The Empty Tomb
Mark 16:1-8
The
first Easter morning is fundamentally different from every subsequent
Easter morning. We
don’t and we can’t approach the tomb as a place of disappointment
and despair. There
is no way for us to unknow what we have already heard about what the
women find there. We
already know what they do not know, because they haven’t
experienced it yet. Every
Easter morning we show up at the tomb, knowing what we are going to
find there. Or
rather we come knowing what we are not going to find. We
come glad and expecting, anticipating the joyful celebration of new
life that Easter is. That
is not how and why, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and
Salome approach the tomb. They
too think they know what they will find when they get to the tomb. They
will find the earthly remains of their master sealed in the ground
behind a great stone.
The
women, in contrast to all the other disciples, the women at least
have commitment. They
are committed enough to Jesus to be drawn back to him, even when all
that is left is a corpse. When
there is nothing else left to them, they still want to offer their
last acts of care, and love, to someone who means so much to them. They
want to be with Jesus, even a defeated, dead Jesus. Their
desire, their longing to be with him is strong enough to overcome the
fear that keeps the others away. Even
what Jesus has given to them in their relatively short time together
is something that they want to hold onto and nurture. They
want to honour their martyred master. So
on Saturday evening they had gone out:
When
the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James,
and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
Then
early on Sunday morning, as soon as it was light enough for them to
find their way through the unfamiliar city, they
set off:
And
very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen they
went to the tomb.
It
is perhaps worth speculating for a moment, who or what Jesus would be
with out the resurrection? We
can indulge in some counter-factual thinking. What
if when the women got to the tomb they had found what they were
expecting? What
if when they went to the place where Joseph of Arimathea had put
Jesus on Friday night, he was still there, behind the stone which
Joseph had rolled across the tomb’s entrance. What
if the only problem they had on Sunday morning was the one that had
been talking about on their way.
They
had been saying to one another, “who will roll away the stone for
us from the entrance of the tomb?”
My
impression of these women is that they are determined and resourceful. Their
desire to pay their last respects to their master was such that they
would have found someone or something. They would have found a way to gain access
to what remained of Jesus. They
would have found a way to use the spices they had brought with them
to do the last thing on earth they could for Jesus.
And
then what? There
are of course no shortage of inspiring, but dead, teachers and
leaders. There
are many wise and insightful individuals whose lessons have lived on,
long after they have departed this life. There
are numerous movements which bear the name of a long deceased
founder. And
they the teachings of those who died for what they taught, the
lessons of the martyrs are particularly powerful. Would
the the two Marys and Salome have become the keepers of Jesus’
legacy In
this counter-factual world we are imagining, it is possible to
speculate that beginning with the women who came to the tomb on that
Sunday morning there would be “Jesusism.”
It
is entirely plausible to to think that there would continue to be
those who admired, and respected and even acted upon the ethical
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, or who were inspired by his
philosophical insights. Indeed
there are people around us who would be prepared to accept Jesus that
way. There
are who say
can admire Jesus
the teacher. There
are those who acknowledge the depth of Jesus’ insight, and the
injustice of his life cut short. There
are those who would place the historical Jesus alongside other great
and inspiring thinkers and teachers of the past. There
are those who are happy to act as if when the stone was rolled away
Jesus was still there and the women were able to do what they were
expecting to.
This
of course is all counter-factual. There
is one detail of the Easter story which is actually undisputed. There
is one feature of what the women found on Sunday morning which has
never been seriously challenged even by Jesus’ opponents at the
time, the very people who had had him killed on Friday. The
tomb is empty. When
the women get there, Jesus isn’t! Just
as we can’t think ourselves into the mood of disappointment and
despondency which the women experienced as the approached the tomb,
neither can we share their alarm when they get there. We
already know what they it cannot come to us as a shock or even a
surprise.
The
Easter story is that the tomb is empty! But
it takes divine revelation to explain what that means. We
are meant to take the “young man dressed in white” as
an angel. That
is we are meant to understand that he is a messenger from God. He
offers to the women the truthful explanation of what they are seeing. His
explanation is what makes Easter Easter:
“You
are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He has been raised, he is
not here. Look there is the place they laid him.”
That
there is a tomb is a clear declaration that Jesus did die. The
end result of his crucifixion on Friday was his death. What
is more, the women have come to the right place. This
is not somebody else’s tomb. It
is not empty because it is, as yet, unoccupied, unused. But
as it turns out they have come to the wrong place, because Jesus
isn’t here. The
evidence which the women are asked to pay attention to is the reality of
Jesus’ death. They
are invited to look at the place where his body had been laid. But
they are also told to recognise his absence from that place. The
absence of Jesus’ body from the tomb demands an explanation. The
“angel” provides the explanation:
“He
has been raised.”
This
is the acclamation which we make: He
is risen, he is risen indeed!
For
just a moment the tomb becomes the most important place in the world. But
then, just as quickly it becomes irrelevant. And
on both occasions it is for the same reason. Those
things are so, because Jesus wasn’t there, and he still isn’t. Christ
is alive!
The
story will move on. For
the women in a sense it will come full circle. For
them, their time with Jesus, their experience of him, their
discipleship to him, began in Galilee, and it is to there they and
the other disciples must return. The
“angel” gives them an instruction:
“Go
tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to
Galilee, there you will see him, just as he told you.”
The
place of their ongoing
commitment to Jesus is not the tomb. If
they believe in Jesus they must go back to Galilee. The
call of their discipleship, after the resurrection, is back to the
place of their everyday lives. The
sphere in which they, and indeed any disciple, will encounter the
risen Jesus, is in ordinary life. And
as with everything relating to Jesus, this is exactly as he had been
saying all along. This
is exactly as Jesus predicted, and therefore we can infer, exactly as
he intended.
But
the curious twist in this story is the women’s reaction. They
could approach a dead Jesus. In
their disappointment and regret they could go to a tomb. They
could overcome their fear of the risks attendant to being associated
with a crucified criminal. Which
is a fear that the male disciples couldn’t overcome, hence their
absence from this scene. But
the empty tomb, the lack of Jesus’ body, the prospect of a living
Jesus absolutely terrifies them and drives them from this place. A
dead teacher can inspire. But
a dead teacher is safe. There
will be no surprises with a master who is already safely in the
grave. All
that they are ever going to tell you and everything that they will ever
ask you to do is already written down in black and white. It
can be controlled. It
can be managed. It
can be held at a safe distance where it won’t overwhelm you. The
risen Jesus is a different prospect altogether. He
might send you back to what was your everyday life, but you can’t
know what you will find what you get there. Meeting
him alive in those circumstances
he can tell you something you don’t know, and ask you to do
something you didn’t expect. He
can’t be managed. He
can’t be controlled. He
will never be held at a safe distance, so that there is a good chance
he may overwhelm you. No
wonder the women were terrified!
The
empty tomb, and the resurrection it testifies to, leaves us with a
challenge. What
are we going to do about it? How
are we going to respond? It
requires us to answer a question, with our lives: What
is the difference between being inspired by a dead teacher and
following a living Saviour?
Amen.
The Empty Tomb by Christopher Wood-Archer is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 
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