Mark 15:42-16:8 | The Tomb of the King

There is tremendous hope in that song that we've just sung.

The King of Love is on his throne, and he will lead us safely home.

That does not happen if the story concludes on Friday.

There is no hope if the story ends at the tomb.

But there's a whole lot of detail that goes into that weekend that really builds us into that place of hope.

It really begins with understanding what was going on in Jerusalem that weekend.

That was a hectic, hectic place as tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people were filling the city of Jerusalem for the feast of unleavened bread, for the feast of Passover, and the feast of first fruits.

Everything was intensified.

So we've heard our orchestra and our choir celebrating and having those bright notes.

That would have been the intensity that was filling the city of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

There was joy, there was celebration everywhere, naturally.

But there was also an undercurrent of malice.

And Sunday does not make any sense without that malice taking place from Sunday leading up to Friday.

And we've seen that in this last week as we've walked with the Lord Jesus Christ the King as he's come into his royal city and received rejection.

We've seen that culminate in the darkest hours on the cross.

See, things turned ugly one day in the temple when Jesus simply outwitted the most brilliant Jewish leaders.

And two Jewish men, Nicodemus and another man named Joseph of Arimathea, could clearly see that Jesus was the Messiah, the one that they had hoped for, the anticipated, promised king of Israel.

But all the rest of the Jewish leaders couldn't wait to be rid of Jesus.

Nicodemus and Joseph, just being two out of many, were powerless to stop what took place.

There was a trial at midnight where they condemned Jesus for blasphemy.

Then around 6 o'clock in the morning, they took him to see Pilate because they wanted Pilate to issue final condemnation.

Pilate saw Jesus as innocent, not worthy of condemnation, but he always played to the whims of the people anyway, and so he gave them what they wanted.

He gave them the petty criminal Barabbas.

And then they led Jesus, like a criminal, through the crowded streets, outside the city walls, to the place called the Skull.

And there they had the gall to lift him up with two other criminals.

And then to make matters worse, everything went dark.

It's like the sun was turned off.

And the ground began to shake uncontrollably.

Rocks broke open, tombs began to open, and the veil in the temple was torn in two as Jesus declared, it is finished.

Rome would have let him hang there until the ravens and the crows came to scavenge.

But Scripture would not allow a body to be hung beyond sundown.

So Joseph kindly put Jesus' body in his own brand new rock-hewn tomb.

And it is there that I would like us to pick up this morning in Mark chapter 15.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

As we've been following Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, in this chapter, I would like you to pick up with me in Mark 15, verse 42 this morning, as we consider the glories of the Lord Jesus and the empty tomb.

Mark 15:42

I'd like to begin reading in Mark chapter 15, verse 42, and I'll go all the way through chapter 16, verse 8.

Mark 15:42

And when the evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died.

And summoning the centurion he asked him whether he was already dead.

And when he had learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock.

And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid.

When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they might go and anoint him.

And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen they went to the tomb, and they were saying to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?

And looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back.

It was very large.

And entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.

And he said to them, Do not be alarmed.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth who is crucified.

He has risen, he is not here.

See the place where they laid him.

But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee, and there you will see him just as he told you.

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Amen.

Jesus died right around three PM, at the moment of the afternoon sacrifice to atone for the sins of the nation of Israel.

In Jewish terms, that day was called the day of preparation, and so that's why Mark explains to us that the day of preparation is the day before the Sabbath, for us that are not Jewish and don't understand that.

The Sabbath began at sundown the night before.

That was the official beginning of the Sabbath.

So no work could be done after 6 p.m.

on the day of the crucifixion.

The problem is Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 23.

Deuteronomy 21:23

Because God had commanded Israel from all time that anyone who is hung upon a tree shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day because a hanged man is cursed by God.

So the honorable and the right thing was to bury the bodies of those who hung upon the crosses.

But crucifixion was a Roman deed, and the Jewish people did not often feel that they needed to participate in that when it was a Roman deed, especially when the person crucified was a criminal.

But it often took several days for the crucified to die.

But Jesus had already voluntarily given up his spirit at three o'clock.

He was already dead, and so they needed to consider Deuteronomy 21, 23.

They needed to get him buried.

But the other issue that we see here is the issue of the Sabbath.

If Scripture was to be followed and Jesus' body to be buried, it had to be done before the Sabbath began.

That meant that there were only three hours to do everything that needed to be done before the Sabbath began.

So in verses 42 through 47, we are dealing with those three hours.

Three hours that I'm sure must have flown by.

And in those three hours we see a man named Joseph displaying great courage.

Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin, that's the ruling council of Israel, who just hours before, you'll remember, had condemned Jesus for blasphemy.

So as Joseph is going to ask for the body of Jesus, it could appear that he is going against the ruling council, as though he is siding with the enemy.

In fact, he was.

Because Luke tells us that Joseph did not agree with the council's decision to condemn Jesus to death.

In fact, if you were prone to be suspicious or skeptical, you could even say that Joseph might be siding with blasphemy.

And if you go there, then Joseph is putting himself in danger.

He was much like Nicodemus.

You remember Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night because he was afraid of what people might think?

Joseph was someone who believed in Jesus but was careful about publicly siding with him because of his own position.

In fact, Mark uses the term kingdom of God here in verse 43.

That's a phrase that he uses over and over and over again to point to someone who was following Jesus.

And yet Joseph was a man of courage.

He would have taken great boldness to go to a Roman authority and ask to have the body of a crucified criminal.

But in God's providence, Joseph was a prominent member of the ruling council, and so he would have had easier access to Pilate for this short period of time.

Most likely, it would have taken a short time for Joseph to think through his grief, standing before the cross, and sort of process what to do next.

Since Jesus was crucified under the authority of Rome, Joseph would need permission from the Roman authorities to secure the body of the crucified one.

And so he goes to Pilate to ask for that very thing.

And Pilate is amazed.

He's amazed.

Why is he amazed?

Well, for the sake of argument, let's say that Jesus died at exactly 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Let's say that it took 10, 15 minutes for Joseph to process what had just happened.

Since the crucifixion was outside the city walls, Joseph would need to walk back into the city to Pilate's location, ask for permission to see him, and then present his request.

Now a proper Jewish man would never run.

So walking would take another 15 minutes at a minimum to reach Pilate.

And with all of the pilgrims in the city of Jerusalem, all of the crowds, it may have taken at 30 minutes.

So let's just say that we're at 3.45 in the afternoon when Joseph speaks to Pilate.

Are you with me so far?

Good.

Joseph has come to Pilate requesting Jesus' body no more than nine hours after Pilate condemned him to hang on a tree.

Nine hours since Pilate gave the word, and only six of those hours upon the cross.

That wasn't normal.

Those who were crucified often hung for days.

That's why we are told in the other gospels that the soldiers came along and broke the legs of the other two men crucified with Jesus so that they could not push themselves up to breathe.

They wanted them to die more quickly.

Quick death was not supposed to happen, so Pilate was surprised.

Because the Romans had mastered the vicious act of killing people upon a tree.

It was the perfect way to bring about a painfully slow, cruel death.

But in God's sovereign plan, the Messiah must rise on the third day.

So everything had to happen quickly.

Pilate's surprise is so great that he had to have confirmation that Jesus was indeed dead.

So what better confirmation to have than the centurion who stood at the foot of the cross?

The centurion who experienced the ground shaking and heard the rocks popping open and looked up at Jesus and said, This indeed was the Son of God.

So he got confirmation.

Yes, Jesus is dead.

So Pilate gives the body to Joseph, and a very quick burial was performed.

Joseph probably reached Pilate by 3.45.

Then the centurion had to be called in and questioned, so maybe we can assume it's about 4, 4.15 in the afternoon by the time Joseph receives permission.

That leaves one hour and 45 minutes to two hours at a maximum for Joseph to complete the burial process.

Wonder how fast those two hours went.

First, he had to leave Pilate and go find a place to purchase a linen shroud.

Then he had to return to the crucifixion site, lower the cross to the ground, remove the iron spikes, take the body off of the cross.

According to Jewish custom, the body needed to be washed and rubbed with spices before it was wrapped in cloth.

They would have carried the body to a nearby tomb, laid the body out into a carved-out niche, and rolled the massive stone over the opening.

An incredible amount of work accomplished in such a short time, but they couldn't do it all.

And in that moment, the tomb was sealed, its location was witnessed, and God was dead.

The promised king was sealed in death.

That's why Isaiah 53, verse 8 would say, He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people.

Isaiah 53:8

A stone was rolled over the entrance.

We don't know exactly what kind of stone it was.

There were several kinds of stones used to seal up tombs.

Some of them were square blocks, perfectly square, that slid into a square opening to seal it.

Could have been a large round ball that would seal up the opening.

But this was most likely the kind that would have been like a tall flat disc that rolled in a pre-cut channel.

So they did all that they could do in the time given to them, and they rolled the stone across the entrance.

That was all that could be done in such a short time.

And in verse 47, as though it's just a sidebar, we are told that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where Jesus was laid.

It's not a sidebar, though.

