Our Cars Need Gas
This is the fifty-seventh sermon in our series through the Gospel of Mark. One of the main things we’ve learned in Mark is that following Jesus requires change in our lives. Jesus’ first sermon went like this, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (1:15). We’ve learned that following Jesus creates a whole new understanding of life. For example, Jesus doesn’t want us to gain the world and lose our souls (8:34-37). Jesus wants us to be great by being servants (10:42-45). Jesus calls us to a radical reorienting of the way we think about everything.
The trouble is that we don’t have the resources within ourselves to do any of this. If your car doesn’t have any gas, no matter how hard you try, you’re not going to get it to start. Left to ourselves, we’re like cars without gas. We can’t start the engine of love for Jesus if our tank is empty.
But, when God fills us up with a knowledge and sight of the glory and beauty and power of Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection, all of a sudden our engine starts and we begin to make our way down the narrow road that leads to the Celestial City. When God fills us up, we find that we begin to change. We start living in new ways, thinking and acting and responding and feeling and healing in ways that we can’t explain. When the eyes of faith see God’s glory in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can’t stay the same. There’s no more business as usual.
Action and Amazement
In our text today, we’re going to meet several people who were changed by the glory of God in the work of Christ. We’re going to meet a man who, upon Jesus’ death, comes out of the closet with his faith. And we’re going to meet several women who, upon Jesus’ resurrection, are brought out of their grief and into wonder.
Our text is Mark 15:40-16:8. The main point of our text is that the death and resurrection of Jesus moves us to action and amazement. First, we’ll see Joseph of Arimathea moved to action (15:42-46). Then we’ll see a group of women moved to amazement (15:40-41, 15:47-16:8).
Joseph of Arimathea Moved to Action
In 15:42-46, Joseph of Arimathea is moved to action. John’s account of this same event will help us understand why this was such a big deal (John 19:38). Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, the group of Jewish leaders who sentenced Jesus to death. And Joseph was also a secret follower of Jesus. He wasn’t open about his faith because he feared what might happen to him.
But then something changed. Joseph went from secretly following Jesus to boldly approaching the Roman ruler who’d had Jesus killed, asking for his body. Why? Because, like the Roman centurion we met last week, he saw something supernatural, something glorious in the death of Jesus. The text doesn’t say this specifically, but it’s fair to infer that the way Jesus died changed the way Joseph lived. The darkening clouds, earthquake, people coming out of tombs, Jesus’ cries from the cross, his prayer from Psalm 22:1, and the tearing of the temple curtain from top to bottom moved Joseph who, as a member of the Council had a front row seat to all of this, to do something that no one expected (v. 43).
The way Jesus died moved Joseph to “take courage” and go talk to the man who had Jesus killed. By asking for Jesus’ body, Joseph was publicly declaring his care and love for Jesus.
We need to understand how unusual what Joseph did was. As I said two weeks ago, crucifixion wasn’t just a painful way to be put to death. It was the Roman’s way of shaming you while they killed you. But the humiliation didn’t stop when you died. Roman law said that people who were sentenced to death were forbidden burial. It was common for someone who was crucified to be left hanging on their cross until their body rotted or was eaten by scavenging birds and animals.
There’s no reason to think that this wouldn’t have been the case for Jesus. But God had a different plan. He was going to resurrect Jesus from the dead and he needed him to be buried because the Old Testament said that God would not “let (his) holy one see corruption” (Ps. 16:10). So God sends one of his secret servants to ask for Jesus’ body.
It’s interesting that Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus, is the one who goes to ask for his body. The request didn’t come from a family member or from one of the disciples, who were all hiding in fear. Rather, a man from the group of men who hated Jesus went to honor Jesus.
And he did so at great risk to himself. This is why Mark says he “took courage” in doing this (v. 43). It took courage to go to the Roman governor to ask for the body of a man executed as an enemy of Rome. It took courage because it amounted to an open confession of Joseph’s commitment to Jesus. Doing this could get him in trouble with the Romans and the Jews. But he goes anyways because the death of Jesus had apparently done something to him. He no longer cared what his colleagues thought. He was willing to sacrifice his position as a leader in the nation for the sake of the One who died for him.
Acting on Our Pain
While Jesus’ disciples were hiding, content to let their friend rot on the cross, Joseph is asking the ruler of the region if he could have Jesus’ body. His faith led him to action. What kinds of actions is the Lord leading you to take in response to his death for you? Maybe there’s something in your life that you need to address and it’s time to address it. Maybe it’s time to stop hiding your story and to finally tell someone what you’ve done and what’s been done to you. Your story is sacred – written by God. Telling it to someone is thus one of the greatest acts of faith you could pursue. Jesus’ death should move us to the action of vulnerability, to humbly seeking the restoration Jesus died to give us by opening up our life to someone else.
