In this powerful Easter sermon on Mark 16:1-8, we are reminded of the life-changing truth: Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Though the world believed Him dead, the empty tomb tells another story. Just as He promised, Christ conquered death and goes before us into life. Through the angel’s message and the trembling witness of the women, we are called to remember His saving work and rejoice in the hope of resurrection for you.
Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org
Transcript
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, he is risen.
He is risen indeed, hallelujah.
We repeat this phrase to remind ourselves that Christ is not dead, but he’s risen from the grave.
And because he lives, so too, will all who call upon him in faith.
Praise be to God.
Like the ancient Israelites, we are commanded to remember the saving works that our Lord has done on our behalf, because we so easily allow them to slip our minds, just as they slipped the minds of Christ’s disciples, as we heard in our Easter gospel.
Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome, brought spices to anoint Jesus’ body.
They believed Jesus to be dead.
The Romans believed that Jesus was dead.
The rulers of the Jews believed him dead.
The disciples believed in death.
If there had been a Jerusalem Gazette at the time, the headlines would have blared, trust the science, Jesus is dead.
And they were all wrong.
And these women came to the tomb, and as they did, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, a very large stone, the largest of stones.
And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alive.
And he said to them, do not be alarmed.
You see, Jesus of Nazareth, who is crucified, he is risen, he is not here.
See, the place where they laid him.
But go tell his disciples, Peter, go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.
There you will see him just as he told you.
They went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment that sees them.
And he said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
These women arrived at the tomb very early in the morning.
They get there just as the sun is rising.
To find this stone and roll back, the tomb is empty.
Aside from this strange young man, this angel.
And the angel is quite patient with them.
Don’t be scared.
Yes, Jesus was dead.
No, he’s not dead anymore.
He’s risen.
He’s risen to be out again.
See, he’s not here.
He’s risen.
Go and let the others know.
Go to the family where he’s promised to be, where he’s promised to meet you.
Go where Jesus is present for you.
And then he adds a gentle reproach.
Just as he told you.
Just as he told you.
Jesus told the disciples on the Mount of Olives, just a few days before it, when he was about to be crucified, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
But after I have been raised, I will go before you and down the road.
Jesus tried to bring them comfort, he tried to bring them the words of the gospel, even though you will flee, even though you will abandon me, even though you will deny me, I am going before you into death, I am going before you into life, and I will be present here for you when you return to me.
Yet the disciples did not want to accept this.
They did not want to accept that Jesus would die, for it was too unimaginable.
It did not fit with their idea of glory.
So here in the tomb on Easter Sunday, the angel gently reminds the women of the words of the Lord, of his promises to them.
The women, they don’t respond by going home rejoicing.
They don’t go home and tell everyone that they can find.
They don’t go home and cook a giant Easter breakfast with delicious sausages and eggs or chocolate bunnies, even mimosas.
Instead, they flee.
They’re too scared to even tell a soul.
I wonder how that angel reacted.
Mark doesn’t record that.
Did he sigh?
Did he roll his eyes?
Did he mumble?
Humans.
What does it take to get you to believe?
What does it take to get you to remember God’s promises, to remember God’s word?
What does it take?
What is clear from Mark’s account is that it takes more than seeing to believe.
How many eyewitnesses were there to all of Jesus’ miracles?
How many people in Jerusalem saw Lazarus raised from the dead?
All of Israel have been present to witness God’s plagues in Egypt, the miracle of the Red Sea crossing, the bread from heaven, the water from Iraq, and yet 40 days after Moses ascends Mount Sinai, they’re drunkenly dancing around this lump of gold that they call their god.
They shaped it like a cow.
The people such as this, it wouldn’t matter if someone returned from the dead.
They would not believe.
How many times did they demand a sign so that they could believe, yet chose not to?
Even at the foot of the cross, they persist.
The chief priests also mocking among them, the scribes said, he saved others, and so he cannot save.
Let the Christ, the king of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.
These men wanted a sign.
They wanted sight.
They wanted something that Jesus did to convince them.
But Jesus had already told them, it didn’t matter what he did, they would not believe.
He said, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Jonah, if you recall, had gone to Nineveh.
He didn’t go with a bag full of tricks.
He went with nothing except the word of God.
No signs, no miracles, no staff that turned into a snake.
What was the result?
This entire city of Gentiles, this entire city of pagans turned to the Lord.
They repented from the king down to the lowest persons.
They even put sackcloth and ashes on their animals.
Israel has had everything.
They’ve had signs, they’ve had miracles, and most of all, they had the word of the Lord.
Not just the word.
They had the word made flesh.
It dwelt among them.
Yet seeing, they did not believe.
The words of the angel at the tomb then turned the women from what they have seen with their eyes back to what’s most important, the true source of salvation.
He turns them to the word of the Lord.
Remember how he told you.
Remember how he told you.
Remember.
Recall how Christ promised to return to you, how he promised to give you life in him.
Remember how the Lord has always worked to save his people.
Remember and believe.
God’s works of salvation come when all appears dark, when it’s hopeless, when things look like they’re beyond redemption, even when there are no eyes that bubble this glory.
For God’s salvation comes in ways that are not looked for, ways that are unexpected.
Consider when the Philistines had defeated the Israelites.
Their priest Eli and his wicked sons are dead.
The Ark of the Covenant is lost.
Israel appeared doomed.
And yet, the Philistines soon found out about the glory of the Lord.
When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.
And the people arose early in the morning.
Early in the morning, there was Dagon falling on its face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord.
They would set him up again, and the next morning again, and early in the morning, they would find that this rock that they called their god had toppled over, its head and its hands had broken off.
And then, the Philistines begin to understand that the god, the true, the living god, is not someone to be trifled with.
Later, the Assyrian general, Senate chair of them, his army would learn the same lesson.
They besieged Jerusalem.
They mocked Yahweh.
And then, the Lord bared his mighty right arm to save his people.
Then, the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000.
When the people arose early in the morning, they were the corpses, all dead, again early in the morning.
Consider also King Darius, who froze God’s servant Daniel into the den of lions.
In the morning, he rushes over to the den to discover that God has preserved his servant.
He has redeemed his servant from death.