There are many tombs like this in the old city of Jerusalem.

So they would need to know where Jesus' tomb was, or Joseph's tomb was, and Jesus was buried, because they would need to return later to complete the burial process.

But there's another aspect to this statement that I think we often neglect.

Who is here at the tomb?

Who is at the tomb?

Well, we know there's Joseph, and there's Mary Magdalene, and there's Mary, the mother of Joseph.

But John tells us, the Gospel of John tells us, that Nicodemus was also there.

So for the record, we have four witnesses to the fact that Jesus died on a cross, that he was physically removed from a cross, that he was prepared for burial, that he was taken and placed in a tomb, and a stone was rolled over the opening.

Four credible witnesses to the fact that Jesus was buried in a tomb.

And two of them are members of the Jewish ruling council.

We might call them senators, like our senators.

Respected men who could be trusted.

Four witnesses to the fact that God was dead and buried.

Interestingly, the job of burial belonged to the family.

Jesus' family is nowhere to be seen.

And of his friends, we might say that only two women are there, watching from a short distance.

The primary efforts in this burial are by two men who, up to this point in time, were still nervous about being publicly associated with Jesus.

And then the Sabbath begins.

And no work is to be done.

John tells us they rested according to the commandment.

And in heaven, a countdown begins.

The next day, the Jewish leadership begin to get a little nervous.

As they talk, they remember, oh yeah, that dead man said that he would rise from the dead.

So they go to Pilate and they tell him about this situation and they say, Listen, we don't want people to be more deceived than they already are.

So Pilate said, put a governmental seal on the stone and take four experienced, rough soldiers and guard it.

Then we come to sunrise on Sunday morning.

The women had been thinking, most likely all night long, all day long on the Sabbath, of what they had to go back and complete.

Because the burial was not completed.

So on Sunday morning, because they could not purchase spices on the Sabbath, at first light they would have left home and gone into the market area and purchased some perfumes made from aromatic spices to pour over the body.

And that would complete the burial process.

And notice again that no family members of Jesus are present, nor his close friends, the disciples.

It's two women who have supported him and met his needs throughout his ministry.

From the perfume shop, they go out to the garden tomb.

They know what they need to do.

Been thinking about it for hours, maybe a couple of days.

And now they go about doing what they needed to do.

And you can just imagine the heaviness in their hearts.

What did they witnessed?

But there was a problem, and Mark highlights it here.

The problem that Mark highlights is that while they were prepared to anoint the body with spices, they neglected to prepare for the issue of the stone.

They were on their way to the tomb before they ever thought about the stone.

Now we're not told if they knew about Pilate's order to secure the tomb and to place a guard of soldiers there.

All indications are they did not know that.

They were not aware of that.

Because if the guards were still there, they would not have opened up the tomb to allow access to the body.

That would not have been permitted.

But they're going as if they can go into the tomb.

Seems as though Joseph of Arimathea neglected to complete the burial process because of the approaching Sabbath, but here the women neglect to consider the stone.

And that lack of consideration intensifies what's going to take place next.

Mark tells us this story in such a way that it appears as though the women are carrying these spices with their heads down, just putting one foot in front of the other, looking down in their sorrow, in their grief, and then one of them thinks, hey, wait a minute, what about the stone?

Well, what do we do about the stone?

Then suddenly they arrive near the garden tomb.

And they look up from their feet, and what do they see?

The stone was rolled back.

That large stone that they did not believe they could move.

They were anxious about entering a tomb that was already open.

Isn't that what God so often does?

We worry and we fuss and we get anxious about something that God has already taken care of.

Of.

We get all stirred up, and God says, Don't worry, I got it.

Now, Mark doesn't bother to tell us the details of how the stone was rolled away.

He doesn't tell us about the soldiers placed here to guard the tomb, but we know from the other gospels that Jesus rose from the dead first.

Then an angel came to roll the stone away.

Because when God comes out of a tomb, he doesn't need an open tomb.

It's the people who come to the tomb that need to see inside to see that it's empty.

And the soldiers, we are told, are struck down as if they're paralyzed.

At this point, you can imagine that the two women are experiencing some relief.

That for which they had not prepared has already been prepared for them.

It's like ladies coming home at the end of the day and seeing that your husband's already prepared supper.

Great, right?

It's already done.

They don't have to worry about the stone.

It's open.

God has already taken care of it.

They can now complete what they came to do.

And Mark says, and entering the tomb, stop right there.

Entering the tomb.

Tombs like this were often expensive.

They were carved out of rock, and so they took a long time to create.

And they were often large.

In fact, these sorts of family tombs often had additional rooms added onto them.

