Lesson 8 - Chapter 16

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ – What a Difference a Day Makes!

For centuries many of the world’s distinguished philosophers have assaulted Christianity as irrational, superstitious, and absurd. Many have chosen simply to ignore the central issue of the resurrection. Others have tried to explain it away through various theories. I dare not think of the consequences for the entire human race, dead, alive, and yet to be born, if we were to join issue with such critics. Just as a warm-up exercise, permit me to examine a few of the consequences had Mary Magdalene found the tomb not empty!

The progression of our faith would have stopped right there. And can you imagine what that would point to? God the Father would have caused God the Son to die a horrible and needless death, and His blood would be on our hands too, just as much as on the hands of the perpetrators who crucified Him two thousand years ago. We would continue to live in sin with no hope of forgiveness and redemption. If the tomb had not been empty, Heaven would have remained empty too. God would have been busy creating additional Hell space to accommodate all of us. Or, if you prefer the teaching of other religions, be prepared instead to be reborn as a worm in a mango, a pig in the dirt, a mosquito, or something of that sort.

Above all, we would all be living in constant fear of death – a death our Lord has already conquered through His resurrection. Death stands at the end of the pathway of every human life – firm, inevitable, and final. Rich and poor, sick and healthy, all alike must face it one day. For most people, death strikes fear and terror. How many people are prepared to talk about their own death as casually as we talk about birthdays or wedding anniversaries?

But for those who believe in Jesus Christ, there is a sharp difference. They do not need to fear death, because they have put their trust in the One Who is the Resurrection and the Life. The religions of the world try to help people cope with their mortality, but they can offer virtually nothing. All of their founders lie dead and buried to this day. How completely different Christianity is! In the face of the great fact of death, it announces an even greater fact: our Lord is a living God. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and because He lives, we too shall live.

What happened when He came back to life on Easter morning? How do we know that He did? And how did His resurrection change our lives from that day forward?

The Scientific Explanation

I was curious to know what the scientific community makes of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A discussion like this could go on endlessly, so we will keep it brief.

Scientists have been at odds with theologians and preachers throughout history. Sadly enough, quite a few liberal theologians agree with them. Many scientists insist that it is impossible to believe in the resurrection of Jesus as described in the New Testament and as the Church has traditionally understood it – forgetting, perhaps, that Paul himself already anticipated the objection: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Well, now we get into a bind here.

The trouble is that science can only work with reproducible events: they must be observable many times, or by many people, and even then they run the risk of being rejected if they are not well precedented or explicable by existing theory. Here is a common statement scientists often make: “If I see something in an experiment, then run the same experiment ten thousand times and never see it again, I have to conclude that it was a fluke or an electrical spike in the recording equipment. Without reproducibility, science is no longer science; it is history, or even hearsay.”

The resurrection of Jesus, therefore, cannot be considered scientifically, because it has never been claimed to be a reproducible event. Jesus is unique, the Man Who is also God, and His resurrection will not be reproduced until the end of history. Nor was it a mere bodily restoration like that of Lazarus or the daughter of Jairus, who were simply restored to their former, mortal lives – not raised to a new, imperishable one – and so both died again in time. The resurrection brought Jesus, and will one day bring us, into a new and larger life in a glorified body. Far from making that harder to believe, some of what modern science tells us about the universe can actually make it easier to accept. Let us see how that works, as an illustration rather than a proof.

Even if we accept the Big Bang theory for the sake of argument, we find that it supports our faith: it reminds us that God is not bound by what seems physically possible to us. Scientists tell us that the entire universe can be traced back to a single, infinitesimally dense point that suddenly expanded outward – and there, they say, is our universe. If that is how God carried out His work of creation, so be it, for the sake of illustration. Reasoning along the same lines, all God had to do was take what remained of the crucified, dead, and buried body of Jesus Christ and, by that same creative power which spoke the universe into being, cause it to become the gloriously resurrected Lord. We will leave that thought there for today, offered simply as an illustration and not as scientific proof.

