Mark 16:1-8 is a story about Jesus involving the discovery of the empty tomb. The empty tomb is a look backward, downward, and earthward. Its function is to show that the Jesus who died was the one who the power of God delivered from death and the grave.[1] If we are to find life beyond death, fullness beyond emptiness, light beyond darkness, and a God who speaks and acts beyond the silence, then it will be through an event in human history. The discovery of the empty grave points to that event.
No planet knows that this,
Our wayside planet, carrying land and wave,
Love and life multiplied, and pain and bliss
Bears, as chief treasure, one forsaken grave.[2]
The historicity of the account of the burial of Jesus and the discovery of the empty tomb has come under close investigation. I offer a brief paragraph. The earliest written account of the discovery of the empty tomb is in Mark 16:1-6, 8. Even if we can demonstrate that it was empty, the reason for the tomb becoming empty would not be historically certain. Nor can the historian take refuge in faith. If we take at face value the account of the gospel narratives that people saw the tomb empty, then it was not an object of faith that it was empty. Rather, this perception becomes a matter of observation, and we must trust that the early accounts are accurate at this point. I find it at least credible that the church around Jerusalem maintained the tradition of appearances occurring around the empty tomb, a tradition that would have been quite meaningful to that church, but not as persuasive to the churches to which Paul wrote in Greece.[3] For them, appearances to the leaders of the church, including him, would have far more weight. Yet, the message of the resurrection that the disciples brought back to Jerusalem could not have survived a single hour if anyone could have shown the body to be in the tomb.[4] Yet, would resurrection require an empty tomb? Impressive at first glance is the view of Herod expressed in Mark 6:14, 16, namely, that Jesus was the beheaded Baptist risen again. However, the re-embodiment of a dead person in someone else is different from an eschatological resurrection of the dead and transformation into a life that is vastly different from existence on earth.[5] Thus, the empty tomb still has its place in the story of Jesus. The trustworthiness of the historicity of the discovery of the empty tomb receives confirmation in the early Jewish polemic against the Christian message. It does not offer any suggestion that the grave of Jesus had remained untouched. To make a bold statement, the separate nature of the appearance tradition and the secondary tradition of the empty tomb makes the testimony of the early church that God raised Jesus from the dead historically very probable.[6] However, to go to the length of saying it involves proof is a step I would be unwilling to take.
1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. The women must wait until Sunday to tend the body, not because Torah prohibited them to tend dead bodies on the Sabbath,[7] but because Torah prohibited them from doing the work of rolling the stone away from the tomb. Additionally, any person who goes to the tomb and exposes himself or herself to a dead body will become ritually impure for seven days afterward.[8] This means that any man who might come with them on Sunday would render himself ritually impure for the rest of the Passover holiday. Typically, one would give up his state of ritual purity only for the death of one of his nearest kin.[9] Because the women themselves are not entitled to perform Passover sacrifices, becoming ritually impure is less of an issue for them. The women listed here differ slightly from those given in 15:40 and 15:47. These very women have been with Jesus for a long time. Two of the three women who come to the tomb on Sunday morning were among those who “saw where the body was laid” (15:47). These women observed the crucifixion “from a distance.” They were Jesus’ followers who “provided for him when he was in Galilee,” supporting and sponsoring (even financially) his ministry (15:40-41; cf. Luke 8:1-3). Unlike the disciples, the women do not “desert” Jesus (14:50), nor do they deny him (14:66-72). Instead, it seems that they are the most “faithful” of Jesus’ followers. In fact, the same word that the NRSV translates as “provided” is commonly translated as “ministered” (cf. NASB, RSV) or “served,” and echoes Mark 10:45: “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Through their service, the women are fulfilling one of the most challenging callings of discipleship. At the same time, the women do not come expecting a risen Savior. These women can give eyewitness testimony to the grim reality of Jesus' death and the burial of his body. The desire to offer his poor dead body one final act of service caused the women to return to Jesus' tomb early that morning. They planned to anoint him with spices that would mask the odor of death and decay that they already expected to find permeating the tomb. Some suggest that the burial Joseph of Arimathea gave to Jesus was to fulfill the law detailed in Deuteronomy 21:22‑23‑‑a hanged man "under God's curse" was not to remain all night on the tree where he died. This would indicate that Joseph was convinced of Jesus' criminal status and that he rushed the burial to keep the law, not out of respect for Jesus or any concern for the approaching Sabbath. Since Jesus was a criminal, his body would not rate any special attention or anointing. One would simply entomb it as quickly as possible. In this case, the women's determination to supply spices and offer him an anointing would serve to bring honor back to Jesus' name. It is also no small irony that the very focus of the women's concern, Jesus' body is exactly what they find missing from the tomb.
