A sermon on Mark 16:1-8 for Easter Sunday. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

Consider where we left off on Good Friday. Jesus hung on the cross from noon to 3 o’clock. The Sabbath starts at sunset, just a few hours away. What is to be done with Jesus’ body? His closest followers up until this point have abandoned Him. So two men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who previously followed Jesus secretly, come out of the shadows and pay one last respect to their master at large personal expense. A hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, a new tomb, hewn out of the rock. And so Jesus is laid to rest for the Sabbath.

What’s next? What else is to be done? Jesus’ disciples have scattered, but the women stayed together. And they didn’t like the way the men did it, understandably so, it was a bit rushed. So as good observant Jews, they, too, rest on the Sabbath, but then as soon as they can, they make their way to the tomb. They gather the spices to anoint Him, these aromatic oils that could not have been procured on such short notice on Friday, to perform one last service of love to their Lord.

They head out to the tomb, expecting to find a dead body. But as they venture into the place of death, what they find instead is the glory of the resurrection. They receive from the angel a message of great joy, “He is risen!”

I. Venture into the Unknown

Now, of course, we know how the story ends. We know what happens. We came into today anticipating this joy. But I think it’s worthwhile to at least try to experience Easter morning as they did, to put ourselves in their shoes, to see what’s going on in their minds.

They’re heading to a tomb, a place of death, expecting to find a dead body. The women are no doubt still in shock, having witnessed the bloody spectacle on Friday, bewildered and confused, in deep grief and mourning. But they still love Jesus. They still want to honor Him. They still want to serve Him. So they make a plan to do just that, one last time.

Although there’s a lot of love and a lot of bravery in going to the tomb, the plan doesn’t seem to be very well thought out. The woman made note of where the tomb was (15:47), but they’re asking themselves on the way, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” They don’t come with a plan. They don’t come with everything figured out, they simply come with a desire to show love for Jesus. But they don’t know what to expect. They don’t know how it’s going to work. They certainly have no idea of just what they’re getting into.

And as we place ourselves into the sandals of these faithful women, we see a lot of parallels, a lot of things similar to what we experience. As they venture out to the tomb, we see a lot of the same problems that we face as we live our lives venturing into the unknown.

They had no plan for moving the stone away, it would have been impossible for them. And we have so many questions, face so many obstacles, that seem insurmountable, that we don’t really have an answer to. Who is going to roll away the stone of my debt, of my damaged relationships, of my grief? We journey through our lives not knowing what to expect, not knowing what we’re going to face, not having even a halfway decent plan.

But the bigger problem than any of these obstacles is where we’re headed. The final destination of our journey is likewise a tomb. Death is the ultimate problem, the final obstacle we will face. As the women head to the tomb not quite knowing what awaits them, so we, too, must all venture into death, the ultimate unknown. And it’s unavoidable, inevitable. Is there any solution? Or are we without a plan for the end of our lives, just as we are often left clueless as we live our lives?

II. Message of Great Joy

No matter what the women were expecting, no matter what solutions they were coming up with, the one thing they weren’t expecting was what they found. The tomb was empty. And an angel with a message of great joy. “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.”

There’s so much to unpack in this very first Easter sermon. “Jesus … who was crucified.” Why mention that? They were there, they saw it, they already think He’s dead. But the crucifixion continues. Jesus, even as He lives, is the Crucified One.

The Greek is a little hard to convey into English, another way would be, “Jesus … who has been crucified.” The verb there isn’t just referring to a past action but to something completed in the past, with continuing, ongoing effects. It’s the same verbal tense as when Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.”

The crucifixion is complete. But its effects, its value, is ongoing, continuing. Even the resurrection ties in with Jesus’ death. The crucifixion is still part of the picture, part of the equation. When Jesus died, sins are forgiven. Death is defeated. Salvation is accomplished. It is finished. Jesus’ death still has value. Still conveys that saving power.

Because Jesus, who has been crucified, is risen. Here’s another verb that’s maybe hard to convey, but it’s not talking about an ongoing state of being arisen, but to the simple fact of history. Jesus rose. The resurrection places the cross in power. It proves that the sacrifice of Jesus was accepted. Jesus said, “It is finished” when He died, and the Father said “Amen” when He rose.

The historical fact of the resurrection changes everything. It proves that Jesus’ death does what He says it does. It proves that death is powerless, that it has been defeated, because it could not hold our Lord. It proves that our sins are forgiven, that you are right with God.

The resurrection of Jesus is the answer to all of life’s unanswerable questions. The women wondered how the stone would be rolled away. An angel did to prove that the tomb was empty, to show that Jesus rose. We wonder how to navigate the difficulties of life and what awaits us when this life must end. The fact that Jesus rose and the ongoing effects of His death give us the path forward. That we do not need to be burdened by guilt because our sins are forgiven. That we do not need to be overcome by the world because Christ has overcome the world. That we do not need to fear death because we will live forever with Him.

Every word of the angel’s message is packed with Easter joy. But so is every detail earlier in our text when things seemed more gloomy. You probably just mentally skimmed by to get to the exciting bits with the angel, but Mark has been setting us up to see the unexpected. And these small details also tell us important truths.

“Now when the Sabbath was past.” What a poetic way of putting it. The Sabbath, the day of rest, has been completed. This day of physical rest for the people of Israel has been fulfilled by Christ. In His death and resurrection we have true rest, spiritual rest, all the days of our life. Jesus fulfilled the law, brought the Sabbath to completion, and gives us rest.

“On the first day of the week.” This day, Sunday, becomes the most important of days. Every Sunday we gather together to celebrate the resurrection. Every Sunday is Easter. We live in the joy of the resurrection not just one week out of the year, but every week our lives.

“When the sun had risen.” This phrase is a bit redundant, Mark already said, “Very early in the morning,” he’s trying to tell us something else here. The women came to the tomb not just when the sun had risen in the sky but when the Son of God had risen from the dead.

This odd construction and the specific words used make a connection to Malachi 4:2, “But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings.” What a beautiful description of the resurrection. The sun has risen. Light shines upon us which scatters the darkness of death. Jesus rises with healing in His wings as He cures us from the sickness of sin. Just as the rising of the sun is necessary for life on this earth, the Son rising from the dead gives us life.

Bit of an aside here, that’s why we all face east for worship. This church building is built so we face east. We face the rising Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. We worship the risen Christ who gives us life.

Mark gives us all these clues, the Sabbath completed, the risen sun, that show us what the women would encounter as they head to the tomb, expecting death. And his account climaxes with the joyous message of our crucified and risen Lord. So in this life, as we journey towards our own tombs, as we face stones that need to be rolled away, we know what awaits us ultimately and we know the hints to look for along the way. We gather on the first day of the week to celebrate the resurrection as we await our own resurrection. We receive the forgiveness of sins as we await full and final deliverance. We celebrate now in this Easter joy that Jesus, who has been crucified, rose. That because of His death, we have nothing to fear in death and that because He lives, we will live with Him. Amen.