Mysterious Account of the Empty Tomb
We’ve just read Mark 16:1-8. Perhaps we can imagine how these women are feeling: astonished, confused, bewildered. They haven’t lost the Tarago, the ’82 Sigma, even the Commodore. They’ve lost the body of their Lord. Mark ends his story of Jesus with a mystery. Mark leaves us with a mysterious empty tomb, a mysterious explanation from mysterious messengers, and terrified women, saying nothing.
Who Were These Women?
Who were these women? We don’t know much about them. They’re not the stars of Mark’s Gospel. Mark mentions three women: Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and Joses, and Salome. Luke mentions some others (Luke 24:9-11).
We know most about Mary Magdalene. We know she led the group of women who followed Jesus.[1] We know that Jesus had rescued her by expelling seven demons from her and that she had supported Jesus and his disciples financially (Luke 8:2). This much we know for sure.
Perhaps she also was the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair (Lk 7:36-50).[2] That was a pretty risqué act in that culture. Perhaps she was the same Mary learning at Jesus’ feet while Martha did the housework (Luke 10:38-42). Perhaps she was the Mary who wept for her brother Lazarus, and then rejoiced when Jesus brought him back to life (John 11). These things we don’t know for sure, though a good case can be made for each one of those identifications.[3]
What the Women Witnessed
But we do know that she watched Jesus die. Look at Mark Chapter 15 verse 40:
Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his needs (Mark 15:40 NIV).
Mary saw Jesus nailed to the cross. She saw the land go dark from noon till three pm (Mark 15:33). She heard Jesus cry out in a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). And she saw her Lord breathe his last.
Jesus was dead. And it was getting dark. The Sabbath was coming. And Jesus’ body was left on the cross. For the Romans, this wasn’t a problem. They often left the dead bodies to rot or to get eaten by animals. And that was especially so for criminals convicted of high treason, like Jesus.
But for the Jews, this was a problem. As this verse from Deuteronomy 21 says:
If a man guilty of a capital offence is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. (Deut 21:22-23)
The disciples were God fearing Jews. They had to bury Jesus’ body before Friday night. Enter Joseph of Arimathea. Here is a secret disciple coming out of the closet. He boldly asks Pilate for Jesus’ body. He nails his colours to the mast. He is a follower of Jesus. He is prepared to be identified with Jesus, despite his shame.
What about you? Are you prepared to be identified with Jesus, to come out, so to speak, of the closet and to declare to the world, “I’m a Christian. I follow Jesus, the humiliated and crucified King. I am prepared to bear his shame. I’ll stand with him, no matter what it means.”
Jesus himself spoke these words, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 9:38).
And so Joseph of Arimathea buries Jesus, and there is Mary Magdalene, in the background, watching. Chapter 15 verses 46 and 47:
So Joseph brought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid (Mark 15:46-47).
It’s getting dark, so they go home. They rest on Saturday, the sabbath. And the next morning the woman get up early and come back. They leave while it is still dark.[4] They bring spices. John’s Gospel tells us that Joseph and Nicodemus took about 30 kilos of spices when they buried Jesus.[5] That’s the equivalent of 1 and a half bags of cement. The spices where to counteract the smell of rotting flesh. Perhaps they wanted to finish the rushed job. But they aren’t sure how they are going to move the stone. Mark 16 verse 3:
And they asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?
They hadn’t worked out what they were going to do before they left. The stone was probably large and round, running in a groove downhill which made it easy to close, for they had seen Joseph do it by himself, but harder to open (Mark 15:46).
It begs the question, “Where are the men?” I often ask this question myself about church. Where are the men? In the pub? At the football? At work? In the shed? In front of the TV? In the garden? Everywhere else, but not leading God’s people, not even meeting with God’s people, not leading their families and mates to the Lord, praying to God while he still might be found.
Because we all know men don’t need Jesus. After all, men don’t die, do they? And men don’t sin, do they? And so they don’t have to face God loaded up with their sins, do they? It is astonishing to me that the sex which statistically has the shorter life span, the greater proportion in jail for violent crime, and the higher youth suicide rate, should on the whole feel that they don’t need Jesus and God and Church.
Where are the men in this story? Where’s Peter? Where’s Andrew? Where’s John? Where’s James? There were 11 apostle’s left, weren’t there? Surely they could’ve moved the stone for the women? They were strong Galilean fishermen. Where are the men? Nowhere to be found. They’ve cleared out. They’ve done a runner. They’re in hiding. They’re waiting till the coast is clear. So the women attend to Jesus. The women get up early. The women take the risks. The women attend to the body. And they don’t know how they’re going to move the stone.
But they’re going to have bigger things to worry about. What’s a bigger worry than having to move the stone? It’s not having to move the stone. In the end, the men aren’t needed, for God was giving them bigger things to worry about. Verse 4-5:
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
As you would be, but then comes the reassurance, verse 6:
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee.’ There you will see him, just as he told you.”
Jesus’ body isn’t there. But a young man is.[6] He has an explanation for the empty tomb.
Jesus has come alive. He will meet Peter and the disciples in Galilee. Go and tell them.
What Mary Makes of the Young Man's Message
Well, what are the options for Mary Magdalene and her friends? What should they believe happened to Jesus body?
Perhaps it was all a bad dream. Perhaps she is so caught up with grief for her Lord Jesus that she is hallucinating. She thought she drove to the shops, but really she caught the bus. Well, it is possible Mary is in denial and hallucinating in the early morning. But there are also physical realities. What of the rock tomb and the stone rolled away? What of others who came later? Surely they could have told Mary to snap out of it and get a grip. We know that Thomas the doubter wasn’t easily satisfied with the word of this woman, or even all the other disciples. And Paul himself lists the people to whom Jesus appeared:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
No, hallucination doesn’t explain the first Easter morning.