3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” The women are primarily concerned about the stone that blocks the tomb's entrance. The worry of the women about its weight and size emphasize to the reader the dramatic nature of the next events.
It was not supposed to be like this. Jesus was dead. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, went to the tomb where Joseph laid him. They had been waiting since his death on Friday. They were afraid. The Romans killed him, their own religious leaders wanted him dead, and one of their own number betrayed Jesus. Though Jesus was popular in Galilee, he stimulated only opposition here in Jerusalem. He was criminal in the eyes of the law. He did not receive a decent burial. So now, they are on their way to anoint the body of Jesus with the special ointments that Jewish tradition intended for a proper burial. However, they wondered how they are going to get into the tomb. The women simply want to go back to the tomb and perform their last act of love to Jesus and be on their way.
Mary Magdalene and two other women encountered a massive void when they showed up at the empty tomb. Can you imagine how empty Mary is feeling at this point? She has already suffered the crucifixion of her friend and teacher Jesus, and she is mourning his death deeply. Now she goes to his tomb to pay her respects. What does she find? Nothing. A huge cold spot. She did not know that you must pass through some empty tombs on the way to resurrection life. We know what this feels like, do we not? Each of us, at some time in life, comes face to face with a massive void, a big empty place. Too often, we are in tombs we make. We lead empty lives. We allow fear to pull us back from being all we could be. We become apathetic. We face death. We know finite living things must die, but that does not make it easy. Of course, we must die and our friends and family must die. That fact does not make it easy. Beyond our circle, however, the depth and scope of innocent suffering is immense. We live in a Good Friday sort of place, with its betrayal, desertion, and death. This life has its cross and its grief. It has its moments when the silence from God is deafening. Facing the void, emptiness, and silence of this life is an event. It happens …
• when you give your heart to someone who does not accept the gift
• when you learn a sport, practice hard and still do not make the team
• when you study and pursue a profession, only to find you hate your work
• when you create something beautiful, and discover that no one is interested
• when you try to resist a temptation, but then give in to it again and again
• when you jump to a new job, then lose it in a downsizing
• when you put money into a home, only to see your equity disappear
• when you retire from a long career, and wake up with nothing to do
• when you lose a spouse to cancer, and find yourself all alone in the world.
These are huge cold spots. Massive voids. Too often, we try to pretend that there are no massive voids in our lives, no empty places. We are all going to face some empty places in life, and we need to take them seriously. You cannot expect to step into a dream job right out of college. Most of us are going to endure a lot of heartbreak before we find a partner for life. Loss and rejection are a part of about every life story you can imagine. You must pass through some empty tombs on the way to resurrection life.
Most of us have seen roadside memorials that honor the deceased of one who has died in a highway accident. Some call them Descansos from a Spanish word meaning "to rest." In a comparable way, the women who went to the tomb to memorialize a tragic event, the crucifixion of the innocent man, Jesus of Nazareth, are part of a feeling we have not to forget the person who experienced the tragedy. To memorialize Jesus, one might go to the tomb. One might go to the place of his crucifixion. You might go to Nazareth or Bethlehem. You might go to Galilee and the place of great sermons, healings, or exorcisms. The Jewish people had a long tradition of offering such memorials. Jacob erected a memorial in Genesis 28. Joshua memorialized the crossing of the Jordan in Joshua 3-4.
