Mark 16:9-14 Do We Stubbornly Refuse to Believe?

Mark 16:9-14 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.  She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.  When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.  Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.  These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.  Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. 

Fear seemed to penetrate the hearts of those who had to do with Jesus immediately after the resurrection.  Just as the women who came to the tomb were afraid, and lacked faith to tell anyone they had talked to a young man dressed in white who told them Jesus was risen, those who had been with him and mourned his death did not believe he appeared to Mary Magdalene.  Neither did they believe a second report from two of their number who said they had seen Jesus while walking in the country.  Fear and unbelief filled the hearts of those closest to Jesus while He had fulfilled his earthly ministry.  This same Jesus who conquered death and the grave had prepared them for his death and resurrection, yet they seemingly had lacked ears to hear, and now did not believe.  Early in his ministry, when Jesus cleared the money changers from the temple, He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days,” prophesying his resurrection from the dead.  (John 2:19)   Later, He told his disciples, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.”  (Matthew 17:22-23)  We find this same message throughout Christ's interactions because his death, burial and resurrection are at the heart of God's salvation plan for mankind.  Even the Old Testament speaks of the Messiah rising from the dead.  David wrote: Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.  (Psalm 16:9-10)  We also read this prophecy: Come, let us return to the LORD.  He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.  (Hosea 6:1-2)  These Jewish disciples knew these and other verses, and they had heard the words of Jesus, yet they could not fathom their Lord actually appearing to Mary and to two of their own.

No wonder Jesus rebuked them when He appeared to the disciples as they were eating for lacking faith and not believing the good reports.  He knew they should have rejoiced, but they had drawn back in unbelief rather than embracing the truth of his victory over the grave--a victory he had foretold numerous times in their presence, a victory substantiated by God's Word and angels from on high.  Sometimes we humans are so dense.  We ask a lot from God.  He blesses us so abundantly and in so many amazing ways, yet when a trial comes our way, how quickly we turn to doubt and despair.  "Count your blessings, name them one by one.  Count your many blessings, see what God has done!"  These words should be more to us than part of an old gospel song.  Every Christian is so blessed.  We often say to each other: If the Lord never answered another prayer for us, never undertook on our behalf, never healed us again, we would have to praise him for all eternity because we are so greatly blessed.  Our salvation alone would be enough, but we can add to that a list so long that it goes on forever speaking of his many blessings to us.  The 40th Psalm says it all for the believer: I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.  Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.  (Psalm 40:1-4)  Jesus had done exactly what He said He would do; nonetheless, his beloved followers could not accept that He was alive and appearing to his own.  They lacked faith to hear and to see in the spiritual realm because they were caught in the natural world.  They could mourn Jesus' death and burial, but they lacked faith to celebrate his new life!

How often do we draw back from what is new in the Lord, from what He has prepared in advance for us to do.  Since Christ died and was made alive, we are alive in him.  Paul wrote of this great miracle: But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.  But God did not stop at merely saving us by his grace: He has filled us with his Holy Spirit and called us to do his work: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:4-5 & 10)  Jesus always has a plan for his co-workers, God's joint-heirs with Christ Jesus.  Jesus did not just appear to people that day to say, "See, I told you I would rise again."  He had a much greater purpose.  He had work to do.  He had a commission to impart.  He had unfinished business with his disciples.  He as always was about the Father's business.  The disciples were spiritually asleep, but Jesus was waking them up one more time.  The Bible says Jesus chastised his chosen messengers of the Good News for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe the reports about him.  The word stubborn stands out.  They did not just fail to believe, but they dug their heels in and adamantly said, "We refuse to believe you saw Jesus."  Even though three people came back with the wonderful news of encountering Jesus, they did not believe.  This reminds us of Thomas' reaction to the risen Christ, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”  Jesus came to them and had Thomas touch his hands and said, "Stop doubting and believe."  Only then did Thomas say, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus went on to say, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  (See John 20:25-29)  This is our position as Christians today.  Do we believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior?  Do we serve him and his church and praise him for his many blessings while looking for his return?  Do we have eyes to see him and ears to hear him in our everyday lives as we give a drink of water in his name or help the helpless?  Can we say to others, "I have just seen Jesus, and He is alive!  He is alive in me and He wants to live in you!"   

