A Willing Death And An Empty Tomb

Mark 15:42-16:8

Pastor and author John Ortberg tells this kind of creepy but very true story. A friend of his named John was a Christian leader in Minnesota. And part of John’s job was to go to small, rural communities where they didn’t have churches to do funerals. He would usually go with the funeral director, and they would drive together in the funeral home’s hearse. One time, they were on their way back from a funeral, and John was feeling pretty tired. He decided he would take a nap. Since they were in a hearse, he thought, “Well, I’ll just lie down in the back of the hearse.”

Sounds like kind of a creepy thing to do, but this is a true story. The guy who was driving the hearse pulled into a service station, because he was running low on gas. This was back in the days of full-service gas stations, where the attendant would come out and fill your tank up for you. So this guy was filling up the tank and he was kind of freaked out, because there was a body stretched out in the back. While he was filling the tank, John woke up, opened his eyes, knocked on the window and waved at the attendant. John said he never saw anybody run so fast in his whole life.

Ortberg goes on to say, “When people see life where they were expecting death, they start running. On the third day, everything changed! Where everybody thought they were just going to see death, there was life! And that shook things up! After the third day, as a matter of historical record, his followers, who were shattered, disillusioned, and heartsick following the Crucifixion, went out to face all kinds of difficulties and suffering and imprisonment and spread the word, because they believed they had seen life where they were expecting death. That shakes people up!”[i]

When you see life where you expect to see death, it shakes you up. The resurrection of Jesus is a seismic event. An earth-shattering event. A paradigm-altering, worldview altering, everything-is-different-now event. September 11, 2001 was an earth-shattering event. It changed the way we travel, especially the way we fly. It changed the way we view large community gatherings. It changed the way we view one another, and the way we view the world. It was a seismic, earth-shattering event. The resurrection of Jesus is the single most earth-shattering event in human history.

When the three women who went to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body expected to find a body wrapped in a burial shroud, and instead found no body and an angel sitting in the tomb telling them that Jesus has risen from the dead, it left them shaken. If we come to the upper room, and then the cross, and then the empty tomb honestly, it leaves us speechless, shaken … because the empty tomb means that everything is different now. It is a seismic event that altered the landscape of human history, and it alters the landscape of our lives. Turn with me to Mark 15:42-47.

Joseph of Arimathea was a highly respected member of the Jewish council. The council Mark is referring to is the Jewish Sanhedrin, made up of 70 of the chief priests, respected elders, and the scribes, who were teachers of the law. It’s the council that, the night before, had tried Jesus in a kangaroo court under cover of darkness, hidden from view. It’s the council that had decided that Jesus needed to be sentenced to death. The council that had dragged him before Pilate, the Roman governor, under charges of high treason, because they did not have the power to execute someone. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the men who had condemned Jesus to die.

But it’s clear that something about Jesus had drawn him in. Spoken to him. Intrigued him. It was Roman custom to leave someone who had been crucified on their cross after they had died. We know that crucifixion was a brutal way to die. It was one of the most brutal methods of execution humanity has ever devised. It was brutal physically, designed to keep the poor soul alive and suffering as long as possible … often two or three days. It was also brutal psychologically. It was a humiliating way to die. Denying the person a burial kept the humiliation going after death.

It was of course possible for the person’s family to request the body so that they could bury it, and in practice this wish was typically granted, UNLESS the charge was high treason. Rome offered no mercy there. Jesus was sentenced to death for high treason … claiming to be a king. The sign over Jesus as he was crucified said “King of the Jews.” Jesus was mocked as a wanna be king, forced to wear a purple robe and a crown of thorns as the soldiers mockingly bowed before him. There would be no mercy from Rome.

Jews, on the other hand, didn’t deny burial to anyone, even the worst of criminals. The law of Moses said, “his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance” (Deut. 21:23). Denying anyone a proper burial would defile the land God had given them.

Because of the Jewish celebration of Passover and the coming Sabbath, the Romans sought to appease Jewish sensibilities by making sure the men on the crosses that day died quickly so that they could be taken down from their crosses and the bodies dealt with before the Sabbath. They weren’t afraid of the Jewish people, but they also didn’t feel the need to unnecessarily incite a riot by leaving them men up there over the Sabbath.