Change Is the Only Constant of Life

I have always been amazed – and I am sure you would agree – at how quickly life can change. Things are one way one day, and the next day they are different. One day someone you have known is here; the next day they are gone. One day you think you are well; the next day you discover that you are extremely ill. One day everything in your life is going well; the next day everything has fallen apart. One day it appears that there is no hope for your situation; the next day your problem has been solved. So much can change in the space of a single day, and that is the theme I want to pursue today.

What a difference a day makes! That was never truer than on the day Jesus rose from the dead. The day Jesus’s body was placed in the tomb, the day He was crucified, was a dark and terrible day. As the sun went down that night, so did the hopes and dreams of all the Lord’s disciples and followers. Mark’s is the only Gospel that speaks of that dark, lifeless Sabbath that passed between the day Jesus died and the day He rose again from the dead. I am sure it was a long, miserable Saturday for all those who had placed their hopes on Jesus. But Mark moves us beyond that tragic Saturday to a glorious Sunday, when the world changed for ever.

The Event of That Day

I would like us to look at the events of that first day. That day matters, because the events of it shaped every day that has followed since – and every day still to come. That day matters because what happened then has already shaped the lives of most people in this room, whether they realise it or not. And that day matters because what happened on it can still make a difference in your life today.

A Ministry of Love

The three women mentioned in these verses observed the long, dark Sabbath day. They rested in their homes, as they were commanded by the Law. Just the day before, they had witnessed the death of Jesus. They watched as His body was placed in a tomb and a great stone was rolled over the opening to seal His body inside (Mark 15:46-47).

When the Sabbath ended, at sunset on Saturday, they emerged from their homes, went into town, and purchased “sweet spices” to “anoint” the body of Jesus. Embalming spices were poured over a body that had already been wrapped in linen strips. The spices these women intended to use would have helped to mask the smell of decomposition.

They intended to go to the tomb early on Sunday morning to perform one final act of love and service for the Lord Jesus Christ. For them, it was a way of finding some closure concerning His death. Broken-hearted, and filled with sorrow, grief, and fear, they made the two-mile journey from Bethany, where they lived, to the tomb just outside the city of Jerusalem.

Their Doubts

As they walked, they kept talking about the stone over the door of the tomb. It must have dawned on them that they might have trouble reaching the body of the Lord: the tomb had been sealed with a large stone rolled over its entrance. By some estimates, this stone could have weighed over four hundred and fifty kilograms. These women could never have moved it by themselves, and they knew it.

They were probably unaware, too, that the Jewish leaders had persuaded Pilate that the disciples might steal the body and then claim that Jesus was alive, so they had asked Pilate to post Roman guards at the tomb and seal it with his official seal, and Pilate had agreed (Matthew 27:62-66). Had they known about that, their fear and doubt would have been even stronger as they made their way to the tomb. These women were not going there looking for a living Lord; they were expecting to find a cold, and perhaps already decomposing, body. Do you know what their problem was? Their problem was that they were still living on Saturday!

These women, along with all the followers of the Lord, had placed all their faith and confidence in Jesus. They believed that He was the Messiah. They believed that He was the One Who was going to fulfil all the ancient prophecies. They believed that He was the One Who would be the King of Israel. They believed that He would establish God’s kingdom on earth. All their hopes for life and eternity were bound up in what they believed about Jesus. But all their fondest hopes and dreams had crumbled to the ground as they stood at the cross and watched Him die. Faith turned to grief, and grief to utter hopelessness, as they saw His broken body taken down from the cross and placed in that tomb. When that stone was rolled across the door of that grave, it was a ringing statement of finality.

That stone seemed to say, “It’s all over! It’s all over! Hope is gone! There is no future! There is no salvation! There is no kingdom! Jesus is dead! It’s all over!” That would have been the case for us too, had the story of Jesus ended with Him buried in a tomb, the stone rolled across the door, and stayed that way.

Where Are We Today?

