And the sabbath being [now] past, Mary of Magdala, and Mary the [mother] of James, and Salome, bought aromatic spices that they might come and embalm him.
The Sabbath has ended, and three women buy spices to anoint a body. That one purpose shows how much they loved Jesus, and how little they expected Him alive.
Mark gives their names, and they are not strangers to his story.
For the third time these three devoted women — Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome — come before us. It seems they had already bought sweet spices to anoint the Lord's body once the sabbath was past. Unbelief expected to find the Lord's body in the grave, and ignorance would try to keep it there. But the Spirit of God delights to take what is precious out of what is worthless. He dwells on their devoted love, which led them to buy the spices and come to the grave at sunrise.
Their steadiness stands out against the men who ran.
The women stood by the cross when all the men who had claimed to be devoted to Him had run away, except John. The women were the last at His tomb on the night of His death, and the first there on the morning of His resurrection. He showed Himself alive to them before any of the men knew He had risen. And Mary Magdalene was the chief among those women, and the first to see Him.
Their love was real. Their grasp of what He had said was not.
In this chapter we see the women coming to the grave of Jesus with love, but with no understanding of resurrection, and so in deep confusion. They had "bought spices" so that they might come and anoint Him. The Lord had told the disciples plainly that He was about to rise from the dead. The faith of even these saints of God was so small that, on the very day He had prepared them to expect His rising, they were busy with what suited a dead Christ only, not the risen and living One.
The same act shows three things at once.
Three things are clearly shown by this: first, their affection for Christ; second, that they had no expectation of the resurrection; and last, their true godliness, seen in their submission to the word of God. They longed to pour out the signs of their deep love on the dead body of their Lord. But the sabbath came at once, so these holy women — Mary Magdalene the best known among them — waited and rested in obedience to the commandment before they carried out their plan.
Commentators differ over exactly when the spices were bought. Some read the wording as placing the purchase on Saturday evening, once the Sabbath had closed and shops could open again.
The Sabbath closed at six, as is known, and from Saturday at six in the evening the women were free to buy their spices, or to do anything else.
Others allow that some of it may have been secured earlier, before the rest-day began.
Other women had bought spices to embalm the Lord. They may have bought some before the sabbath began, so that they could rest during the sabbath day. And after the sabbath was over — that is, at six o'clock — they certainly waited till the morning to embalm Him.
Their errand was sincere, yet it had already been overtaken.
They had bought sweet spices in order to anoint His body, but they would never use them. Mary of Bethany had anointed Him before, and He credited her with doing this in view of His burial (Ch.14:8). They may not have known that the stone had been sealed and a guard set. But they knew how hard it would be to roll the stone away, and they asked who would do it. Yet their love for Him brought them there.
One writer sets the two anointings side by side.
The woman who anointed the Lord's feet in Simon's house showed more real love, and more understanding of God's truth, than those who brought their hundred pounds of sweet spices to His empty tomb. Their loving act came at the wrong time, for He was not there — He had risen. And there was no decay there needing rich perfume to cover it.
The Sabbath they waited through was the one Christ spent in the grave.
So Christ lay in the grave that sabbath, but now He is risen — risen on the first day of the week, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep... So we do not celebrate the rest of the old creation; we were completely lost as part of it. We celebrate the resurrection of our blessed Lord, as the foundation and beginning of the new creation, when redemption is accomplished.
- Love waits. The women rested through the Sabbath in obedience. Then they bought spices as soon as they were free. The word of God held their love in check.
- Love buys. Their money went on perfumes for a body, proof of devotion and proof that none of them expected Him to rise.
- Love arrives. They were last at the cross and first at the tomb, ahead of every man who had promised to stand by Him.
- Love is outrun. The spices were never used. Mary of Bethany had anointed Him already, and no dead body was left to anoint.
- Love finds a new day. They kept the Sabbath Christ spent in the grave. They walked into the first day of the week — the start of the new creation.
And very early on the first [day] of the week they come to the sepulchre, the sun having risen.
Mark opens the resurrection morning with three women walking to a grave at first light. They carry spices for a body they expect to find. Two questions follow. How does the timing fit the other three Gospels? And why does Scripture dwell on women who came expecting death?