Mark 16:1-8 Jesus Arose, So Will We!

Mark 16:1-8  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.

In these scriptures, we find the two Mary's and Salome, motivated by love, going to the place of Jesus' entombment to anoint his body.  But to their surprise, Jesus was not there.  For sure, Jesus was already in another place.  He is not here, the angel said.  How often in our lives do we look for Jesus in the wrong places.  As Christians we know Jesus is always with us because of his abiding Spirit in us, but often this truth does not suffice us.  We want something extra to prove that Jesus is in our lives, a special something that will gives us confidence that Jesus is guiding our lives.  The commission and promise of Jesus is not enough for us: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:18-20)  We often want something that our senses can perceive.  When we are struggling in our faith, we sometimes claim we would be much better Christians if only we would have walked with him during his time on Earth, seen all of his miracles, listened to his wise and profound teachings, touched him as the disciples touched him, and truly known him in person.  With that knowledge and experience, we believe we would be full of faith, never fearing that He is not concerned about us, or doubting that He is constantly with us.  We believe a life like the disciples had with Jesus would give us the faith we need to be steadfast and confident in our relationship with the Lord in all situations. 

The stone blocking the tomb was rolled away when the women arrived.  No longer would Jesus be hampered by the physical constraints of this world.  His biological self received life; no corpse was left in the tomb.  He would move in and out of physical matter at his will.  In a nanosecond, He would be where He desired.  Jesus the man had risen--life had conquered death.  Life eternal surged through his body.  The tomb could not hold God's plan for him.  As He is risen so are we risen.  The Spirit of God raised him from the dead, implanted in him the life He had from the beginning, for He is the beginning and the end, everlasting, without end.  We who are IN HIM have this same life dwelling in us regardless of our feelings or thoughts about our daily struggles.  The tomb is empty: so are our tombs empty.  The flesh will not dictate our futures, for our earthly death sentence has been paid.  Life eternal is our inheritance.  As joint-heirs with Christ, our reality is the HOLY SPIRIT IN US.  Why can we not catch hold of this miracle?  Mostly because we remain bound to the laws of nature, unable to escape fully the sentence of death on our biological beings.  Paul shares his struggles when his fears were not only about his possible demise but also about how bound his flesh was to sin and its consequences.  We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia.  We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)  As we have mentioned before, Paul understood the war of the flesh and the spirit.  So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans 7:21-25)  It is difficult to understand or to appreciate that WE ARE IN HIM and He IS IN US.  We seek to find him in our feelings, wanting to sense something special, something our fleshly body can detect.  We want a miracle, more of this blessing or more of that substance, such as wealth.  We want these things, but the angel says the tomb is empty.  You will not find him here in your fleshly realm.  

We are risen with him if we believe wholeheartedly in his work at the cross and in his resurrection.  He no longer has to prove anything: It is finished!  The tomb is empty: He now dwells in us through his lovely Spirit.  How often we want to see a reality that our senses can detect, that our rational minds can embrace, something we can measure and prove real.  But the risen Jesus comes to us in a Spirit as One who can go through doors, who can abide in each of us as we reach out to interact with him in faith.  We know faith unlocks the door to Jesus.  Intractable faith brings salvation and brings us into a heavenly existence, another domain.  God has not allowed us to approach him in our rational thinking.  For example, to prove our importance to the God of existence, He could have made this earth the biggest heavenly body, allowing all other bodies to circle our wonderful earth.  Instead, the earth is but a speck, hardly discernible when we look into the immenseness of space.  The rational mind might conclude, we must not be that important.  Similarly, if God values us, why hasn't he created an earth where all is good, where all the people love him.  Why do so many people live in darkness, away from his authority, serving themselves?  Why doesn't He use his omnipotent authority to create an existence of complete happiness, where all would know there is a good God who loves them?   This is the kind of thinking we pursue to validate the existence of God and to prove He is the giver of good things.  We believe if there were no wars, no disputes, no problems, no sickness, no disease, no devouring of living things, this would demonstrate God's existence and his concern and love for us.  He must exist and we know how to prove it!  Why then his silence?  Why?  Because faith is required to know God.  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  (Hebrews 11:6)  Not the rational mind or the thinking processes, but unadulterated faith pleases God: faith in Jesus' work at the cross, faith in the open tomb, faith that He has come to rescue us from sin and death.  This kind of faith makes the world mad.  They neither understand nor desire to understand it.  God has not allowed any other Gate into his presence or for us to enter into his heavenly family.  Humans seek a validation of God's existence, scientific proof or at least a logical, satisfying deductive consensus of his existence, something to substantiate a belief in God.  But we Christians know the tomb is empty: He is not there.  HE IS IN US: ALIVE FOREVER IN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO LOVE AND SERVE HIM!   We are NOW AND FOREVER a part of God's eternal family.  Amen!  