I mentioned this last week, and I’ll mention it again. Wounds left unaddressed will not heal themselves. We’re all wounded in some way. Are you seeking healing and help? Or are you ignoring and suppressing and acting like you’re okay when you know that you’re not okay? It is. Many of you listening to my voice right now need to talk to someone about the pain and wounds and brokenness in your life. Stop thinking about the person who you think need to do this. I’m talking to you. You need to do this.
Freedom and wholeness and help waits for you to act, to step toward telling someone your story. Who should you tell? Perhaps a trusted friend, spouse, brother or sister, pastor, or counselor. It doesn’t matter so much who. What matters is that you begin to address the pain and anger and shame that you’re carrying. Continuing to suppress it will not remove it. It will only grow.
A hymn written in the 1700’s, “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy,” summarizes God’s beckoning call, “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore; Jesus stands ready to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome God’s free bounty glorify, true belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh. Come, ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the Fall, if you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.” May the chorus be our response, “I will arise and go to Jesus, he will embrace me in his arms, in the arms of my dear Savior, O there are ten thousand charms.”
Jesus’s death means that he loves you and he stands ready to hold you and heal you and help you and forgive you and cleanse you. He wants you to “take courage” like Joseph and trust him, to forget about what it may cost you, and to boldly follow him. One of the ways you can do this is by telling someone your story. Who will you tell?
Jesus Actually Died
The main point of verses 42-46 is Joseph’s bold faith and action for Jesus’ sake. But these verses also serve as an apologetic, or defense, of Jesus’ death. You may think, “John, of course Jesus died.” Not everyone believes that. Many skeptics think that Jesus swooned or passed out on the cross and woke up in the tomb. The Quran says that Jesus didn’t die.
Jesus’ death is important because, if there’s no death, there’s no resurrection. The text makes it clear that Jesus died (vv. 44-46). There are three witnesses in these three verses that testify that Jesus was dead. Two of them, the centurion and Joseph, actually had contact with Jesus’ corpse.
The Romans crucified hundreds of thousands of people and there’s no record of anyone ever surviving a crucifixion. This is proof that what happens in chapter 16 is not resuscitation, but resurrection from the dead. All four Gospels say that Jesus was dead and buried. His lifeless corpse was prepared for burial and put in a tomb. But his tomb wasn’t his final resting place.
A Group of Women Moved to Amazement
We’ve seen Joseph of Arimathea moved to action. Next we’ll see a group of women moved to amazement (15:40-41, 47-16:8). Who are these women? Mary Magdalene was someone Jesus had healed of seven evil spirits (Lk. 8:2). Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses was most likely Jesus’ mother (Mk. 6:3). Salome was the mother of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Mt. 27:56). These were women related to Jesus or Jesus’ followers or who’d been changed by Jesus. This is why they “followed him and ministered to him” from Galilee to Jerusalem (Mk. 15:41).
Mark’s use of their personal names is meant to establish the historicity of the main events of the gospel on eyewitness testimony. These women witnessed Jesus’ death (15:40), burial (v. 47), and the empty tomb (16:1-8). Mark’s account is thus corroborated by more than one person who saw these events firsthand.
The High Place of Women in God’s Plan
Interestingly, it’s a group of women who Mark hasn’t mentioned before, rather than the disciples, who remain with Jesus until the bitter end. They may’ve been “looking on from a distance” (v. 40). But distance is better than absence. These women are models of faithful discipleship, following and ministering to Jesus, even in his death. As we saw with the centurion last week, faith is found in unlikely places. A group of obscure women, rather than the well-known Twelve, are Jesus’ most faithful followers.
The presence of these women in this part of the narrative tells us that God loves and cherishes and uses women in mighty ways. Women are made in the image of God and were used by God to do great things throughout Scripture. Women are not second-class citizens in God’s kingdom. They’re co-heirs with men of “the grace of life” (1 Pet. 3:7). At Jesus’ last and finest hour, it’s women standing by and serving and seeing. The Lord has blessed our church with many women like Mary, Mary, and Salome – godly, courageous, servant-hearted, and Jesus-loving women. May God continue to bless and use the women of our church for his glory.
It’s important to know how unusual it was for the Gospel writers to unanimously report that it was women who were the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. If Mark wanted to fabricate the resurrection story, making women the key eyewitnesses was not a good way to do it. A woman’s testimony was dismissed in court. Jewish men at that time would even thank God that he didn’t make them a woman.
Therefore, if women didn’t actually witness the empty tomb, the early church wouldn’t have written the story this way for fear of embarrassment. This means that the resurrection accounts have a high degree of reliability. It also means that God loves to use the weak to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:26-28). Those dismissed in human society are accepted and blessed and used in key roles in God’s society.
