1 Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.
2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
3 And they said among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away for it was very large.
5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
6 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.
7 "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."
8 So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
The women were expecting to do the final preparations for Jesus' burial, as He had been buried in haste
because of the Passover.
The stone covering the tomb entrance was usually a thick, heavy circular slab that was rolled into a
deep-cut slot carved into the bedrock before the entrance used to keep animals and robbers out, and
usually required several men to roll it into place. Rolling it back was even more difficult as the stone had
to be rolled up out of its slot and onto level ground again.
The corpse was usually placed on a shelf in the cave and remained in the tomb until decomposition was
complete, then the bones were removed and were usually interred on an "ossuary", a stone box that
contained the bones of family members. Note that the angel sat on the right side, indicating that there
were possibly several shelves for the dead in the tomb.
It is interesting that an ossuary containing the bones of Joseph ben Caiaphas, the High Priest
that prosecuted Jesus as His trial was found in Israel a few years ago when excavators
accidentally broke into an ancient tomb. Inside was a beautifully carved limestone ossuary
with the inscription reading "Joseph ben Caiaphas". An examination of the bones was
determined to be that of a man who had died while in his 60's.
The reason for rolling the stone back was to show that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, not to let Him
out. After His resurrection He was no longer restricted by such trivial things as space, time, and matter.
And it is interesting that the women weren't worried about being ritually defiled by entering the tomb,
they looked inside and raced away in fear and overwhelming joy to tell the other disciples the good
news that Jesus had risen from the dead as He had promised!
Mark 16:9-11
9 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.
10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.
11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
The last time the disciples had seen Jesus was to wrap his mutilated, crucified body and place it in a
cave for burial. And yet here is a woman telling them that she had seen Him alive, something they
refused to believe.
Mark 16:12-14
12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.
13 And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
14 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.
More witnesses came to tell the disciples that they had seen Jesus alive, and they still refused to believe.
It took Jesus literally appearing to them in person for them to understand that He was indeed alive, as
He had promised.
Mark 16:15-18
15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
17 "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
18 "they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Jesus met with his disciples and helped them overcome their doubts and fears. Some condemn those
who doubted, but after seeing what had happened to Jesus would we readily believe if we saw Him
again?
With His resurrection the Father gave all of His authority in both Heaven and Earth, to His Son so that
Jesus is now in control of everything. The Father did this that all men may honor His Son as much as
they honor Him, much as subjects in a kingdom honor both the king and his son(s). And in this way,
we can only access the Father through Jesus. There is no other mediator between us and God the
Father. We worship and pray to Jesus and He in turn intercedes with the Father on our behalf.
By the same token, there is no mediator between us and Jesus Christ. We pray directly to Him and
make our requests only to Him. With His death He removed the barrier of sin between men and God
which had required a priesthood to intercede for us. With the removal of the barrier of sin, the need for
a priesthood was also removed.
And while Jesus can't be here with us physically, He has sent the Holy Spirit of His Father to dwell
within us until He comes back to take us to be with Him forever. Thus He is with us always, until death
or the end of all things, whichever comes first.
Jesus didn't mean for us to preach the Gospel to every creature, literally. Catholic "saint" Francis of Assisi took this literally, and preached to animals and birds. Jesus meant that we are to preach the Gospel to all men, everywhere.
And note that He says those who believe and who are baptized, will be saved, but those who don't
believe will be condemned. He didn't say that those who are not baptized will be condemned, as
some teach. Baptism, like communion, is a symbol, in which we publicly confess our faith in
Jesus, and we are symbolically cleansed of our sins by that faith.
Mark 16:19-20
19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Jesus' ascension to Heaven and being seated at the right hand of the Father was the completion of the
Old Covenant created between the Israelites and God. Now the New Covenant began as stated in
Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
32 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."