Preacher: The Most Rev. Kanishka Raffel, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia.
Mark 15 42 - 16 8
The Burial of Jesus
42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
Jesus Has Risen
16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Here is my transcript...
Christ is risen. Hallelujah! You'll never hear any better news than that. And how glad I am that we are able to gather together in this way.
Two stories with different endings
Over the weekend not one but two journalists, writing in different newspapers, wrote movingly and personally about their recent experiences of marking the death of loved ones. No doubt there are many amongst us today who are celebrating the first Easter without some whom we loved who are no longer with us and it's very precious and a great privilege to be gathering with you on this day in that context.
Of the two journalists, one wrote of his sister's last days. Her prayers of confession and deep thankfulness, receiving communion in hospital and her simple trust in the great promises of Jesus that on the other side of death would be a conscious existence, in the company of others who had gone before. At her funeral the priest preached the Christian **hope. That she’ll rise again. Not just her spirit but her body too. "One day your eyes will look into her eyes again. Your hands will hold her hands in yours.”
** In the Bible hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.
The other piece, equally thoughtful and poignant, reflected on what the author referred to as 'the conveyor belt of life'. Inexorably attending the funerals of the parents of her friends, gave her pause to reflect that she too is approaching the point of departure. One effect of this she said was for her to resolve to be more grateful and less anxious. And she was conscious too that behind her the children of those same friends were starting jobs, getting married and having children of their own. She concluded her piece with these words. “We start young, we become old and then eventually we reach the end. We may as well enjoy our time on the conveyor belt as much as we can."
Twenty centuries ago the apostle Paul wrote “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” But Christ has indeed been risen from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. The Christian faith is that Christ is raised and we will all be raised too. Life after death, lived in a body with those who love the Lord and the Lord himself, in a restored and renewed earth forever.
Resurrection - the Easter glorious reality
On what possible basis could anyone entertain such an unlikely and fantastic future expectation? The answer of Christians throughout the ages is the one glorious reality we celebrate at Easter. Resurrection!
Jesus told his disciples three times in the gospel that he would die as a ransom and then be raised again. As Mark tells the story, which we've just had read to us, the story of the empty tomb there are several clues to the truthfulness of this story and over the Easter break you may like to pick up a Gospel of Mark and read it for yourself again.
The clues to the truthfulness of the Resurrection
Three clues to the truthfulness of this story. First when Pilate asked the centurion if Jesus is dead he is consulting with the death experts. Centurions knew the difference between dying and fainting. Jesus was dead.
Second, the women who stayed at a distance from the Cross, when everyone else had deserted, remained throughout. They observed Joseph and saw where Jesus was laid. They knew which tomb had the body of Jesus in it. They wanted to know which tomb it was because they planned to go there the next day to anoint the body with spices. That's what you do with a dead body. It was the least they could do and they were determined to do it.
And third when they go to the tomb the next morning. They took the spices for anointing because they expected to find the body of the dead Jesus. But when they got there, the stone was rolled away and the body of Jesus was not there.
Mark tells us as a matter of historical record Jesus was dead. The women knew which tomb to look in and when they went, the tomb was empty. Mark and all the gospels agree that the first witnesses to the empty tomb were the women. From the start, that would not have helped the story to be believable. In fact in the ancient world, the idea that the women were the first to see the empty tomb would have clouded the story with doubt. Because women were not permitted to testify in a court, they were regarded as unreliable witnesses. The fact that Mark records that they were there first is an indicator of historicity. It's not a detail that you would make up. It wouldn't persuade anyone. You would only tell it that way if it was true.
The explanation for the tomb being empty comes from a man dressed in white sitting in the tomb. “Don't be alarmed,” he said. “You were looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you.”
The young man is a messenger from God and he brings a word from God concerning the empty tomb. Every word ministers to the women, broken and confused and frightened. “Don't be alarmed.” A word of comfort and reassurance. “He is risen.” A victory song. A gospel. They no doubt thought the body had been stolen, perhaps subjected to some postmortem humiliation. The messenger corrects their view. “He lives again. See where they laid him.” He points to them the evidence of their own eyes. The other gospels tell us the burial clothes were neatly folded, not the calling card of desperate grave thieves.
“Go to the disciples.” He gives them new instructions. Their embalming spices will not be required. But there is a different service for them to perform for their Lord. “He will meet you there as he told you.” How that statement must have filled them with nervous expectation but they had trusted the word of Jesus before and they were only being asked to trust his word again.
The Resurrection changes everything
Reverses all the experience of the last 48 hours and renews the hopes of the last three years. If Jesus lives then everything he said to them is true. He is the Christ, the Messiah who brings in God's Kingdom of justice and righteousness and truth. He has given his life as a ransom for sin. And those debtors to God have been discharged. Forgiven. The Kingdom of God has been thrown open by the Cross and is kept open by the resurrection. And anyone may enter the Kingdom who will put their trust in Jesus because he has opened the way.
The ancients had no place in heaven for people who are disabled in body or imperfect in character. Only the pure and the pristine could enter heaven - certainly not a crucified man. But the whole of the gospel of Mark has shown us who may enter gods Kingdom through faith in Jesus. The lame, the hungry, the outcast, the powerless. And sinners, those who know their own fault but cling to Jesus.