Perhaps Mary and her friends have come to the wrong tomb. You know, they’ve come back to blue level when they’ve actually parked on green. It happens. Perhaps they’ve come to the wrong tomb?
This won’t cut it for Mary. This isn’t Westfields, with row upon row of identical parking spots. She would be able to pick the tomb. She saw where Joseph laid the body (Mark 15:46-47). No, Mary knows they’re at the right tomb.
Had they left the handbrake off? Did the Romans fail to kill Jesus? Maybe Jesus just passed out. Maybe he woke up in the cool of the tomb, got himself out of the grave clothes, rolled the stone away by himself, went to the local medical center to get a patch job on his head, hands, feet, and side, then escaped detection, married Mary Magdalene, had a large family, and lived to a ripe old age.
But that won’t cut if for Mary, either. Jesus’ death wasn’t whisked away from her. She didn’t just see the coffin and leave the rest to the professionals, as our culture does. She was there at the bloody execution. She saw the body hanging dead on the cross. And she went back to the funeral home to help wrap up the body. She wasn’t just Jesus’ friend, but she was his undertaker as well.
And if Roman Soldiers were good at something, they knew how to make sure someone was dead. Indeed Pilate wanted them to make sure, as shown by Mark chapter 15 verse 44-45:
Pilate was surprised to hear that [Jesus] was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. (Mark 15:44-45 NIV)
No, Mary knows Jesus is dead.
What about the young man’s explanation? You’ve got to say, it sounds great. Mary would love nothing better than have Jesus back. It fitted with what Jesus said, too. Jesus kept telling them on the way to Jerusalem: I will be killed, and I will rise three days later (e.g. Mark 10:34).
But it’s highly improbable. Dead men just don’t come alive. Mary doesn’t go for the young man’s explanation. No, what she does at first is freak out. Verse 8:
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
They got out of there. They were terrified. And they kept quiet. After all, who were they? They were just women. In that culture, women just didn’t have the vote, but they couldn’t even testify as witnesses in court.[7]
Moving Beyond Mark’s Mystery: John’s Account of Mary
And that’s how Mark ends the story. “The End!” It feels kind of unfinished, doesn’t it? Lots of Christians have thought so, and down the centuries, some people have tried to finish off Mark’s Gospel for him. That’s why our Bibles tell us at verses 9-20 that “The earliest ancient manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.” Mark’s Gospel has no resurrection appearances of the risen Jesus, just the young man’s word, “He has risen. He is not here.”
Is that enough for you? Is the word of this mysterious young man enough? Do you believe that Jesus is alive because this unknown person says so? Are you going to change your life because of this anonymous man?
You and I might, but Mary’s not going to! Mary doesn’t believe it either. At first Mary didn’t believe Jesus rose from the dead.
How do I know this? Well, I cheated. I looked up John’s Gospel. And John’s Gospel tells us that Mary and the others didn’t tell anyone for a while. But eventually Mary spoke up. John tells us she went and told Peter and John (John 20:1-2). Peter and John ran to the tomb (John 20:3-9). And Mary also went back to the tomb. This is what John tells us happened:
10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him”. (John 20:11-13)
It’s been stolen. Mary reckons someone has pinched the body. She is not naïve. She knows dead men don’t rise. The only logical explanation is that the body was stolen. But let’s read on from John’s account.
14At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus. 15“Woman”, he said, “Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking it was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means teacher). 17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.”
Mary saw. Mary held. Mary believed. For Mary, seeing is believing.
Conclusion
Well, that’s all well and good for Mary Magdalene. She gets to see and touch and believe. What about me? I don’t get to see and believe. All I’ve got is these second hand stories we find in the Bible.
At one level, that’s true. 2000 years later all of us are asked to believe without seeing. We are asked to go one better than Mary. We are asked to believe the word of the young man, that “He has risen. He is not here.”
We are asked to take Mary Magdalene’s word, “I have seen the Lord!” We are asked to take Peter’s word, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32). We are asked to take Paul’s word, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (1 Cor 15:20). We are asked, indeed, to take Jesus’ own word, “I am the living one; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever” (Rev 1:18).
We believe without seeing. But we rest on the sure word of those who did see him. Jesus’ word to us today, then, is this, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). That’s us. Or again we have Peter’s word to us, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pet 1:8-9)
Can I invite you this Easter day to believe that this man, Jesus, once dead, is now risen as the king of the universe. Realize that Jesus did not remain dead. He is risen, ascended to heaven, at the right hand of the Father, forever human in his glorious resurrected body, representing us before his Father, pleading his shed blood, even now, and now showing his Father the wounds in his hands and feet, and saying of those who trust in him, “Look not on them and their sins, but on me and the scars of the sacrifice that took their punishment.” He is risen, never to die again. And he forever lives to intercede for us, for which we thank him and his Father.
Amen.
[1] I infer this from the fact that she is listed first among the named women.
[2] Compare the second anointing at Bethany in John 12:1-11.
[3] J Wenham, Easter Enigma, 22ff argues that these were all the same Mary. S S Smalley, ‘Mary’ in J D Douglas et al (ed), New Bible Dictionary (2nd ed), 746ff argues that none of these were Mary.
[4] Wenham, Easter Enigma, 81-2.
[5] Compare John 19:39-40.
[6] Luke records two angels: Wenham, Easter Enigma, 87. This young man is apparently one of them.
[7] Lane, Mark: NICNT, 589.