But then something strange happened. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the council that had condemned Jesus, went to Pilate and requested the body of Jesus, so that he could bury it properly. Not in the communal grave far from the city walls of Jerusalem where most crucified criminals were buried, but in a burial cave he owned. A place set aside for his own family to be buried.

That was a gutsy act. Anyone requesting the body of a person executed for high treason would automatically come under suspicion of having the same insurrectionist views, and would likely find themselves hanging on their own cross soon.

Perhaps Joseph’s position on the Jewish high council protected him from that kind of scrutiny a little bit, but Mark tells us that Joseph “took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” This was an act that could cost him. But something about the way Jesus had died spoke to him, drew him. Something about Jesus drew him in such a way that he was willing to be identified with Jesus, even if it cost him.

His family and friends weren’t seeking to be identified with him right now. Peter had denied knowing him. All of the disciples had scattered and fled, and were now in hiding. Even the women, including his own mother, who had watched the crucifixion from a distance, weren’t asking for his body. But Joseph did.

There’s no half-way with Jesus. When you encounter him, you’re forced to make a decision, one way or the other. You’re either going to follow him or you’re not. You’re going to trust him fully or not at all. There’s no sort of … kind of … a little bit … with Jesus.

Schutt Sports, a major supplier of football helmets for the National Football League, issues the following warning label on all their helmets and on their website’s homepage (as of 2024):

WARNING …. NO HELMET SYSTEM CAN PREVENT CONCUSSIONS OR ELIMINATE THE RISK OF SERIOUS HEAD OR NECK INJURIES WHILE PLAYING FOOTBALL.

The warning label continues with some information about the symptoms for concussions and concludes by repeating the original warning: “TO AVOID THESE RISKS [OF PLAYING FOOTBALL], DO NOT ENGAGE IN THE SPORT OF FOOTBALL.”

A visitor to the website can’t access any content until he or she checks a box next to the words “Please indicate that you have read and understand [this warning label].”

At least Schutt is completely honest about the risks of playing football. In a similar way, the Bible is honest about the risks of following Jesus. In a way, the Bible says, “TO AVOID THE RISKS OF DISCIPLESHIP, DO NOT ENGAGE IN FOLLOWING JESUS.”[ii]

Yes, there is a cost to following Jesus. In America, you might lose some friends, or be made fun of, even as an adult. You might have to run your business differently. Your priorities will change. In some places of the world, you WILL lose your family and friends. You may risk imprisonment or even death.

But there are some incredible benefits, both in this world and the next. No, not riches and popularity and power and influence. But the ability to love even those who are impossible to love. Joy in the midst of even the most trying of circumstance. Peace in situations where having peace makes no sense to others. A patience that others envy. Kindness even when you’re treated unkindly. An overall goodness … a good flavor to your life. A faithfulness and the ability to control your drives and desires that make you the envy of others, whether you have much or little. And an eternal home in the presence of God, with death itself unable to separate you from God’s loving embrace.

Joseph was willing to risk what he had to gain what he didn’t yet possess … something about Jesus drew him in. The cross and the empty tomb together draw people to him like magnets to steel.

Now, look at Mark 16:1-6. The fact that in all four gospels, women are the initial witnesses to the resurrection is extremely significant. Why? Because Jewish culture placed absolutely no value on the testimony of women. Women were certainly valued as mothers and caretakers, and most husbands loved their wives and listened to them. But women had no influence in community, political, legal, or religious matters. Their testimony wasn’t even permissible in court.

Listing women as the first witnesses would have been an embarrassment in the earliest days of the church. The fact that the denial and abandonment of Jesus by all of his male followers and that the women are not just mentioned but prominent in the story – Mark keeps mentioning them – lends a high degree of validity to the gospel testimony. If someone were making this up, the failure of the men and the prominence of the women wouldn’t appear in the story.

But beyond that, God is raising women up in the eyes of the church here. They are the ones who tell the disciples that the story isn’t over yet. That their failure isn’t final. The initial testimony to the risen Christ is entrusted not to Peter, James, and John, but to Mary, Mary, and Salome. St. Paul would later say, in his letter to the Galatian Christians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

Now, look at what happens next! Look at V. 7. “But go, tell his disciples AND PETER.” This is Peter’s first mention in Mark since he denied even knowing Jesus after Judas betrayed him. But the angel isn’t saying that Peter is no longer a disciple. He wants Peter to know that he’s still included.