Sometimes all at once, sometimes as they were needed.

So there's a large tomb, cave-like.

As you come into the tomb, into the opening, rooms branching off.

There would be niches carved in the stone in which a body could be slid into.

And so they enter the tomb, and since it is a new tomb that was previously unused, they are probably expecting to see the body right in front of them in that very first room.

So imagine now, it's early morning, the sun is shining brightly, you enter that windowless, cave-like tomb, and you're going from bright into dark, and your eyes seek to adjust to the darkness.

You would expect to see the body of Jesus wrapped in white cloth lying in its place.

But what do they see?

They see a living being who is not Jesus.

So Mark says they were alarmed.

Duh.

You don't expect to see a living being in a tomb.

These were the same women who witnessed the burial process.

Most likely they saw Jesus taken down from the cross, they saw his body prepared, they saw his body being carried to the tomb, they saw his body laid in the tomb, and they felt the earth rumble as that stone was rolled across and sealing the tomb.

They saw all of that.

They witnessed it.

It was emblazoned on their minds.

If you enter a tomb, you do not expect to see a living being.

Now the being described here as a young man is dressed in white, and the impression is that it's not a dull white, but more like a glowing white, sitting at the side of respect and honor on the right side.

The word alarmed, they were alarmed, and the angel says, do not be alarmed, is the same word that Pilate used in verse 44.

Pilate was surprised.

Do you see the irony?

Pilate was surprised that a man was already dead.

The women are surprised that there's a living being in the tomb.

One is surprised in, oh really?

Already?

The others are surprised in fear.

But the living being in the tomb is not Jesus.

The angel, that's what the young man was, reassures the young women and they they need reassurance.

Do not be alarmed.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth who is crucified.

He has risen.

He is not here.

I want you to go back about 33 years.

Go back about 33 years to a field.

And out in the field at night there were some shepherds caring for their sheep.

And all of a sudden the skies burst open and there were angels praising God and giving thanks.

Why?

Because a Savior had been born.

They were there to announce the Savior's birth.

Why should we be surprised that there's an angel announcing the Savior's resurrection?

And if we can believe that the angels were announcing his birth, why can we not believe and rest in the fact that they announced his life?

His resurrection life?

You seek Jesus of Nazareth.

I find that statement fascinating on many levels.

Why would the angel call him Jesus of Nazareth?

I mean, the angel has just been with him in the glories of heaven on Saturday.

Why wouldn't he say Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth?

Why wouldn't he say Jesus the risen king?

But instead he said Jesus of Nazareth.

Why?

He refers to him in the most humble form, the Savior from this insignificant village of Nazareth.

And then, as if it were a normal, everyday occurrence for people from Nazareth who are crucified, he says, He's not here.

He's risen.

Remember, these were the two women who just a couple of days earlier watched as Jesus' body was carried into that very tomb, and the tomb was shut.

They had witnessed it.

That's why the angel says to them, see the place where he was laid.

Look.

You saw him come in.

Now look.

See, he is not here.

How do you process that?

Really?

Do you feel the power inherent in those sentences?

A crucified man whose heart was pierced by a spear, who was prepared for burial, wrapped in cloth, and then was sealed in a tomb.

Four people witnessed the burial, along with the exact location and the exact placement of the body.

They know what they experienced, they remember what they saw, but the angel now tells them he is not here.

What kind of being rises from the dead and then departs a sealed tomb without anyone knowing?

Only the one over whom death has no power.

Sin could not condemn him, death could not hold him, and a tomb could not seal him in.

Can you imagine how mind-numbing that must have been for those two women?

So the angel spoke again through the fog in their brains.

But go! Tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.

I love that statement.

Denied him three times.

And Jesus tells the angel, hey, tell those women, Peter, come on, I want to see you.

There's grace there.

Then you will see him just as he told you.

They saw him go into the tomb.

They saw his body sealed in the tomb.

They saw the place where he was laid with the tomb open.

And then they will see him.

And they went out and they fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, but they were afraid.

Can't imagine that.

Dead people don't meet up with dead with other people at another location.

It just doesn't happen.

And do you notice that the angel presents Jesus' message as though Jesus is alive?

He is.

Present tense, not here.

Meaning he is somewhere else.

You remember, right, that Joseph of Arimathea displayed courage coming to the tomb.

These women did not display courage, they were scared out of their minds.

Who wouldn't be?

How do you make sense of that?

Now we do know that the disciples and Peter found out, and they did meet up with Jesus, they were witnesses to his resurrection.

It's real, he is alive.

But notice what Mark is doing here.

