Three Lessons
Mark 16: 1-14
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A Reformer's Fire - by Pastor Max A Forsythe |
LESSON ONE: The Open Tomb.
"Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, 'Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?' But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away - for it was very large." Mark 16: 1-4
Here we have a sad scene. The three women are on their way to the tomb to complete the work of embalming that had been neglected in the hurried burial of Friday last. Along the way they carried a burden of sorrow. The beloved Master whom they knew to be the Messiah had been crucified, He was now dead and buried. As they walked and talked they remembered the huge stone that guarded the door of the grave. All this preparation, almost there, but how will they even get inside the cave they wondered.
Have you ever had a similar experience? Have you made preparations to do some necessary task and started on the journey only to forget something important? When I was in Seminary, Sherry and I drove eighty miles to spend a night and then I was to preach the next morning. As I was getting dressed before Church I suddenly discovered that my good trousers were not hanging under my suit coat! And I had come a long way to make a good impression! I guess that little congregation still remembers the day the guest minister wore blue jeans under his borrowed choir robe! At least fifteen years after the event, one of the members reminded me! Such a short ministry of less than nine months and we are still in correspondance with one of the organists there.
The stone was not the only thing that the women forgot on their journey that morning. As we shall see a little later, like all of the disciples the women had forgotten the words of Jesus. Like us today their problems made them forget the promises of their Lord. How many times today do we see the overwhelming nature of the world's problems only in the context of our limited abilities to solve them. For forty years the Iron Curtain loomed over Europe and governments and peoples had given up hope of ever dismantling it. Yet what happened within God's providence? The problem that we thought unsolvable disappeared almost over night! In the same way, when the women arrived at the tomb and they looked, the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. This was to be the first suprise of that first reserrection morning! Let us learn from these verses that God is always bigger than the problems of our imagination.
In their despair, not only did the women fail to remember what Jesus had been telling them, but they focused their attention on a problem that seemed insurmountable. All of a sudden their problem was solved! In the same way Sir Isaac Newton wrestled for months on his theory of gravitational force. In the midst of an afternoon's walk and an impromtu nap under an apple tree, suddenly his problem was solved. In the same way the agnostic Clive Staples Lewis wrestled with the implications of the Christian faith for years. One day, he went on a motor trip and when he came home in the evening he writes that suddenly he knew himself to belong to Jesus Christ!
This is the focus of our first lesson today. They have gone out of their way to do something extra for their Lord and Master. And because of their love for Him they find a most wonderful suprise. The very large stone was providentially rolled away. If we, like they will go out of our way to demonstrate our love for Jesus, we too will discover that the Lord is still removing obstacles to the fulfilling of His divine plan.
LESSON TWO: The Empty Tomb
"And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, 'Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is 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 into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.' So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trmbled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Mark 16: 5-8
The second suprise came when they entered the tomb. There before them instead of a shrouded body was a messenger who reminded them of the promise of Jesus. "Just as he told you." are the words that are used. The women were amazed. So should we be too. After all, Christ has been buried more than once since that first resurrection Sunday almost two thousand years ago.
Sometimes Jesus has been buried in the Church and in its Confessions. At other times He has been buried in mysticism and ritual. Theologians and prelates of all types have substituted mere words and ideas for the fact of our risen Christ. Jesus has been imprisoned in stained glass windows, in statuary, in books and in movies. His words have often been relegated to some obscure dusty shelf.
Many people have wished to limit the words and influence of Jesus. In these ways the world has continued its goal of burying Him. After all, if Jesus and his teachings would get loose in the world, just imagine all the troubles that would cause! So men of all kinds have tried to bury Him. The authorities in Jesus' time tried to put him away in a tomb. The guards were carefully instructed to make it as certain as humanly possible that He could not get out!
But what happened? "He is not here." How often have we forgotten the words of our Lord and Savior? Just as often do we not have to be reminded in the midst of our struggles that He is not there still buried in tombs of our own making. He did not die, He has risen indeed!
Why is it the general generic Church appears to go around in mourning for a dead Hero? Why is it the world looks at the witness of the Church and disbelieves the greatest of miracles? Isn't it because the Church still refuses to remember the words and teachings of our Lord and our God? Just look at the last verse in this portion. Don't you see a vivid description of Christ's own Church in the present time? Our second lesson this morning should be obvious. We must become regular in our habits of believing the very words and teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we would do that we could go through life expecting and discovering more miracles.
LESSON THREE: The Unbelievable Truth.
"Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen." Mark 16: 9-14
We should probably note that verses 9 through 20 are not attached to two of the best early Greek manuscripts of Mark's Gospel. It is well for us then to compare what is said here to other passages in the New Testament. To that end I have provided a list of parallel passages. As you have time, please compare this portion of Mark with: Matthew 28: 17, Luke 24: 11 & 41, and John 20: 25.
Even if we cannot say for certain that this is part of the original first edition of Mark, the verses in question are still an authentic witness to the Resurrection. Let us consider the challenge of the passage! In the 16 March 84 edition of Christianity Today there was an article entitled: "Is This What Jesus Really Looked Like?" That article tells about an artist who spent seven years researching the Shroud of Turin as his point of reference for a new painting of Jesus Christ. Like our passage above, there is some lack of certainty that the relic we have is genuine. Yet the painter, Curtis Hooper "believes that he has created the most accurate rendering ever of what Jesus looked like."
[Please note that I am personally committed to honoring the 2nd Commandment in this regard, I use this illustration and those following to highlight the current and even ancient human condition - that even if we had photographic or artistic evidence of the Son of God - still the majority would not believe in Him!]
Several years ago, in The Reader's Digest an archeologist was discussing his search for the real Mount Sinai in the Sinai Desert. When asked how he would know when he found it, he stated that there would probably be a broken set of tablets scattered somewhere on the ground. Again, throughout history there have been numerous attempts to scale Mount Ararat in Turkey in search of the remains of Noah's Ark. One searcher in the fifties brought down a piece of wood estimated at over 5,000 years old. Recently, well known American Evangelicals have been attempting to gain permission for further searches.
Lastly, some years ago, there was a very popular movie made about a fictional character named Indiana Jones and his search for the Ark of the Covenant! That movie became a prosperous box office smash. The theme of that movie was nothing new to me. The possibility of the real Ark of the Covenant being extant was brought to my mind years ago at Ohio Northern University by my favorite history teacher - Dean Darlington.
One day, he told a story in class. When he was in the Army during World War II he served in the Italian Theater. Since, he had studied in Europe prior to the war, he was familiar with the Geography. On one occassion, his Engineer Unit was camped by a minor Italian River for several weeks. While they were there, he remembered where he had read about this river. He said that at one point in history, the Roman Government had had to take its treasurs and archives and flee the city. Since the government was pursued, they had to find a safe place to bury the items. The sources suggested that it was buried beneath a ford in the very river he was camped by!
Now, his line of reasoning was simple. You take an idle Engineer unit waiting for the end of the war and you do a little creative digging! Why not? Well, if you saw the ending of the movie Raider's of The Lost Ark you can appreciate that the wheels of our governmental institutions are the same on the banks of the Potomac as they would be at a nameless river in Italy. No digging was done!
To a person curious about the truths contained in scripture, all of this morning's examples are may seem reasonable areas for exploration. After all, there is a distinct possibility that even the Holy Grail has been uncovered in our century. Yet we know how many people would ridicule any "fool" who actually believed that even one of these items could be really found in our day and age! And even if, any one of these items could be reclaimed from the dustbin of history and be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, many, very very many, would still refuse to believe that the artifacts in question had any real meaning!
Given the fact of modern human doubts, we should not be suprised at the reaction of the Eleven in our scripture passage. The Eleven had refused to believe Mary Magdalene, or even the two. Even with Jesus in the room with them, there was doubt. The Apostle Thomas later had to be invited to touch His wounds before he confessed: "My Lord and My God!" It is the report of these disciples that we have today. It should be enough. Yet, an unbelieving world has rejected their witness. Just as it would reject the Shroud, the Arks or any other physical evidence ever uncovered! Will you believe that the tomb was open and empty on that first Resurrection Sunday so many years ago? Will you listen to the words of the New Testament witnesses?
This is the most important message of all this morning! If the Church of Jesus Christ is to have power to witness and prepare the world for His coming in glory again, we have to really believe all that the Gospel proclaims.
The tomb was open, the tomb was empty.
And most important of all:
Jesus is alive and seated at the right hand of God our Father.
If we like the Apostles would believe that, then the witness of the Church would be accompanied by acts of divine confirmation! May the Lord bless us in our loving of Him and His word just as these women and disciples were suprised and blessed beyond their imagination on that first Resurrection Sunday so long ago. Amen.
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Resources Used: |
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Forsythe, Max. |
"Instuaratur Ruinae", Indian Lake Chief. | |
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Hooper, Curtis. |
"Is This What Jesus Really Looked Like?", Christianity Today. | |
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The New
Geneva Study Bible -
Foundation for Reformation (1995) | ||
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Mrk 16b |
11 April 71, April 84, 15 April 90 & 05 April 99 | |