And that is where so many of us are today. We are still living on Saturday, and we do not even realise that Sunday has come! People move through this world enslaved by their sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). They move through this world oblivious to the God Who lives to save them (Romans 1:18-21). They move through this world without joy, without peace, without hope, trapped in their sins and headed for Hell. The trouble for most people is that they are trapped on Saturday. They live in the darkness of their sin, unaware that a joy unspeakable and full of glory could be theirs – if only they knew that the tomb was empty, that Jesus was alive, and that they could be delivered from that very darkness.

A Message of Love and Power

When these women arrived at the tomb, their fear turned to amazement. They lifted their downcast eyes and saw that the massive stone had been rolled away from the door, and that the way into the tomb stood wide open. They did not yet know that before they arrived that morning there had been a “great earthquake”, and that an angel had come to the tomb and removed the stone. Nor did they know that the earthquake and the appearance of the angel had frightened the Roman guards so badly that they had fled the scene (Matthew 28:2-4).

All they could see was the tomb standing open, and they feared the worst. Surely, they thought, the Lord’s enemies must have taken His body away. So they ran the rest of the way to the tomb to investigate. And when they went into the tomb, they found “a young man sitting on the right side”, clothed in a strange garment. We know from the other Gospel accounts that this was no ordinary young man – this was an angel. He had a message for them, one designed to help them stop living on Saturday, and to help them begin to experience the power of Sunday in their lives.

He told them, “Be not affrighted.” Things are not as they appear on the surface. They never are! Nothing is ever as bad as your mind, your heart, and Satan would have you believe.

He told them he knew why they had come. He wanted them to know that our Lord’s cry, “It is finished,” on the cross did not mean that He was finished! The joyous cry on that Sunday is, “he is risen!” The angel wanted them to know that the power of death had been swallowed up by the far greater power of life. The angel wanted them to know that the empty tomb of the Lord is not a place of despair and defeat. That empty tomb is a place of glory, a place of power, and a place of hope.

Our Lord lives. Jesus is alive, just as the angel had said! That was a message those women needed to hear that Sunday morning, and it is the message you and I need to hear again today.

A Message with Proof

The angel then invited them to look at the place where the body had been. They would have seen the cloth strips that had been wrapped around the body, still lying there undisturbed, as if the body had simply passed right through them. They would also have seen the napkin that had covered His head, folded and laid aside separately (a detail preserved in John’s Gospel). They would have looked upon a scene of absolute calm and order – not at all the kind of scene they would have found had anyone taken or moved the body. The message of that empty tomb is that Jesus is alive! For two thousand years, cynics have tried to prove that the resurrection did not take place. They have invented every kind of wild theory imaginable to account for the empty tomb, and every one of those theories is dashed to pieces by the testimony of that empty grave.

If the Jewish authorities had still had the body, they would have produced it the moment the disciples began preaching the resurrection. If the disciples had taken the body themselves, they would hardly have gone on to die for what they knew to be a lie. That missing body has always been impossible for the critics to explain away. His body was missing because He was alive! Jesus walked out of that tomb in eternal victory over Satan, death, and sin.

That empty tomb is still preaching today. It still tells this world that Jesus is alive, and that He can save all who come to Him by faith (Hebrews 7:25). My friends, if you are still trapped in the deadness and darkness of your sin, you do not have to remain there. Our Lord Jesus lives today, and He can deliver you from the Saturday of your sin and carry you into the Sunday of His new life.

The message of the empty tomb rolled the stone away from the hearts of those sad, sorrowful, grief-stricken women. It brought them out of the gloom of defeat into the glory of life. It can do the same for you and me. Hear that message and heed it today. Let God roll the stone away from your heart.

A Mission of Liberation

The angel sent them away from the tomb to carry the message to the Lord’s disciples, who were filled with fear and hiding away (John 20:19). God wanted them to know that Jesus is alive. There is no need to fear. There is joy. There is hope. Even Peter, the very man who had so recently denied the Lord, is singled out by name: the Lord wants Peter to know that he is loved too. What an amazing detail! The three women had come to that tomb that morning worried about how they would roll away a single stone. They did not know it yet, but God was about to use them to roll countless stones away from the hearts of millions. They were the first to spread the good news of that empty tomb.