4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. Note that Mark uses the passive voice to describe what the women see when they first approach the tomb. Mark can maintain tradition and avoid directly naming God or the stone‑rolling activity of God. Clearly, however, Mark suggests that God is the only one who could have moved away the stone. 5 Further, they entered the tomb, without hesitation, despite the mystery of the rolled‑ away stone. They saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side. Both his appearance and his message make it appropriate to identify this "young man" as an angelic messenger, apocalyptic literature called him an angelus interpres. Typical of such an appearance, the response of the human beings in the presence of an angel is simply that they were alarmed. 6 However, he said to them, in typical fashion for angelic visitors, the young man's first words are of reassurance “Do not be alarmed (ἐκθαμβεῖσθε). However, the rest of this angel's message reveals that he bears news from a divine source. In this angel's message lies the fulfillment and the future of the whole gospel. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, whom Jews and Romans crucified. First, the angelic message contains the Easter Good News. God has raised from the dead; he is not here. Look carefully, for there is the place they laid him. Second, the angelic message contains the first order to spread this good news: 7 Go, tell his disciples and Peter. Third, the message contains the prediction that the Resurrected One will be continually involved in the mission of the disciples: he is going ahead of you to Galilee. Fourth is the promise of a personal experience: there you will see him, just as he told you.” In Mark 14:28, Jesus had awkwardly interjected into the third passion prediction that "after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." Typically, the angelic messenger passes on this same information almost verbatim, for in Mark, events always occur just "as he told you." Since everything else Jesus had predicted came true now, including the Resurrection, there is no reason this prediction should be any different. The fact that Jesus had "told" his disciples he would meet them in Galilee after the Resurrection and that an angelic messenger now declares that in Galilee, they will meet Jesus, means that, according to Markan logic, the resurrected Jesus surely will meet the disciples in Galilee. The details of the meeting are not necessary for the prediction to be true.
It was not supposed to be like this. The followers of Jesus were in tombs of their own making. They are in hiding. Someone else might betray them. The authorities may want all the followers of Jesus dead. Their fear controlled them. Jesus had changed their lives while he was with them. Now, they wondered how to get back to their former ways of life with as minor damage as possible.
Who would roll away their stones? God took care of the stone Joseph had rolled in front of the tomb of Jesus. God took care of the tomb in which Joseph laid Jesus by raising him from the dead. Who will roll away the stone of the disciples? Who will help the disciples out of their tombs?
Mark contains his entire Easter message in the body of this heavenly messenger's words. The angels were there after the baptism of Jesus and the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. Angels ministered to him there. An angel reappears here. The angel points to the empty tomb, which was an ambiguous and contestable fact. Further, what has happened around this sepulcher is a warning against making it a primary focus of attention. The empty tomb is not the same as the resurrection. The empty tomb is not the appearance of the living, but the presupposition. The empty tomb is a sign. Christians do not believe in the empty tomb but in the living Christ. Even if the story is a legend, rejection of the legend accompanies rejection of the saga of the living Jesus. The empty tomb belongs to the Easter event as its sign.[10]
8 Therefore, they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror [τρόμος] and amazement [ἔκστασις] had seized them. Even if we come to terms with a gospel writer who does not feel the need to record any of Jesus' post‑Resurrection appearances, only the promise of their occurrence, the message in verse 8 stands as a shocker. We can understand their response to the angel with miraculous news. We can understand their confusion. Yet, what are to make of their direct disobedience to the angelic message: and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. The women had an opportunity to be the first to come out of their own tomb, and to share the good news with others. They did not do it. They stayed within their tomb. They allowed the stone to remain. Mark's abrupt ending is endearing perhaps only to biblical scholars, who relish it as rich feeding ground for endless debate, dialogue and didactics. The single most agreed upon point is that verse 8 probably is the final original words from the pen of Mark the gospel writer.
Who will help people today out of their own tombs? Who will help people today to roll away the stone that blocks their own lives?
Does anything exist beyond the doom and gloom of the tomb? If we live in a Good Friday world, the answer would be no. We do not have to dwell on doom and gloom. Doom-scrolling is the act of endlessly scrolling down news apps, Twitter, and social media, reading all the bad news. Clearly, the pandemic of 2020 has exacerbated these habits in many ways, including the fact that there is no shortage of doomsday news. The problem with this habit is that it can lead to higher stress. We think that keeping up with the latest news will lessen our anxiety, but it increases it. Doom-scrolling is an unsatisfying addiction. Instead of making us feel safer, it raises our level of fear, anxiety, and stress. The solution to doom-scrolling is to break out of the “vicious cycle of negativity. The women who approached the tomb of Jesus had every reason to experience doom and gloom. Yet, when they arrived, the stone has rolled away. The possibility of God becomes real for them.
Most of us have fears about the future, and we often focus on worst-case scenarios. This was what the women were doing as they approached the tomb, fixating on the enormous stone that they feared was going to block them from entering the tomb and anointing the body of Jesus. But fear is always worse than reality. Since God is always at work, fear is worse than reality.