Mark 15:42-47 Rescue Mission Accomplished!

Mark 15:42-47  It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.  Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead.  Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died.  When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.  So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock.  Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Jesus lost everything at the cross.  His lifeless form was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea.  Jesus did not and could say at that time, "Joseph, I will let you take my body off the cross now, and please take me to your tomb cut out of rock.  Make sure you wrap my body in linen, for later on the linen found in an empty tomb will be an important sign of my resurrection."  No, Jesus did not and could not have said any of that after his experience on the cross, for Jesus lost everything when He surrendered completely.  He died as we die, with no hope of anything except God's faithfulness.  Peter's message on Pentecost about the resurrection of Jesus states:  "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.  David said about him: 'I saw the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.'"  (Acts 2:25-27)  Peter goes on to explain what David meant by saying, “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.  But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.  Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.  GOD HAS RAISED THIS JESUS TO LIFE, and we are all witnesses of the fact."  (Acts 2:29-32)  In the cross we see the complete sacrifice of the Lamb of God: innocent, harmless, and pure.  We see Jesus Christ giving his all for humanity that He made in his image that He might also live in us.  Because we are created in his likeness, we have the capacity to hold the fulness of Christ in us: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.  (Colossians 2:9-10)

Why his death, the complete emptying out of life, if we are made in his image and can contain the fulness of God's attributes, his goodness in us?  Why the Bible?  Why redemption?  The answers are found in the Garden of Eden story, in the partaking of the tree of knowledge.  With that knowledge of good and evil, we can become the lord of our lives; and by extension, as we gain power, the lord of others.  We can decide what is right or wrong for the people around us as our self-interests rise to the top in our dealings with others.  If we take authority for the direction of humanity away from God, we are no longer subject to God's will.  We decide to do our will on Earth, not God's will on Earth as it is in heaven.  All of this self-interest and self-direction leads to chaos, disruptions, arguments, fights, wars, and sorrows of every kind.  As the Bible says in Isaiah 53: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."  Unchecked, this self-willed existence leads to complete corruption.  Even Christians, who do not take time to pray and read the Word, have difficulty controlling their actions and reactions.  Paul told the Romans that nothing good lives in our sinful nature.  He said, I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  (Romans 7:15)  That is why we have laws, policemen, courts, judges.  All of these agencies and institutions help bring order to our societies.  We can easily understand why the Bible talks about being very careful when talking or going against the authorities in a society.  Even Paul apologized for talking against the High Priest who ordered Paul to be struck in the face.   Those who were standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?”  Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’”  (Acts 23:4-5)  Self-direction and self-willed decisions tend to separate us, not bind us in a peaceful co-existence.  We need an answer for this turmoil.  And the answer is in the Word of God, in Jesus alone.  

