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The Shock of the Resurrection by Dr. J. Smith

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The Shock of the Resurrection by Dr. J. Smith P a g e | 1 The Shock of the Resurrection By Dr. J. Smith Mark 16:6-7 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are story made up by Jesus' disciples; who would ever looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. make up something like this? If they wanted to He has risen! He is not here. See the place where start a Christian movement they should not they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, expect many people to believe a story like this. ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you The shock and disbelief of the women and of will see him, just as he told you.’” Jesus' disciples is natural; it's exactly the sort of reaction you might expect. Indeed, without the On Good Friday we remember an event that power of the Holy Spirit, no one would believe the happened almost 2000 years ago. Our Saviour gospel of the resurrection of Christ. died on the cross and Joseph of Arimathea buried him, just before the Sabbath began. Mark 15 ends The four gospels do not actually describe the at sunset on Friday evening, with the women resurrection of Christ. We do not get a first-hand standing at the tomb. Mark 16 begins at sunrise account of how he opened his eyes and stood up. on Sunday morning with the same women at the Hollywood would have done it differently. The same tomb. They had come back after the camera would take you into the depths of a dimly- Sabbath to add their fragrant spices to his body. lit cave and zero in on a casket, and the But what they saw at the tomb changed their lives background music would become ominous so forever: an open tomb, the body is gone, and that you just knew that something was about to instead they see a nameless young man, in a long happen, and your hands become clammy and white robe, with a message for them that Jesus is your heart starts to pound, and there! the casket alive. begins to shake, and suddenly there is a blaze of glory and a crescendo of angelic music. Each of the gospels also gives its own perspective on how the women reacted to the news of the Instead, the gospels tell us about the women. And resurrection. In Matthew we read that the that is because the gospels are eyewitness women left the tomb with great joy, in John we accounts; they tell us what Christ's followers saw read of Mary's despair: "They have taken away my and heard. Mark gives the perspective of three Lord, and I do not know where they have laid in women: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of him." In Mark the reaction of the women is best James, and Salome. The same three women are described as shock: the women were alarmed at mentioned in Mark 15:40 where it says that they the sight of a young man sitting in the tomb where had ministered to Jesus in Galilee and had they expected to find the body of the Lord Jesus. followed him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They And the words of the angel did nothing to put followed him to the cross and watched him die. them at ease; they fled from the tomb shaking in And in verse 47 we read that the two Mary's fear, so overcome that they could not even talk watched as Joseph of Arimathea laid him in the about what they had seen. grave. Then they went home and prepared spices to take to his tomb once the Sabbath was It is precisely the emotional reactions of the finished. They set out very early Sunday morning women to the news of the resurrection that and came to the tomb just as the sun peeked over makes the story ring so true. This not a clever the horizon. The Shock of the Resurrection by J. Smith P a g e | 2 women as they stepped into the tomb with their It might be tempting to criticize these women: spices. had the Lord Jesus not told them that he would rise again from the dead? They should have As the women got close they began to discuss a believed that and looked forward to it. Indeed it nagging problem. They said to each other, "Who is true that the women were not prepared for the will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb resurrection. But in their actions you also sense for us?" As they asked the question, they looked love and devotion for their master. They had up and they could see the stone, for it was very ministered to him in Galilee, caring for his daily large, says verse 4. They recognized it because needs. You can read about that in Luke 8.2: there they had been there when Joseph of Arimathea it says that besides the 12 disciples, certain had rolled it against the opening of the tomb. But women followed Jesus, including Mary they also noticed that the stone was in a different Magdalene, and Joanna whose husband was an place; it had been rolled away from the opening official in Herod's palace, and Susanna, and many of the tomb. So they carried on and entered the others; these women provided for Jesus at their tomb to fulfill the mission for which they came. own expense. They followed him everywhere from city to city, even to Jerusalem, to the cross You can imagine their reaction when they saw the and to the grave. They were determined to young man sitting there; they were shocked. continue to minister to him even after his death. Perhaps their first thought when they saw the That had been their daily labour for three years open tomb and the man inside was that they had already, ever since the ministry of Christ began. come upon a grave robber. But that explanation Now that Jesus had died, you might think that did not fit. The man was simply sitting there, as they would consider their task to be finished, but though he was waiting for them. Moreover he no, as soon as the day of rest was finished, they was wearing a long white robe, the kind of returned to their task of caring for their Lord. garment that symbolized honour and holiness, They prepared to do the only thing they could still not at all the kind of person you would expect to do: anoint his body with spices. find in a tomb, an unclean place for the dead. And so they were alarmed. They brought spices to help preserve his body for as long as possible. Why? Here I would like to But he said to them, "Don't be alarmed. You are point out that the word for tomb in Greek is the looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was same as the word for memorial. The women were crucified." Or, more literally: "You are looking for trying to keep the memory of Christ alive. And Jesus the crucified Nazarene." In other words, that sentiment is not so strange. We have you're looking for a dead man, but there is no memorials for soldiers who died in battle, to dead man here. The person you are looking for honour their memory. And closer to home, when has risen. And to prove the point, he added, "See we lose a loved one, our grief can paralyze us so the place where they laid him." In chapter 15:47 that we feel unable to move on, and we almost we read that the women had observed where resent it when others carry on with life as usual; Jesus was buried, and Luke says that they saw it's almost easier to live in the past, because in the how his body was laid. So now the angel showed past at least there are memories, but in the future them that it was the same place, but the body was there is only emptiness and loneliness. There is gone. And in another place we read that Peter something so very human in the actions of these saw the linen cloths lying there, folded neatly away. It all pointed to one conclusion: Christ had The Shock of the Resurrection by J. Smith P a g e | 3 risen. This was no place for spices; there was not brought before governors and kings because of a trace of death. This was not an unclean place their faith in Jesus. But they need not be afraid, but a place for holy angels. for the Holy Spirit would give them the words to say, and after all, those governors could only kill It's hard to guess what impact the angel's words their body, not their soul. And in that context would have had on the women. With those three Jesus said, "Whoever disowns me before men, I words—he has risen—the angel made their spices will also disown him before my Father in heaven." a waste of money, and their trip to the tomb a waste of time. The Lord did not need them to Now that is exactly what Peter had done. Peter, keep his memory alive; he did not even need with all his bravado, claiming that He would never them to keep him alive; he no longer required deny Jesus, buckled under pressure, succumbed their care. to the fear that he would be arrested and condemned with Jesus, and so he denied his Lord.
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