|
The Empty Tomb
Mark 16:1-8
Introduction:
Resurrection and History
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. Very early on the first day of the week, just
after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other,
"Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone,
which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw
a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were
alarmed.
"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. 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.' "
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and
fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Mark 19: 1-8
After reading this passage several times and thinking about
how special Easter is, it seemed this Easter is good time to talk about the
Resurrection and history. I’ll tell you who it is, in particular, I am eager to
speak to this morning: If you would say that,
· You
are interested in spiritual life
· You
believe in, or are at least open to the existence of God and
a spiritual dimension to human beings
· You
acknowledge the possibility of life after death, but to be
really honest about it, you’re not real sure about the “Jesus
thing” and the miracles and whether or not they really happened—especially
the “came back to life from dead” deal
· You
have some reservations about Jesus being the only way to God
I’ m going to speak to you.
Here’s what I want to talk about this morning:
Christianity, at its heart, is not a set of ethical teachings (although it
contains them) and it’s not a set of practices (although, if you follow Jesus,
you’ll want to adopt His way of life). Christianity began with something that
happened in history—Jesus was dead and came back to life. There was a group of
people who testified to that. They were there. They were eyewitnesses. They are
either right or they’re wrong. If you wonder about the reality of the Resurrection
of Jesus—if you have some mixed feelings about it—I’m so glad you are here
today. You are the person I want to talk to.
I know some of you are saying, “I’m not in that category. I
don’t have those questions. What about me?” Well, for the next thirty minutes
or so, you’re stuck here: Happy Easter! I’m asking for your patience. This is
an unusual message for Easter. I want us to do some pretty serious thinking
today about the most important issue in human existence: The claim that Jesus
is raised from the dead.
Christianity Is
Different
One of the fallacies in our day is that all religions are
pretty much the same and say pretty much the same thing. They don’t. I believe
every religion deserves the respect of being understood on its own terms. One of
the ways in which Christianity is unique is this: It did not evolve over time.
Buddhism, Confucianism and even Judaism developed gradually around the
teachings of one or more persons. The Christian church did not evolve. It
exploded into existence. It sprang into being, quite literally, overnight. Let
me tell you how it came about.
About 2000 years ago, there was a little country called Israel where
people chafed under Roman rule. A sizeable percentage of people were waiting
for someone to come as a leader to liberate them. They would call Him Messiah.
He would set them free and bring in what they called the Kingdom of God.
In that day there were a lot of people in that part of the world who led
freedom movements and were thought to possibly be the Messiah. A Harvard
professor by the name of Harvey Cox writes there were at least six such Messiah
candidates who lived within a century on either side of Jesus’ life. They
called people to deepen their practice of faith. They believed God would
restore the kingdom. Every one of them was killed by the Roman government or by
some rival faction. Death meant reality for their followers, “He wasn’t the
Messiah.”
If the man you thought was Messiah was killed, you had two
choices:
· You
could give up, go home and quit waiting for the Kingdom
· You
could go with another Messiah candidate
This happened numerous times. If your leader died, you
could still love him. He could still inspire you. You could still believe he was
alive somewhere in the presence of God. But you didn’t follow him any more. No
one followed a dead Messiah.
Into of all this came this man, Jesus, a rabbi. His
followers thought that in some ways He was unique. He said the Kingdom was
coming. Others talked about the Kingdom, but He spoke about it in unique ways.
He was oddly inclusive of women and Gentiles and Roman soldiers. He talked
about the great commandments, especially about the greatest commandment being
Love. All rabbis talked about commandments, but He did it with a unique kind of
authority. Those of us involved in the study of Mark have seen that. He got His
followers’ hopes up, and then one day He was killed—not just killed, but
crucified by Rome.
The message seemed very clear: He’s not the One.
By their own accounts, His closest followers were
devastated. They were petrified about what was going to happen to them. They
were done. He was not the One. Nobody follows a dead Messiah. But then, in a
very short time—and this is a matter of historical record—these same people
re-gather. They recommit. They leave their occupations. They sell their
possessions. They devote the rest of their lives to one specific message. Their
message was not a vague kind of “God is Love,” although they did believe that
God is love. Their message was not, “Jesus was a good teacher,” although He
was.
Their message was: Jesus is the Messiah, He died on a
Cross, He was buried in a tomb and then, on the third day, He returned to life.
They claimed, “We saw Him. We heard Him. We ate with Him. We touched Him. He’s
the One.”
The Apostle Paul wrote,
For what I received I passed on to
you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according
to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After
that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of
whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to
James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also…
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 NIV
Paul wrote these words within twenty years of Jesus’ death.