They had come to that tomb with sorrow in their hearts, and they left it changed. What they had seen and heard at the empty tomb was almost more than they could take in. What they encountered there changed their lives and replaced their sorrow with an overwhelming sense of the power of God. They knew that they were now part of a great miracle, and they ran to tell others about their risen Lord.

The Consequence

Mark tells us that, at first, fear kept them silent, and they said nothing to anyone along the way. We know from the other Gospels that they did go on to find the disciples and tell them (Matthew 28:8; John 20:1).

It is worth pausing on something here. In the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel, the book actually ends at verse eight, with the women fleeing the tomb in fear and amazement. The familiar resurrection appearances and the Great Commission recorded in verses nine to twenty were most likely added afterwards, by a later copyist filling out what must have felt like an unfinished ending. This is well established among biblical scholars, and it is nothing to be troubled by: it casts no doubt whatsoever on the resurrection itself, which Matthew, Luke, John, and the rest of the New Testament attest to fully in their own words. It simply means that, for the rest of the story, we naturally turn to the other Gospels – which is exactly what we are about to do.

This news affected the disciples too, and many of them ran to the tomb. We are told that John looked in, saw the evidence for himself, and was the first to believe. When the Lord’s resurrection is embraced by faith, it brings about a change in the life of the person who receives that truth. When the death and resurrection of Jesus, which together are the Gospel, are embraced by faith, a new birth takes place. A sinner becomes a saint. A child of the devil becomes a child of God. A new creature is born (John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17). A new life draws its first breath.

That new life is not perfect, but it is different. It is a life that Christ lives through. It is a life that strives to know God and the power of the resurrected Christ. It is a life that is no longer satisfied with Saturdays. It is a life that longs for the glories of Sunday to be real every day! It is a life that cannot keep the good news to itself, because it wants others to have what it enjoys. That is the power of an empty tomb. It has the power to roll stones away in lives. It has the power to deliver us from the Saturday of our death. It has the power to allow us to live in the Sunday of His victory!

We started by saying, “What a difference a day makes!” On Saturday, everything looked bleak, barren, and dead. On Sunday, some struggling believers had the stones rolled away from their hearts. They heard the good news that Jesus was alive. They believed that message, and it changed their lives. They shared that message with others who were still trapped in their sin.

That message still rings out today. I heard it one day. I believed it, and I was carried out of a dead, terrible, dark Saturday into a wonderful, glorious Sunday. I have seen others delivered, and I am sharing that message with you today. The Lord can roll away the stone from your heart. He can lead you out of your darkness into His light; out of your death into His life.

Do you not want to be saved? Do you not want to be delivered from your dead, dark Saturday, and to know the Sunday of His peace, His joy, and His salvation? If He is standing outside your tomb today, calling you, then come to Him right now. Come and be saved. Leave Saturday behind, and come and find out what Sunday is all about.

Points for Discussion

1. The three women came to the tomb expecting to anoint a dead body, and left it as the first witnesses of a living Lord. Their fear turned into action the moment they understood what had really happened. Describe a time when receiving genuinely good news changed not just how you felt, but what you actually did next.

2. The angel’s message was for “his disciples and Peter” by name – the very man who had denied Jesus three days earlier. What does it tell you about Jesus that He made a point of naming Peter? Is there a “Peter moment” in your own life, something you feel disqualifies you, that this news speaks into?

3. The lesson says that many people are still “living on Saturday”: stuck in fear, sin, or hopelessness, without realising that Sunday has already come. What are some of the ways someone your age can get stuck on Saturday, even after hearing the truth about Jesus? What helps you remember that Sunday has come?

4. What does the resurrection actually mean for you personally – not just as a historical fact you believe, but as something that changes how you live this week?

5. This is the final lesson of your study of the whole Gospel of Mark, from Jesus’s baptism in chapter one to the empty tomb in chapter sixteen. As you prepare for Confirmation, what is one thing about Jesus that looks different to you now from when you began? And what is one way you want people to be able to see, in how you live, that you believe He is risen?

— END OF STUDY OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK —

We are to be people of action for Jesus.

What are you doing today to get out the Word of God?