If anything exists beyond the void, the emptiness, and the silence of this Good Friday world, it will be because God has acted and spoken in an event within our history. Yes, Easter has come. God rolled the stone away. God entered the tomb of Jesus. Therefore, God will enter our tomb, defeating fear, loss, sin, and death. We have our Galilee in our home, families, and places of work. A risen Lord greets us in a way that reminds us that we are no longer alone. Jesus is not here, dead in the tomb. See for yourself. Instead, he is alive in people who are showing his grace, his love, his forgiveness, his healing, and his justice. Jesus is alive and well whenever a stranger is welcomed, a child is loved, a friend is forgiven, a patient is healed, and an injustice is made right.
The hymn “Christ Is Alive!” was written by a pastor named Brian Wren for Easter Sunday 1968, just 10 days after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated. Wren wanted to acknowledge this terrible loss while also proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. “Christ is alive!” he wrote. “Let Christians sing. The cross stands empty to the sky. Let streets and homes with praises ring. Love, drowned in death, shall never die.” Yes, a terrible crime had been committed on the cross. An awful injustice had been done. But now the cross was empty, and love would never die. The hymn makes clear that the resurrection is not stuck in history, but a reality at every time. The risen Christ, says Brian Wren, is “saving, healing, here and now, and touching every place and time.” Jesus meets human suffering whenever it is experienced. In the face of today’s racism and violence, Jesus “suffers still, yet loves the more.” The hymn then ends with the good news of “justice, love and praise.” Truly, Jesus is not dead in the tomb. Instead, he is found in his followers who act with justice, love, and praise. Open your eyes, and see that Jesus is alive and well in you, and in the people around you.
As the church sings on Easter, Hallelujah! Christ is risen! Let us remember, though, that Easter is not for full people. Easter is not for the "have-it-all-together-life-is-good" people. No, Easter is for empty people. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is for those who have figured out that in this life, "full" is a fleeting feeling. The temptation is to look at such emptiness and see it as a terrible thing. The truth is that our emptiness alerts us to the fact that any experience of fullness in this life is fleeting. Genuine fullness is an eschatological act of God promised in the resurrection of Jesus. Our emptiness prepares us for fullness of eternity.
Yet, such an ending for a Gospel concerning Jesus Christ does seem odd. Scholars who wish to demonstrate that there is nothing odd or cut off about the ending of Mark use this argument about Mark's standard writing style. Still another argument in defense of Mark's abrupt ending claims that the conclusion of Mark's gospel fits neatly with the stated purpose outlined in his prologue. If the fulfillment of prophecy, fulfillment of Scripture is a constant theme in Mark, then the ending makes sense. Part of our problem with Mark's ending stems from the fact that up until verse 8, the narrative is rich in detail and careful imagery, whether with the burial or with the women. The angel's presence transforms the Markan resurrection narrative from simply an empty tomb encounter to a positive pronouncement story. Yet, the final verse leaves a gnawing feeling of incompleteness to his narrative. Mark's final words record the women's failure to meet this challenge, but they also imply to all that the invitation continues to be open to each one of us. Thus, instead of comforting the church with visions and dialogues of the risen Jesus, Mark immediately offers the church a mission challenge -- to go to Galilee and meet the risen Lord.
Due to their fear, a word that ends this gospel, the women said nothing to anyone. As faithful as the women appear to be, they seem to fail here. In a sense, they also desert Jesus. Yet, the fulfillment of the promise to the disciples does not rest upon the women speaking. The certainty of this fulfillment means that God will work through the actions of these women and the desertion of the other disciples to redeem their understanding of discipleship to match Jesus’ own more closely (cf. Mark 8:27–10:52). In one sense, it is appropriate to halt abruptly the gospel story here. If the women did not go to tell the disciples about the empty tomb and did not urge them to travel back to Galilee so that they could meet the risen Jesus there, then the good news could not spread. However, we may also understand Mark's ending as really no ending at all. The angelic messenger pronounces the good news and proclaims the promise that Jesus is "going ahead" of his disciples and that, they will see him "just as he told you."
This passage is exceptionally disturbing, particularly when read in isolation from the rest of Mark’s gospel. Rather than presenting a case for faith in response to Jesus’ resurrection, it chronicles three loyal followers of Jesus who fear, doubt, and flee.