When he says “that which I received I also passed on to you,” that part of it was
a Creed. Scholars think it was written in the first ten years after Jesus died.
All four of the Gospels were written between thirty and sixty years after
Jesus’ death while eyewitnesses were still around. Other Gnostic gospels like
the Gospel of Judas that have gained much recent attention paint a
significantly different picture of Jesus. They weren’t written until at least
one hundred fifty years or more after Jesus had died when there were no more
eyewitnesses. His followers said He was buried, He came back to life and that
they had seen Him.
They spent the rest of their lives proclaiming this
message. They received no pay-off for this. They didn’t get big TV ministries
or nice homes. They went without food and without sleep. They were exposed to
the elements. They were ridiculed, beaten, imprisoned and executed. So why did
they do it?
There’s only one explanation that makes sense: Whether or
not you believe the Resurrection happened, they believed it. They believed it
was true. A lot of believers are willing to die for a cause. This is often true
in religion. It was true in the Jewish religion. It’s true of the terrorist who
makes himself the bomb. People are willing to die for their beliefs. This was
different. They were willing to die for what they claimed they had seen with
their own eyes and heard with their own ears and touched with their own hands.
And, there is one more thing: Their little movement changed the world.
Think about this. Imagine
you are a Martian looking down on the world in the first century.
Who would you think was more likely to survive: Christianity
or the Roman Empire? You wouldn’t bet on a ragtag group of
a few hundred people claiming that some obscure carpenter
had risen from the grave.
Yet, that movement was so successful that today we give our
children names like Peter, Paul and Mary and we name our dogs
Caesar, Brutus and Nero. How did that happen? Were they right?
Was it true? They said the tomb was empty. They said Jesus
had appeared to a number of people, many of whom Paul says
were still alive. Christianity is different. The Resurrection
makes it different.
Objections To The
Resurrection
Paul
understood how important the Resurrection is. He knew what was happening when
the Jewish authorities—of which he was once a part—moved to silence him. When
he was tried before Felix he said,
“Ask these men here what crime the
Jewish high council found me guilty of, except for the one time I shouted out, ‘I
am on trial before you today because I believe in the resurrection of the
dead!’”
Acts
24:20-21 NLT
Later, as he appeared before King
Agrippa, his defense centered on how he actually hoped in what God had
promised.
O king, it is because of this hope
that the Jews are accusing me. Why should any of you consider it incredible
that God raises the dead?
Acts
26:7-8 NIV
People do find the idea of God raising the dead incredible.
Over the years there have been many objections to the Resurrection. We are
going to look at some objections to that idea and see if they really hold up.
1st Objection: The Tomb Was Not Really Empty
Some people have argued that the Tomb was not really empty.
The reason it seemed to be empty was because the women went to the wrong tomb.
A prominent advocate of this position was the esteemed scholar Kirsopp Lake. He said the women were mixed up
and went to the wrong place.
One reason I think that’s not likely is because they were women.
Which gender is it that, when lost, has too much pride and stubbornness to stop
and ask for directions? It’s not women. Women ask! If there had been a man in
the group, he would have said, “I know where the tomb is. I don’t need to ask!”
He might have gone to the wrong tomb.
Women would make sure about the location of the tomb before
going.
Another reason this objection fails is the fact this was not Arlington National Cemetery
where Jesus could have been buried in one of thousands and thousands of crypts.
He was buried in a well-known, private burial cave, owned by Joseph of
Arimathea. It was distinct. It was guarded. If there was any controversy back
in that day, somebody could have easily gone to the correct grave and said,
“Here is the body.” That would have settled it but that didn’t happen.
2nd Objection: Jesus Didn’t Really Die
Some people have argued that Jesus didn’t actually die on
the Cross. They claim that He temporarily lost consciousness and was revived by
the cool air in the cave. This is commonly called the “Swoon Theory.”
One problem with this objection is Roman soldiers knew what death
looked like. If a prisoner was scheduled to be executed and escaped, guess who
was executed in that prisoner’s place? The Roman soldier who was in charge of
the execution took the punishment. They had a very high level of motivation to
make sure the crucified guy was a dead guy.
Beyond that, assume for a moment that the “Swoon Theory” is
true—that that’s what happened. Jesus didn’t really die. That means the reason
He got out of the tomb was because He lost consciousness for a while. Here’s a big
problem: Jesus was beaten repeatedly,
deprived of sleep, carried a Cross until he couldn’t walk anymore, had nails
driven into his hands and feet, hung on a Cross for hours, had a sword pierced through
his side, had His body wrapped tightly in linens that contained 75 pounds of
spices and was laid in the Tomb with no water or food from Friday night through
Sunday morning. So, you have to believe that somehow He survives and on Sunday
morning He gets up and jumps to the cave door. He jumps because his body is
still wrapped in all these linens. There’s a large disc-shaped stone that is
rolled down a trench to cover the entrance. Where it takes several men to roll
it back up the trench, Jesus would have had to do that all alone from inside
the cave by pushing on the surface of the stone. There’s no way.
