1.      The Resurrection of Jesus is a Mystery

Three ladies Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome are off to the tomb to embalm the body of Jesus v1. They hadn’t thought about the logistics like who was going to move the stone. But when you are experiencing grief and trauma you don’t always think rationally. v3 

What they discover is that the large stone is already rolled away and a young man dressed in white (I assume to be an angel) was sitting on the right side of the tomb. 

They were alarmed, frightened – Jesus was not where they expected to find him, a young man was, and he seemed quite calm about it.

The message - You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified (make no mistake he was and the Romans ensured that Jesus was dead by piercing the side of Jesus with a spear), He has risen – he is not here. That Jesus was not there, was not a question they could see that, but where was he?

They were to go and tell the disciples and Peter, you get the impression that Peter ‘s in trouble. Yet this very phrase is inclusive with the exception of Judas all the disciples were to see Jesus in Galilee.

Trembling and bewildered the women went and fled from the tomb They said nothing because they were afraid. 

Reaction – speechless, shocked, in a state of disbelief , they were the other side of Easter and until this moment death meant death (full stop)

So what did happen, how did Jesus get resurrected.

Well I don’t know all the details but I know who did it. Paul writes in Eph 1.20  It happened because God’s glorious strength was exerted in Christ when he raised Jesus from the dead.

An earthquake also took place and an angel rolled back the stone and sat upon it Matt 28.v2

It also seems to me that Jesus was an ordered person either he was or the angel because we are told in John 20 that the strips of cloth were still lying in the tomb, like a cocoon, whereas the cloth around the head of Jesus had been folded v7.

Was Jesus’s body different? I believe so.

In Luke 24 the two disciples travelling along the Emmaus Road were kept from recognising Jesus v16.

In Mattew 28 when the disciples see Jesus they worshipped but some doubted v17.

Mary, thought she was alone in the Garden. Jesus was with Mary, she thought he was the gardener John writes she saw Jesus but did not realise it was him.

Paul writes that the resurrection body of which Jesus demonstrated to us what it was like 1 Cor 15.20  is different from the bodies we have now. Which is good news. Phil 3.21 talks about a glorious body, 1 Cor 15 contrasts our bodies now and says that the resurrection body will be v42 imperishable, glorious v43, powerful v43, and spiritual. Which I think means it has similarities with our present bodies as did Jesus but its also different.

So Mark makes us aware the resurrection is a mystery  - ponder it.

2.      The end is not finished

It was not finished, for Jesus he was going to His Father. Jesus’s home is in heaven with the Father. What a celebration that must have been. Together again, yet Jesus takes with him his humanity.

For the disciples they are wrecked in the sense of witnessing their Master Jesus the one they had been with for 3 years crucified. They couldn’t stay with him. All of them had run away. They were frightened men. (More about that tonight) but suffice it to say that Jesus goes to see them and they are transformed. So much so, that they give their lives to communicating the good news of Jesus.

The story is not finished as far as you are concerned. Where do you feature, a sceptic, a believer, a disciple? Have you had an encounter with the risen Jesus? Have you ever asked him to be the Lord of your life and invited him to come by His Spirit and live within you? If you have where do you go from here. Maybe you don’t know the future, for the disciples at Mark 16.8 it had to be worked out and it was. 

What of you?