Read against the whole vista of Mark’s gospel, however, the passage is rife with subtle allusions to prior episodes and counterintuitively encourages disciples to believe. For example, two particularly relevant passages demonstrate Mark’s adroit literary style. As with the synagogue ruler, Jesus’ disciples are not to fear (Μὴ φοβοῦ), but only believe (Mark 5:36). Mark’s artistic skill for incorporating clever theological motifs into his gospel is also apparent in Mark 10:32. In this passage, Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem. Mark’s interest, though, is not primarily in presenting a travelogue, for he states that “Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed (ἐκθαμβεῖσθε), and those who followed were afraid (ἐφοβοῦντο).”
What is Mark’s point? The disciples were previously amazed and afraid when Jesus went ahead of them on the way to Jerusalem. The women are once again alarmed (16:5, 6) and afraid (16:8) as Jesus goes ahead of them to Galilee. Just as they did not stop following him to Jerusalem, they are not to stop following him as he makes his way to Galilee. In short, believers are to follow Jesus even when they are alarmed and afraid, because he is a fearful pioneer to follow. Mark’s gospel concludes with a hopeful message because it subtly alludes to and resonates with his earlier vignettes that encourage believers to press on.
Mark has emphasized the necessity of both human and divine agency in discipleship throughout his gospel. As we see at the empty tomb, discipleship on human terms is nothing more than a dream and thus is impossible, but all things are possible with God (cf. 10:27; 14:36). With God, a crucified Messiah becomes a proclaimed reality, and a resurrected Savior is the fulfillment of a promised presence. Echoing paradoxes throughout Mark’s narrative, the presence of Jesus occurs in his absence. The proclamation of resurrection occurs in the emptiness at the emptiness and silence of the tomb. God has thrown open the door of the tomb, just as God ripped open the heavens (1:10) and tore the temple curtain (15:38). The proclamation of Easter is that any God who brings new life out of death through these open doors will also open the mouths of the witnesses to proclaim this good news. The narrative ends in fear not because the story is complete, but precisely because the proclamation of the gospel is incomplete. The appearance of Jesus in Galilee is in the future. The women will tell Peter and the disciples in the future. The risen Lord will restore Peter as a disciple, foreshadowed by the man in dazzling white particularly mentioning him from among the disciples. Indeed, even this man proclaims the presence of Jesus with them, as he bears a strong resemblance to the transfigured appearance of Jesus (16:5; cf. 9:3).
Mark does not proclaim a faith set in stone, supported by sights seen. Instead, Mark proclaims a paradox. The life and death of Jesus point to a hidden God whom the ministry of Jesus reveals in general and the resurrection in particular reveals. Even though everyone leaves unfulfilled all calls to discipleship in Mark, Jesus, who does the will of God (cf. 3:35), fulfills them. Yet, these exhortations to discipleship remain open. In Mark, just as the words of Jesus promised that he would rise from the dead on the third day, so his words to the disciples (14:28) and as a reminder, to the women (16:6), will find their fulfillment. Easter is not about the faithfulness of the disciples. Easter is about the mercy and faithfulness of God, for whom the impossible is possible, and with whom human fear and silence do not have the last word. Current paradoxes of presence in absence will one day find their resolution as this resurrection means new life from the “ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (13:27).
Implicitly, the narrative defines the presumed reader as a faithful follower of the risen Christ. The reader travels the journey with Jesus, like a disciple who understands the ways of God when others do not. Such a reader accepts the teaching of Jesus when the disciples resist. Such a reader will arrive at Jerusalem prepared to go through death with Jesus. If the reader stays with Mark to the end, the reader remains faithful to the end in a way the disciples and the women do not. Such a reader will stay awake, expecting the discovery of the tomb as empty. Yet, the abrupt ending aborts the hope that someone will proclaim the good news and cries out for a resolution to the story. The reader who has remained faithful to the end has a decision to make. Will the reader flee in silence? Alternatively, will the reader proclaim boldly despite fear and death?[11]
[1] Barth Church Dogmatics, III.2 [47.1] 453.
[2] Alice Meynell
[3] Paul Althaus (Die Wahrheit des kirchlichen Osterglaubens, p. 25)
[4] Moltmann The Way of Jesus Christ, p. 222
[5] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 357-8.
[6] Pannenberg (Jesus: God and Man, 1964, 100-106)
[7] (Mishna Shabbat 23:5).
[8] (Numbers 19:11-20).
[9] (Leviticus 21:1-3).
[10] Barth Church Dogmatics III.2 [47.1] 453.
[11] Mark as Story: An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel (Philadelphia, 1982), David Rhoads and Donald Michie.
[12] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 2, p. 359
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