The Resurrection is the foundation of the Gospel - freedom from Sin and Death
Can it really be like this? Only if Jesus is raised from the dead. If Jesus lives then death has been defeated. Death has lost its sting. The penalty of sin has been paid and the whole human race has been set free from the slavery to sin and Satan and the fear of death. If Jesus lives again, our lives are not mere existence travelling inexorably on a conveyor belt but purposeful because we live for God. And meaningful because we will give an account to God. And useful because, in Jesus, Gods Kingdom has come and will be established and prevail in all the world. If Jesus lives again then the cross is no defeat but a victory. If Jesus lives then the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all God's people. And has now been poured out. If Jesus lives then Jesus reigns and will return.
“He is not here, he is risen!” The battle cry of the Republic. Death is defeated, sin is paid for, Jesus is King.
All this is true and flows from the resurrection but it would be too much to expect the women at the empty tomb would have grasped all that as they listened to the messenger from God. Mark records what surely must have happened. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.
And the earliest manuscripts of Mark end right there which does seem odd doesn't it? But it seems to me that this rather sudden and open conclusion to Mark's gospel leaves the readers of the Gospel with a challenge, a provocation. What I've called ‘A way on’. What next?
What is the way on from the empty tomb?
I think the closing chapters of Mark's Gospel give us a few indicators and I'd like to think about three characters whom we meet. If we are welcomed into the Kingdom, what then, how are we to find our way on following this crucified and risen King?
Simon of Cyrene.
Before Jesus was crucified a bystander he gets co-opted to carry the Cross beam on which Jesus will be crucified. He was there, so perhaps he had some interest, some knowledge of Jesus. But that day his future became bound up with the crucified one.
He's the first to do what Jesus said anyone would have to do if they wanted to be his follower. To take up their cross, deny themselves and follow. We're told that Simon was the father of Rufus and Alexander which suggests they were leaders in the early church. And Simon that day had embraced as saviour the condemned man whose cross he was compelled to carry. Simon found his way on as a disciple in his willingness to bear the shame of the Cross.
The cross is shameful there's no way to be a Christ follower and congratulated by a sceptical world. To be a follower of Jesus is to bear the shame of his Cross. The humiliation of admitting that I am a needy Sinner with no hope of appearing before God in the rags of my own wisdom and goodness. No, I may only appear in the robe of righteousness that has been purchased for me by another, with his blood. And this produces a completely different life. A life of humble service. A life of prayerful dependence. A life of glad surrender. A life of personal purity, prodigal generosity, risky hospitality, contentment with simplicity.
The writer to the Hebrews says “Let us then go to Jesus, outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore for here we do not have an enduring city but we are looking for the city that is to come. A way on, gladly carrying the disgrace of the Cross.
Joseph of Arimathea
We're told he was a member of the council. a member of the Sanherdrin, who conspired to put Jesus to death. Who bribed Judas to betray him. Who prosecuted the sham trial and insisted with the Roman authorities that he be put to death. John tells us in his gospel that Joseph dissented. Mark doesn't tell us that, he simply records that Joseph approached Pilate for the body. And it was Joseph, a man of means, who made his family tomb available for the body.
Joseph found his way on standing out from the crowd, from his peers, his colleagues, his community. When Joseph acts, Jesus is dead. He's died the death of a criminal. There is nothing to be gained from associating with him at this point. But he prefers to serve Jesus than to retain his reputation with his colleagues and neighbours. Not only does he risk ostracism from his own community, he risks the wrath of the Romans as well. And he goes boldly to Pilate to ask for the body.
There's a way on for the disciple. Standing out from the crowd, preferring the welcome of Jesus and his service to the approval of our peers. If following Jesus mean that is it too much for us? Or is it a way on?
The Women
And lastly we come back to the women. “Go and tell,” the man in white says. Trembling and bewildered they fled from the tomb and said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Of course any reader of the Gospel knows that the women did not stay in their fearful silence. But by ending the gospel in the way that he does. Mark invites us to put ourselves in their shoes. We know what the women did in spite of their fear. Mark leaves us with the question - what will you do?
There are two things that we must do. The first is that we must trust what God has done in raising Jesus from the dead. The journalists are right, of course. We are familiar with attending the funerals of loved ones and one day we trust others may attend our funeral. But Christ is risen! Death is dead, sin is atoned. Forgiveness and fellowship with God is available to all who trust in Christ. Then, we may put our hands into the hands of loved ones who have gone ahead, if now, we put our hands into the hands that bear the scars of nails hammered to a cross into the hands of him who died for sin and is raised again.
We must trust what God has done in raising Jesus from the dead. And we must, by all means, give ourselves to the task of holding out hope in the world. A world of dying and tears. And proclaiming Christ is risen. Death is defeated. The Kingdom of God has come and is received by faith in Jesus.
Two principles of discipleship: Trust and Tell
And everything disciples do Is organised around these two principles. Trust what God has done, tell forth the excellencies of his Son. “Go and tell.”
Simon who willingly bore the shame of the Cross. Joseph, who willingly stood out from the crowd. The women at the tomb, who though full of fear and trembling, went and told.
The way on for the disciple, at its heart, is the shape of death and resurrection. When we trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of fellowship with God, we die and are raised again to new life, in this life. Now indwelt by the spirit of God, our old life is gone. A new creation comes. And a new life lived for God and for others. In the power of his spirit, rejoicing in the risen King whom we serve.
The last person to speak in the gospel of Mark is the messenger from God. “He is not here. He is risen."
And that makes all the difference! Amen.
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