What Happened When the Women Went to the Tomb?
The text says in verse 2 that they came to the tomb “on the first day of the week,” that is Sunday, “when the sun had risen.” Why include this detail? Because Mark wants us to know that they could see where they were going. It wasn’t so dark that they mistakenly went to the wrong tomb. They “saw where he was laid” (v. 47), and saw where they were going. The events that followed can thus be trusted.
In verse 3, they wonder who’ll roll the stone away. They want to perform one last act of service for Jesus by anointing his body, but they’re anxious how they’ll get the door open. This is an indirect swipe at the cowardice of the disciples. While they’re all locked in a room hiding in fear (Jn. 20:19), the women who followed Jesus needed their help to roll the stone away from the opening of the tomb.
This is a picture of something that is sadly too common in the church: passive men who, out of fear, let women take the lead in serving Jesus. May this not be true among us! May God raise up godly, servant-hearted men courageous enough to lead in their families and their church.
Verse 4 says that the women’s problem was solved in a way they didn’t expect. Matthew’s account says that an angel from heaven came and rolled the stone back (28:2). The resurrection of Jesus is thus God’s work, not mans. The women were witnesses, not workers, of the event.
The Women Were Alarmed
Jesus was not there, an angel was, and the women didn’t know what to think. Naturally, their initial response was alarm (v. 5). The word for “alarmed” means both fear and wonder, astonishment and distress. Coming face to face with an angel, and wondering where the body of their friend and son and Savior is, produced intense emotions in these women. Like a good counselor, the first thing the angel addresses were these deep emotions that must’ve been written all over their faces. Verse 6, “Do not be alarmed.” The angel had good news for them, so he wanted them to calm down.
The angel said that Jesus was not there and that he had been raised (v. 6b). Why did he need to tell them this? Because what’d happened there wasn’t self-evident. The empty tomb didn’t immediately reveal Jesus’ resurrection. It simply raised the question, “What happened to Jesus’ body?” The empty tomb needed explanation. So God sent a messenger to tell the women what had happened.
The women came to the tomb preoccupied with death, looking for some closure. But while the women are consumed with death the Crucified One is consumed with life. “He has risen; he is not here.” These are perhaps the most astonishing words ever spoken. A dead man came back to life! The utterly impossible and even inconceivable had actually happened.
An Incredible Display of Grace
The instructions that the angel gives in verse 7 are a remarkable word of encouragement. The running away of the disciples and denial of Peter will not have the last word. Jesus isn’t done with them. In an incredible display of grace, the angel says that Jesus wants to see them again! If the risen Jesus has grace for a man like Peter, if he wants to hang out again with friends who abandoned him, then we can rest assured that he has grace for us in our failings as well. We’re no different than those disciples. And Jesus’ grace for us is no different either. One of the things he does with his resurrection power is show kindness to those who’ve failed him.
Friend, if you’re not a Christian, you may think that God is waiting for you to get your act together before he’ll love and accept you. But he’s not. He sent his Son to die for your sins and to raise from the dead so that he could meet you where you are. Will you stop hiding in your sin and shame and run out to meet him? Will you stop believing the lie that he’ll never accept you because of what you’ve done? If he has grace for these guys, he has grace for you. Put all your hope in him and run to him and run away from your sin. He stands ready to save you.
The Women Were Amazed
After encountering this angel, the women react the way any of us would’ve reacted (v. 8). The angel told them to go tell the disciples (v .7), and they will eventually. But first, because they’re so full of amazement and awe and wonder and even terror and fear, “they said nothing to anyone” (v. 8). They’re in such shock over what they’re seeing and hearing that they can’t do anything but run away in silence.
Have you ever been so afraid of something that you just started running away? That’s what happened to these women. They’ve just seen and talked to an angel who told them that Jesus – the same Jesus they saw brutally executed two days earlier, is no longer dead but is alive and wants to meet with them. How would you react? You would be freaking out!
When God steps into history and speaks or acts directly to humans, we don’t know what to do other than tremble. When the living God reveals his glory to us, our foundations are shaken. We cannot see the glory of the cross or the glory of the resurrection and leave unchanged. We must tremble. We must be alarmed. We must be so in awe that we don’t know what to say, so that we just sit there and look and listen.
Has the astonishing news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection “seized” your heart? Do you ever get lost in the wonder and amazement of what God has done for you in Jesus? Has the familiarity of this story dulled its effect in your heart?
Have you encountered the crucified and risen Jesus? If so, two things will result. You will act boldly for him. And you will be amazed by him. Action and amazement is what happens when we finally see and understand and cherish Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, may God the Father give us eyes to see, minds to understand, and hearts to cherish the work of his Son.