Recently, Dad woke up in the middle of night and felt the Holy Spirit talking to him about the essence of the Bible, the reason for the Bible.  The Lord spoke to him: "You needed to be rescued."  He knew this was not for him in the singular. The "you" was for humanity.  Humanity needs to be rescued.  Without rescue, we are under the punishment of death as it was in the days of Noah.  Then the Spirit added, "You needed a Savior."  To be rescued, we need a savior who has the power and authority to deliver us from this abyss of judgment.  Dad knows the Bible from the beginning, and starting with Abraham the message is one of rescue.  God gave the law to rescue people from chaos, from living according to their own needs and desires.  God gave the law to imprint a message of light, peace, and harmony on the Jewish society.  To cover the immediate judgment of God on sin, the penalty of death was placed on animal sacrifices instead of on humans.  Christ's death at the cross fulfilled the promise of God: I will make men in my own image.  Jesus' death, his agonizing demise, rescued us and brought us life through the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.  We who are IN CHRIST because of faith in him have vicariously and in reality entered into the very presence of God.  Through Christ's death, a NEW CREATION has been made.  We are no longer walking with God as in the Garden of Eden, occasionally experiencing his presence and fellowship.  No, we are constantly in his presence because of Jesus through the Spirit in us.  “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”  (1 Corinthians 15:55)  Jesus paid it all.  When Paul was despairing his dreadful state and the war of flesh and spirit, he cried out, What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans 7:24-25)  Paul had found the one whom to know is life eternal!  Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.  (John 17:3)  When Joseph was carrying Jesus' body to the tomb, he did not realize this was a holy moment: he was carrying the key, the gate to life everlasting for all people.  He lay the body of the begotten Son in that tomb; but three days later as Christ arose, the millions of adopted sons and daughters left that tomb as well!  Rejoice, church, rejoice!  

Mark 15:40-41 Comfort God's People

Mark 15:40-41  Some women were watching from a distance.  Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.  In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs.  Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Jesus has just drawn his last breath, and the temple veil was rent in two.  As Jesus cried out, the centurion who was closest to him was touched by the power of the events and the presence of Jesus, and he proclaims, "Truly this man was the Son of God."  In the midst of this divine moment, Mark directs our attention away from the cross to a group of women watching from a distance.  He describes several important women in Jesus' life as well as many others who had followed him to Jerusalem, and he says, these women had followed him and cared for his needs.  Finally tucked into this story of loss, we hear of a group who stood by Jesus until the end.  We have seen Judas take money to betray him and lead men to arrest him.  We have heard Peter curse and say, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.”  (Mark 14:71)  And we know the Bible says that everyone that was with Jesus deserted him and fled when the guards took him away.  Jesus must have remembered with love and thankfulness the kind deeds of these faithful women who stood by him at the very end, whose deeds testified to the love in their hearts.  We also remember a time when Mary showed great love to Jesus while he was in Bethany at the house of Lazarus.  We read: Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.  And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.   When Judas complains that the money from the sale of this perfume could have been used to feed the poor, Jesus replies, “Leave her alone.  [It was intended] that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”  (John 12:7-8)  Jesus knew her act of kindness and obedience was motivated by God and would resonate far beyond the walls of that home.  Mary ministered to and comforted her Lord while she anointed his body in preparation for his coming journey to the cross.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus shows us that God is a God of concern and care for his people.  Christ never would have gone to the cross except for God's unfailing love and commitment to his fallen creation.  The prophet foretold the coming of Christ with grace and mercy: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.  He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.  (Isaiah 40:1-2 & 11)  A forsaken and condemned people would receive the mercy of their God.  When Jesus looked over Jerusalem, He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  (Luke 13:34)  The ones He came to shepherd rejected his care, turned away from his embrace.  Jesus wanted to establish the family of God on Earth, to make sons and daughters of the Most High God, as people who would accept the sacrifice He was going to offer as a bridge of reconciliation for mankind; yet people chose darkness over light.  Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  But in spite of this loving call, many had eyes but could not see and ears but could not hear.

All who know the Lord, stand with the women who stood by Jesus at the cross.  We have walked with him in the way as did the women who watched him on the cross.  We talk with him, and we listen to his words of comfort and encouragement.  We praise him and glorify his deeds.  Today, He tells us, "I have work for YOU to do!"  Brothers and sisters, each of us has work to do for the Lord.  In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote in his salutation, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.  (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)  Paul says we will suffer as Christ suffered, but just as we share in that suffering, we share in God's comfort.  We have Christ in us our hope of glory.  Furthermore, that comfort overflows to others.  The comfort we receive, we share!  Paul told the church not to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  (1 Thessalonians 4:13)  He knew we have light and life in abundance to share with those around us.  We are not merely trudging through our lives, persevering by faith, waiting for the Lord's coming or for God to take us home.  We are here to reach  those who need a touch from the Lord.  The Holy Spirit used Paul to encourage the church to turn from worldly pursuits and to seek God.  Paul wrote: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.  (Titus 2:11-14)  God has good deeds for us to do in his name.  May we comfort his people in his name this day and please the heart of God!