Darkness covered the earth when Jesus died on Calvary; and darkness filled the hearts of his beloved disciples. The light of their very lives had gone out. As Jesus had foretold, they were as sheep without a shepherd1. Probably they cowered for fear somewhere in the city of Jerusalem. What should they do now? Where could they go?
The story is told that, on the day that Wellington of England met Napoleon at Waterloo, arrangements were made to relay the news of the outcome of the battle from one ship to another, by semaphore (visual signaling - flags, hands, smoke, etc.), across the English Channel. A group of men stood anxiously waiting on the shores of England. Suddenly, the ship closest to the shore began to signal the message. Letter by letter, the anxious men on the mainland read the words: Wellington defeated... Then a bank of fog cut off all view of the ship. Was that all? If it was, that could mean the end of England. After some anguishing moments, moments that seemed like hours to the waiting Englishmen, the fog cleared away and the signaler began his message over again: Wellington defeated ...Napoleon!
This story is a vivid illustration of the experiences of the disciples of Jesus following his death on the cross. On Calvary, the only message that the hearts of the disciples could read was: Christ defeated... But, on the first day of the week, the resurrection morning, the good news message came through: Christ defeated... death!
If the central message of the gospel could be summarized in two brief sentences, they could well be these: Christ died for our sins, and Christ has becn raised from the dead. The cross has long been recognized as the symbol of our Christian faith, but the empty tomb is no less significant. Paul summed up the matter when he wrote: And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith2.
By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead we mean that his body was lifted out of the tomb by the power of God and that he lives again. The gospel story of Jesus began with a powerful miracle: the miracle of the virgin birth, and ended with a miracle: the miracle of his bodily resurrection. This is what the New Testament clearly teaches. This is what we believe!
The resurrection of Jesus, therefore, is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. To quote Paul again: If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved3. Not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus means not to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior. And indeed, not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to have no assurance of our own resurrection from the grave.
Early on the first day of the week, when the Sabbath was over, following the crucifixion, some of the women who had ministered to Jesus in Galilee sadly made their way to the tomb of Joseph to anoint the body of their Master.
Usually the bodies of loved ones were anointed at the time of death, but there had been no opportunity for these friends of Jesus thus to honor him. Belatedly, therefore, they went forth to perform this traditional ceremony that meant so much to the Jews.
In their bereavement, the women had overlooked one very practical matter. How could they gain access to the tomb? It was the custom in those days to seal a tomb against intruders by rolling a large circular stone before the entrance. As they neared their destination, the women began to say to one another, Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?1
Their concern was needless for looking up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away2. They were greeted with the startling announcement: He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him3.
Recall that Mark probably heard much of the story of Jesus from the lips of Peter. How it must have gladdened Peter's heart to report the announcement of the angel: But go, tell his disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you4 The risen Lord wanted his disciples to hear the good hews, especially Peter.
Doubtless, the shame of his denial still haunted Peter. He wondered whether his Lord would ever forgive him for his inexcusable cowardice. Here was the answer. Of course he was forgiven; and Jesus would see him again in Galilee.
Good news is often as difficult to accept and to comprehend as is bad news. This was certainly the experience of the women at the tomb. They received the announcement from the angel with mixed emotions. Their hearts ! rejoiced at what they heard, but they were at the same time filled with fear and fled from the tomb.
The several appearances of Jesus after his resurrection are in the following chronological order (five on the first day of the week):
History and art have painted quite an ugly picture of Mary Magdalene. She had been identified with the sinful woman of the streets. All of this is sheer legend. All that we know about her is that she had been healed of demon possession, and, ever after, was devoted to the service of Jesus. Apparently, she outran the other women as they tremblingly left the tomb, and found Peter and John, who returned with her.
The two disciples saw the discarded burial clothes and ran off to tell others.1 Mary Magdalene remained to weep. While she wept, the angels asked her why she was do deeply troubled. In deep distress she answered them, They have taken my Lord away, and I don't know where they have put him.2
Then Jesus appeared in the garden of the tomb, and thinking he was the gardener, Mary repeated the same broken-hearted lament. Tenderly he called her by name. At that, she recognized him. She would have fallen at his feet and clung to him, but he said: Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.3 Leaving the garden, Mary could hardly wait to break the news indeed but, to them, it seemed too good to be true.
Later, on the same day (the first day of the week), Jesus appeared to two disciples. These are, doubtless, to be identified with the two disciples who were walking to Emmaus, which was eight miles from Jerusalem.1 They were not apostles. They belonged to the rank and file of the Lord's followers, and they were departing from Jerusalem in deep dejection believing that all was over. They had heard of the strange events of the morning: how Peter and John had found the Sepulcher empty, and how some of the women had seen a vision of angels who said that Jesus lived.
The statement in Mark 16:12 that Jesus appeared to the two men in a different form is somewhat difficult to understand. Perhaps it means that his appearance was different after the resurrection from what it was before the crucifixion. This would account for the fact that Mary Magdalene did not recognize him until he spoke to her. It would also account for the fact that Thomas was not convinced that Jesus had risen from the grave when he first saw him after the resurrection, but desired to see the nail prints in his hands and feet.
Jesus' resurrection body was a transformed, glorified body, even as the resurrection bodies of all believers will be transformed and glorified. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.2
Not recognizing Jesus at first, these two disciples fell into conversation with him and frankly confessed their disappointment in the death of Jesus oj Nazareth, He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.3
In answer, Jesus showed them that they had misread the Scriptures. The promised Messiah was not, in truth, to be a victorious earthly king. He was to be the Suffering Servant. Part of the work of the risen Christ, during the forty days between his resurrection and his ascension to the Father, was to correct the false concepts of the messianic hope that all of his followers seemed to continue to hold.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were sadly disappointed. As they saw it, God had not fulfilled his promises. Jesus therefore carefully retraced the promises of God, beginning with Moses and running through the prophets, until at last the two men were convinced. Later they gladly confessed, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?4
The other Gospel writers record two separate appearances to the apostles as a group.
On one occasion Jesus came to them when Thomas was! absent and, perhaps to assure them of his bodily resurrection, he ate with them.1
On the other occasion Thomas was present and, after Jesus granted Thomas2, the same tangible proof of his resurrection that he had previously given the others3, he said, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.4
It would seem that our present verse (14) may best be identified with our Lord's second appearance to the apostles as a group. They, like Thomas, had not been willing to accept the testimony of others concerning his resurrection. This was not good for, in all the years that were to follow, men and women would come to believe in him, not through tangible proof, not because of logic, but because of the testimony of others ~ and most of all, as we now know, because of the testimony of the Scriptures!
It was perhaps in view of all of this that Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.5 The acceptance of Jesus Christ as the risen Lord is not a matter of intellectual understanding. It is a matter of simple faith.
There are many things about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the life hereafter that the most brilliant minds will never be able to grasp. Yet, even the lowliest individual who lives may come to a knowledge of God in Christ through an act of simple faith, Lord, I believe!