With all of this the biggest difficulty is: A swooned Jesus—beaten, bloodied, pale, bandaged—could
never have inspired the conviction that He had conquered death. He might have
been able to inspire anger and certainly would have elicited pity and sadness.
He never could have inspired anything like “Resurrection Faith.” The “Swoon
Theory” doesn’t hold up.
3rd Objection: The Disciples Stole The Body
Some people have argued that the disciples stole the body
and then made up the story of the Resurrection. A book titled The Passover
Plot presents this plausible objection. One difficulty with this theory is explaining why they would steal the
body. They would not try to fake a Resurrection because the script they were
looking for was not death and resurrection. No one was looking for that. They
looked for victory over their enemies, the over-throw of the Romans and the
establishment of a new Kingdom.
Another
difficulty with the “stolen body theory”
is the identity of the witnesses to the empty tomb. The witnesses to the empty
tomb were women. A consistent report in all four of the Gospels was that women
were the first to discover that the Tomb was empty and to be told that Jesus
had risen. This is remarkable—even though it might not strike us as so—because
women were not considered credible witnesses in the ancient world. Women were
not allowed to testify in Jewish courts of law. This view was so entrenched
that if one hundred women but no men saw you kill someone, you went free.
So, let’s say the Disciples decided to make up a story to
convince people that Jesus had risen. Who are they going to present as the
witnesses to the Resurrection? They might say that it was a group of rabbis or
a group of priests or other highly respected leaders. Not women! That’s the
last thing in the world they would make up! No one who is trying to convince
people would be crazy enough to make up a story where the primary and initial
witnesses to the Resurrection were women. But all four of the Gospels say that
women were the ones who saw. The evidence simply doesn’t support the objection.
4th Objection: The Resurrection Is Only A
Metaphor
Some people have argued that it’s better to treat the
Resurrection as a kind of metaphor. This may be the most prominent objection in
people’s minds today. This objection postulates that it was Jesus’ teachings
that came alive in His followers after the Crucifixion. It was His vision that lived
on in their hearts.
As a matter of history, this explanation simply will not
work to explain what happened in their lives. If your guy died, he was not the
Messiah. You could still be inspired by his life. You could still love his
memory. You could even believe that somewhere out there his spirit is alive
before God. But, the movement is over. You go home or you look for somebody
else. The last thing you do is make up a story that he has come back to life
and then give your life to defend a story that you know isn’t true! People may
die for their beliefs. People may even die for a mistaken belief. Nobody dies
for what they know to be a lie.
5th Objection: They Weren’t Sophisticated Enough
To Understand
Some people have argued this all happened 2000 years ago.
The people were pre-scientific. They weren’t well educated like we are. It was
easier to fool people. Listen! Claiming that Jesus rose from the dead was just
as controversial 2000 years ago as it is today. We may be impressed by our
advanced knowledge, but we are not the first generation of human beings to
observe that dead people have a tendency to stay dead. Smart people have known
for a long, long time that dead people tend to stay dead.
It is precisely this idea they so clearly understood—the
idea that a dead person coming back to life is so unrealistic—that turned them
so utterly and completely upside-down when it actually happened. Paul wrote:
If
Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
1 Corinthians 15:14 NIV
Paul continues,
If
Christ has not been raised from the grave, your faith is futile; you are still
in your sins.
1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV
Paul concludes,
If only
for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all people.
1 Corinthians 15:19 NIV
Whether or not you agree with it—whatever you think about
it—the Resurrection is not an optional part of the message that gave birth to
the church. It’s not like buying a car where you can say, “I’ll take it with a
sun roof.” It’s not that kind of a deal. It is It! Without that message—whether
or not you believe it’s true—without that message, the church does not get
born! The early Christians agreed, “It all hinges on the Resurrection.”
At a gathering of Christian students at Harvard and MIT some
time ago, there was a really bright coed from Harvard talking about the
importance of the Resurrection. She was trying to combine theological language
and college slang to communicate the idea that the Crucifixion and Resurrection
of Jesus are crucial. What she finally said was a paraphrase of Paul’s words,
“If Christ be not raised from the dead, we’re toast.”