Joseph of Arimathea exercised boldness and courage in asking for the body of Jesus in his death.

But in an ironic reversal, the women were not courageous in Jesus' resurrection.

The one who was afraid to be publicly associated with Jesus became bold.

But those who were publicly associated with him became frozen in fear.

We're not told exactly why they were afraid, just that they were, and that they didn't immediately tell anyone about the resurrection.

Doesn't that sound like you and me?

Jesus says, You know I'm not here.

You know I'm alive.

Go and tell somebody.

What do we do?

We run away in fear.

So let's not be too quick to judge the two women because these are natural fears.

Who is going to believe us when we say a crucified man rose from the dead?

If you believe that, you're more than a little odd.

Even more, who's going to believe us when we tell them that that crucified man is God?

You can understand why they didn't tell anybody.

Doesn't that sound like us?

See, here's the deal: nothing about this is normal.

Nothing about it is normal.

The author of life died.

That's not normal.

The perfectly holy one became sin and was sacrificed to atone for sin.

That's not normal.

The judge of all the earth substituted himself for me.

That's not normal.

The one who called Lazarus out of the tomb was himself sealed up in a tomb.

That's not normal.

And the one who was dead is now suddenly alive.

That's not normal.

And the trusting become fearful.

Nothing about this is normal.

And yet, if we look at all of this without faith, if we look at it with doubt and some skepticism, much of this account is perfectly normal.

For example, it's perfectly normal for someone who breaks the law to suffer the punishment for breaking the law.

I mean, think about it.

70 men, a massive jury, questioned Jesus and found him to be guilty of blasphemy.

So he was guilty, convicted.

He should suffer the punishment, right?

And Jesus was a man.

He ate and he drank and he slept and he got tired.

He was a man, and so it's normal for a man to die.

What's unusual about that?

Gods don't work, don't walk among human beings, so Jesus is claiming to be God.

That's blasphemous.

I mean, that makes sense why he is condemned.

It's perfectly normal for a crucified person to die.

It's normal for someone in death to be buried.

And it's normal for a tomb to be sealed.

We approach this with doubt and with skepticism and questions.

Much of it is pretty normal.

But Mark calls on us to challenge our perception of normal.

Back in chapter 1, the very beginning of his account, Mark says this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Messiah, the Son of God.

Mark writes every little detail in his book to show us this is the promised Messiah, this is the Son of God.

So if Jesus is the Son of God, as Mark has said, then it would be totally normal for a tomb to be empty.

If Jesus is who he says he is, it's totally normal.

If Jesus is God, it is normal for him to rise from the dead.

If Jesus is God, it is normal for the cloth that's wrapped his body to be lying there as if he were still in the tomb, but his body to be somewhere else.

If Jesus is God, it is normal for him to fulfill the prophecies of the Messiah, including being crucified with criminals and being buried in a rich man's tomb.

It is normal for God to fulfill Psalm 16, 10, you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor let your holy one seek corruption.

Now we all think of ourselves as normal.

I'm probably more normal than you, but you know.

We all consider ourselves to be normal.

But Mark asks us, which normal are you going to be?

Are you going to be the normal that looks at Jesus and says, yeah, he's not God, he's just a man, he died, yeah, whatever.

Or are you going to be the normal that believes what Mark has said?

Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, crucified in your place, and risen from the dead to conquer death and to give new life to those who believe in him.

The early witnesses to the death and resurrection struggled with that because of the reality of death.

They saw him in the tomb.

But a risen Lord soon became normal to them.

And over 500 witnesses saw him alive after his death.

So Mark teaches us this is the new normal, because this is the new creation.

God is giving you the first fruits of new life.

So will you be like the women who became fearful and run away and not tell anybody?

Or will you be like Joseph, who gave Jesus all he had, becoming boldly attached to him?

What will you do with the angel's announcement?

Will you receive the angel's announcement?

He is not here, he is risen.

Will you receive that with question and doubting, or will you receive that as the new normal?

Because he is risen.

And he's coming again with power and great glory.

Let's pray.

Our Lord Jesus, we have a hard time sometimes with these things, and so we say, we believe.

Help our unbelief.

Sometimes we are like Thomas, who we feel like we we need that physical assurance.

Let us believe in Thomas's place.

For when he saw you, he said, My Lord and my God.

Imprint that upon our minds.

Lord, give us a realization of the importance of the empty tomb.

May all who are here this day bow before you as their king, as their savior, and their lord.

Because we serve a risen Christ.

He was crucified.

He was buried.

And he's risen again.

We celebrate you, Lord Jesus, as the risen and reigning Lord.

Amen.