The Resurrection of Our Lord

The Resurrection of Our Lord (B)

March 31, 2024

Text: Mark 16:1-8

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

            “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:3; ESV).  Who, indeed?  Death is the last great enemy to be defeated (1 Cor. 15:26).  Our graveyards are marked by stones.  And it is the stone that seals the tomb.  Like the great stone sealing Daniel in the lions’ den, like the stone vaults enclosing our remains, the stone of death shuts us in.

            We know that stone.  We know the darkness its shadow brings.  We know the crushing weight of it.  Mourning.  Grief.  Loved ones taken from us all too soon.  Disease.  Tragedy.  War.  Terror.  “(I)n the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17).  So our first parents were told in the Garden.  But take, they did, and ate the fruit.  Eve first, at the serpent’s prompting.  And then she told Adam, and Adam believed her sermon, rather than God’s.  And so, here we are, in our own mortality.  Sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  Naked and ashamed and fleeing God.  But knowing justice will get us in the end.  The stone is very large, and we cannot move it.  Who will roll the stone away?

            But look up, now, with the spice-laden women, Mary, and Mary, and Salome, these three.  Peel your eyes away from your own navel.  Look up!  Look up, and what do you see?  The stone has already been rolled back!  And then, what appears as you look inside?  Not a corpse, as you, and they, supposed.  But a young man, sitting on the right side, robed in white, and I’m certain he is smirking.  And now, listen up!  What do you hear?  A sermon!  Proclamation!  This man is a preacher.  An angel from heaven, sent from on high. 

            What does he preach?  The death and resurrection of Jesus for you, and the end of all your fear.  “Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen; he is not here.  See the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6).  If Christ has died, your sins are forgiven.  If Christ is risen, then you, too, shall live.  Now, “go, tell his disciples and Peter” (v. 7).  The women are the first to see and tell.  They are the Church.  They are undoing old Eve’s telling to old Adam.  They bring a better Word to the men huddled in fear.  Jesus lives.  The stone has been rolled away.  He goes before you into Galilee.  There you will see Him, just as He told you.  And you will be sent to the whole world.  The Apostles are the pastors.  They are to preach this to all who will hear.  Church and Ministry; confessing and preaching.  And in the day you hear of it, and believe the good news, you shall surely live.

            Now, the first thing the women do is flee the tomb in trembling and astonishment.  Their first instinct is to tell no one anything (v. 8).  And, no wonder.  We know from the other Gospels, the disciples dismiss them as telling idle tales.  And anyway, can this possibly be true?  Dead men don’t rise… do they?  And Mark, in this text, leaves us without a resurrection appearance.  I think he does that, by the way, as a nod to us.  We know the Apostles, and before them, Mary Magdalene, are given to see the risen Lord.  But we are not.  Not with our eyes.  At least, not yet, not this side of the gravestone.  We can only see the absence of a corpse.  But we are given to hear the angel’s sermon.  Yes, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified for your sins, the perfect Sacrifice of Atonement, the very Lamb of God.  But if you are looking for Him in a crypt, your search will be in vain.  That is not where He is!  He is risen, as He said.  And that is your righteousness and life.  So, trust not what your eyes may, or may not see.  Trust your ears as the Spirit gives you to hear the Gospel of life, that casts out fear. 

            And now, you don’t need to flee in trembling and astonishment.  When your ears are filled with resurrection preaching, you, dear Church of God, may go and tell it to everyone… in all the situations where the stone looms large.  What should the Christian cry out in time of grief?  Nevertheless, Christ is risen!  Jesus, the Crucified, lives!  What should you say when lowering the body of a loved one into the ground?  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, therefore, this body shall rise!  What about when you are sick, smothered in the inevitability of your own mortality?  I know that my Redeemer lives!  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God!  My eyes shall behold Him, and not another (Job 19:25-27).  In the face of tragedy, of war and terror, confess… do not deny, but confess… Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

            Look up!  Look up, now, and what do you see?  The stone has been rolled back forever.  A new Stone reigns, the Stone the builders rejected.  This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes and ears.  Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life!  The tomb is empty.  Jesus lives!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.