Mark 16 Easter 2024 31st March (Mark 16.1-8)
Hallelujah Christ is risen – He is risen indeed hallelujah!
The women go to the tomb with one worry – Who will roll the stone away – and they come away different – yes differently worried, but also changed, transformed.
The angel says Do not be afraid – we’re used to hearing Angels say this – I hope at some point you will let that message sink in. We have enough worries as it is but the Angels are on the side of this good news.
The Angel invites the women to have a look, to see for themselves. This is important. Get yourself to an Alpha Course, read books like Who Moved the Stone? Or films like Lee Strobel’s the Case for Christ. There’s some serious solid evidence that you should look at.
We have the internal evidence – the written evidence of the Empty Tomb, of the Angels, of the testimony of the Women, of the risen Jesus himself, of different authors, even of Jesus appearing to more than 500 at one time.
We have external evidence – people like Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus who didn’t like Jesus but wrote a little about Him.
For me a big proof is simply in looking at the affect that it had upon those first disciples – they should have either disappeared, run away, like they did when Jesus was arrested – never heard from again. But something happened that gave them extraordinary courage. OR we ought to see them going out in a blaze of glory, death and revenge killings for all those who had heard their beloved Rabbi – but no we see such a consistent love and forgiveness that it transformed the known world within a couple of hundred years.
Okay SO what: Jesus – Risen from the dead – that’s nice. That means we can have lots of wine at weddings and things can go back to the way they were. No. Jesus is not back from the dead like Lazarus, or the widow’s son from the village of Nain. No. Jesus has died, gone through death and come out the other side
So Easter Day tells us that Good Friday worked.
This means that our sins really are forgiven. That we can leave our sorrows and burdens at the cross. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That happened. Jesus was is the Lamb of God.
Easter Day means that Good Friday worked.
You are truly forgiven.
It means that what Jesus said about himself is true – that He is the Son of Man, the Son of God, that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near, that I am with you always. All that – that’s true.
All the promises of Jesus then –
that He would send another comforter the Holy Spirit,
that He would be in heaven preparing a place for you – more on that in a few Sundays time. All that, we know to be true, because Easter Day shows us that Good Friday worked.
There’s more. Easter Day shows us that God cares. The cross is more than simply a wiping away of our sins. The Cross is more than a mechanism, a coping strategy for managing our sins and guilt. It’s a relationship. Through the Cross we find that we are reconciled to our God, our Maker and Sustainer and Healer and Redeemer and Friend.
Easter Day shows us that Good Friday worked.
So we see that Jesus gives us Life and life to the full.
We are now caught up in the mission and purpose of God to reconcile all things to God.
Life has a seriously joyful proper meaning to it.
We see that death has lost its sting,
that the grave has lost its victory.
Many of you have come to funerals this last year. Whenever you’ve heard the minister say some comforting words about how Death is not the end – You – because you know that Easter Day shows us that Good Friday worked – You know that that’s true. That death is not the end. That there is hope, there is life, there is … more.
SO Your next steps might be to listen to the Angel –
to not be afraid, to come and see where they laid Him, to really explore this astonishing claim that Jesus rose from the dead. Come to our next Alpha, ask us about Home Groups.
Or your next step might be to say – Ok, I think I sort of believe, perhaps I’m a bit like those first women – a little bit trembling and bewildered at processing what this means – perhaps you would like to encounter more of this resurrection love, to come into this relationship with Jesus, – so then try not to rush off this morning,
when we get to Holy Communion, come and receive, maybe receive a blessing, and then come up to the side chapel and ask if someone would pray with you.
And it might be that your faith is good and strong, so then as we worship, as you receive the body and blood of Christ, whisper a prayer of Thank You Jesus – that because of Easter, we know that Good Friday worked –
that God’s love to you is true and powerful and present.
SO may each of us this day, have a moment where the enormity of the empty tomb hits us afresh and leaves us feeling a bit bewildered in a good way,
May you encounter that deep joy that shows you the love of Jesus, that death is defeated, and that because of Easter Day we know that Good Friday worked. Amen.