“Go tell his disciples, and especially Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee.” Before his betrayal, Jesus had told his disciples he’d meet them back up in Galilee after he rose from the dead, but they had no idea what he was talking about. God wants to make sure Peter knows that he’s still a part of the group. That his failure is not final. That his words, “I do not know this man of whom you speak,” uttered with a curse on himself if he were lying, were not the final words in his story with Jesus.

I want you to think about your worst moment for a second. If you’ve had a few, pick one. Hold that memory in your mind. A moment when you failed miserably. Like really failed. Failed morally. Failed spiritually. Failed big time. Jesus wants you to understand something … that moment, no matter how large or how small in the eyes of this world – that moment does not get the last word. It is not the final chapter. The death of Jesus – his broken body and his shed blood, willingly offered for you – covers it. God’s justice has been satisfied by what Jesus did. And he wants you to know that he’s waiting for you. Not in Galilee, as he was for Peter. But right here, right now. He’s waiting … for you.

Now, look at V. 8. The women leave, overcome by “trembling and astonishment.” Temporarily afraid to even speak. We know they eventually did. They told the disciples. But in this moment, their brains are frozen. They can’t process what they’ve just seen (or not seen … there was no body there to see) and heard. They’re overcome, and not necessarily in a good way. And then the story ends.

But wait a minute Jeff, there are twelve more verses in my Bible. Yes there are. And they should be preceded by this heading: “The most reliable early manuscripts do not include 16:9-20). At the time the King James Version of the Bible was translated, those manuscripts had not yet been found. Most of the material in those twelve verses does appear in some form in the other gospels, but scholars are today unanimous in their view that they were appended to Mark’s gospel later because someone didn’t like the way Mark ended his gospel.

Here’s the thing, Mark started his gospel abruptly and tersely with a brief history of John the Baptist and then his baptism of Jesus. And he ends his gospel tersely and abruptly with the woman trembling and astonished as they leave the now-empty tomb.

The resurrection of Jesus is a paradigm-shifting, worldview-altering, seismic event. When we encounter the empty tomb in the pages of Scripture, we cannot leave the same as we were before. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. And it forces us to go one way or the other. Jesus forces us to choose. There is no half way. His resurrection means that he isn’t just savior, he is also lord.

Pastor Tim Keller compares the Lordship of Jesus Christ to what he calls “a life-quake”:

When a great big truck goes over a tiny little bridge, sometimes there’s a bridge-quake, and when a big man goes onto thin ice there’s an ice-quake. Whenever Jesus Christ comes down into a person’s life, there’s a life-quake. Everything is reordered. If he was a guru, if he was a great man, if he was a great teacher, even if he was the genie of the lamp, there would be some limits on his rights over you. If he’s God, you cannot relate to him at all and retain anything in your life that’s a non-negotiable. Anything … any view, any conviction, any idea, any behavior, any relationship. He may change it, he may not change it, but at the beginning of the relationship you have to say, “In everything he must have the supremacy.”

Then Keller adds:

Imagine you had a dear friend who was dying of a very rare disease, and you bring this friend to a doctor. “You’ll be dead in a week. I can cure you, but I want you to know if I give you the remedy there’s just one thing. It’ll keep you alive for the rest of your life, but you can never eat chocolate again.” Well, you’re so excited. You turn to your friend and say, “Isn’t this great?” Your friend says, “No chocolate? Forget it!” You say, “Are you crazy?”[iii]

The cost pales in comparison to the gift.

Today, you and I stand before the empty tomb. How are we going to respond? Let’s pray.

[i] John Ortberg, “The Empty Tomb: How Will You Respond?” Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

[ii] From the homepage for Schutt Sports, Schuttsports.com, last accessed August 23, 2013; see also Barry Petchesky, “Helmet Warning Label Tells Users not to Play Football,” Deadspin (8-5-13)

[iii] Tim Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, Redeemer Presbyterian Church.