While it’s not really Sunday morning language, it
communicates the fact that this is not a vague—we hope there is an after
life—kind of message. There either is or there isn’t; and, if there isn’t,
we’re all in big trouble.
Many groups believe in the afterlife. That’s why the
Egyptians built the pyramids and the Greeks gave corpses a gold coin to cross
the River Styx to get into Hades. The picture of the afterlife is usually vague
and not all that great. The human condition requires something more than just
the belief in immortality because, if all immortality means is more of the same
of what we have already have, we may not want it.
Students from a Christian school would sometimes go
door-to-door to talk with people about faith. One day they rang the bell and a
woman answered. She was a mom and this was not a good time. She had a vacuum
cleaner in one hand and a baby in the other. There was a child crying in
another room. Something clearly was burning on the stove. Another kid was
marking up the walls with a crayon. The phone was ringing. The television was
blaring. When she opened the door, they asked, “Ma’am, are you interested in
eternal life?” She answered, “Frankly, I don’t think I could stand it.”
The teaching of the Resurrection of Jesus is far greater
than claiming the soul is immortal and there is some kind of afterlife to which
we go. The Resurrection is God’s guaranteed promise to set things right. God
promised through prophet after prophet that one day He would set things right.
And now, with Jesus, it is started. He has overcome the ultimate enemy—death.
He’s going to redeem what He made. He said He would and, on the first Easter
morning, it has begun.
Nobody thought it was going to start like this. No one was
expecting the script which they had lived out during the previous few days.
Now, with the Resurrection, it all makes sense. God will not be stopped. He
will carry out his plan. Not even death itself can prevent redemption. The
Resurrection guarantees that the Good News Up There is Coming Down Here. We get
to be a part of it. It is absolutely certain—and what makes it certain is that
He has defeated death itself.
That conviction turned a cowering band of disappointed followers
into a community that would overcome all social divisions,
give away their possessions, rejoice in persecution, sing
hymns in the face of prison and death, and, along the way,
change the shape of the world.
Conclusion: He is Risen!
There is one more piece of evidence for the Resurrection:
Jesus, this same Jesus, is still changing lives. People still encounter Him.
Every century on every continent and in every culture, people are still being
changed when they meet the resurrected Jesus.
· People
who are addicted say, “I met him, and He gave me power.”
· People
who are alone say, “I met him and I’m not alone any more.”
· People
who are hopeless say, “I was hopeless and now I’ve got hope.”
· People
who were bitter say, “I was bitter and now I know what it
means to forgive.”
Many people in this room can say, “I met Jesus and He
changed my life.”
How about you?
The audacious claim verified by Easter is that it really is
possible, through Jesus, to have God present and alive in your life. There is
one big condition: You have to ask Him. You must decide what you will commit
your one and only life to.
It is very important to ask questions and to raise doubts.
Maybe that’s part of your process right now. That’s a really good thing. I’m so
glad you’re doing that. But, you need to hear this, too. Sometimes people get
stuck there. Sometimes they use the process as a pretext to avoid the necessary
commitment. It’s like always dating and never getting married. There is
something inside them that doesn’t want to commit. But, you will commit your
life to something. You will give your life to something bigger than yourself.
That’s part of the human experience. Maybe this is the time to give the
resurrected Jesus one more test—what might be called:
The Experiential Test
Paul
presented the test this way to King Agrippa.
And so, King Agrippa, I obeyed that
vision from heaven. I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem
and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of
their sins and turn to God—and prove they have changed by the good things they
do.
Acts
26:19-20 NLT
Would you start with this? Invite Him into your life and
see what happens. You can do that pretty simply. You can do that today. You
just tell God you’re ready to give Him your life. When you do that, it’s Easter
all over again. He is alive in you.
What a great day to give your life to God! But, maybe it’s
the first time in a long time you’ve been in church. Your head’s spinning with
a ton of questions. The decision you need to make right now is: I will keep
seeking. When Paul asked King Agrippa what he believed the King was still in
that place.
Agrippa interrupted him. “Do you think you can persuade me to
become a Christian so quickly?”
Acts
26:28 NLT
You
may not be ready. That’s all right. Tell God you’ll keep seeking.
Maybe you are ready to make that decision right now. You
understand enough. You’ve just been putting off the commitment and today is
your day. You can tell God right now.
Lord, I don’t
have all the answers, but I recognize that I need forgiving. I understand the
message of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. I invite You to be my Forgiver and my
Leader. From this day forward, I belong to You.
If that is the prayer of your heart, then this is the start
of your life together with God.
It’s a great day to give your life to God! Happy Easter; He
Is Risen!
|