The four Gospels each mark the hour differently. A reader once asked one writer to reconcile Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1 and John 20:1. His answer turns on where each account begins:
The first text speaks of the Sabbath that came before the resurrection day, not of the resurrection day itself. It points to late on that Sabbath, at the dusk of evening. By Jewish reckoning, that was when the next day was to begin. In Matthew, verse 2 starts a distinct paragraph referring to that first day. The second text tells us that when the Sabbath was past, the women it names bought the spices to embalm Him. But when they came to the tomb very early next morning, they learned that the Lord had risen. So says the third text. The fourth tells us of two separate visits by Mary of Magdala. On the first she saw the stone taken away. On the second He appeared to her for the first time.
Mark's note about the risen sun raises a further question. How many trips did the women make, and what had already happened before they arrived?
Here Mark gives us a little bit of light. They were there at the rising of the sun. They must then have been there twice. I do not doubt it. Whether they went back overnight is not the question. They came out at sunrise. But before they got there, and before the sun was up, the blessed Lord had risen.
The women bought their spices and rested through the Sabbath before they set out. Those steps show three things about them:
This shows three things very clearly. First, their affection for Christ. Second, they expected no resurrection at all. Third, their devout piety, seen in their obedience to the word of God. They longed to lavish the signs of their ardent love on the dead body of their Lord.
So their errand rested on a mistake. But the mistake is not what God's Spirit lingers over:
Unbelief thought to find the Lord's body in the grave, and ignorance would seek to keep it there. But the Spirit of God delights to take what is precious out of what is worthless. He dwells on their devoted love, which led them to buy the spices and come to the grave at sunrise.
Their early start was still not early enough:
The disciples kept the commandment by observing the Sabbath. Then they hurried — at least the women devoted to the Lord did — to come at dawn on the first day of the week. They wanted to honour the body of their loved Master by embalming it at last. But they arrived too late. The power, righteousness, glory and love of the Father had gone before them in raising Christ from among the dead. What a glorious morning! The beginning of an eternal era for the redeemed.
Mark notes the risen sun. The women walked through that sunrise without seeing it, because a grave was their goal:
But what a sunrise that must have been, though their eyes did not appreciate it! Let no one tell me that the day dawned like other days, or that all nature did not exult in that great hour. There must have been a triumph and a fragrance in it that no rising of the sun had ever known before.
Mark dates the visit to the first day of the week. Why does that day matter?
The memorial of creation rest was the Sabbath, not the first day. The law imposed it in due time as a most holy commandment, bound up in a special way with God's authority and honour. The resurrection of Christ has brought in a new creation, after He had by Himself purged our sins on the cross. So the first day is the day of open and triumphant life in Christ, who is our life. On that day our hearts go out in worship, communion and service. There was no transfer from the seventh day to the first, and the first is never called the Sabbath day. The New Testament closes by stamping this day as "the Lord's day" (Revelation 1:10).
- Early — The women reached the tomb at daybreak on the first day of the week. The four Gospel accounts differ in starting point, not in fact.
- Earlier — They came at sunrise, but before they arrived and before the sun was up, the Lord had already risen.
- Late — Their errand came to nothing. They came to embalm a body, and the Father had gone before them in raising His Son.
- Loved — They expected no resurrection, yet the Spirit of God dwells on the love that brought them there at dawn.
- New — That first day marks a new creation — the Lord's day, the day of open and triumphant life in Christ.
And they said to one another, Who shall roll us away the stone out of the door of the sepulchre?
The women walk toward a grave at sunrise, carrying spices and one unsolved problem: a stone they cannot move. Their question on the road shows their love and the limits of their faith. God answers it before they reach the tomb.
The Lord had told His disciples He would rise. Yet these women packed what you bring to a dead body.
In this chapter we have the women coming to the grave of Jesus with love, but no understanding of resurrection, and so in deep confusion. They had "bought spices" so that they could come and anoint Him. The Lord had told the disciples clearly that He was about to rise from the dead. The faith of even these saints of God was so small. On the very day He had prepared them to expect His rising, they busied themselves with what suited only a dead Christ, not the risen and living One.
Their reasoning was poor, but their motive was not. They had watched that stone close on everything they hoped for, and they still meant to give Him the honour of a king.
No grave ever buried brighter hopes than the grave of Jesus. No hearts were ever more empty than the hearts of those women. They shuddered in their sorrow as the great stone rolled into place at the door of that tomb and shut the body of their Lord away from their tear-filled eyes... The Jews had rejected His kingship... the crowd had gone home saying He was no king at all. But to those women He was King, and more. He had lost the kingdom, yet He would lie in His tomb as a King if they could manage it.
They asked who would move the stone. God had already moved it, and He had His own reason for doing so.
Coming to the grave, these devoted women find that God had been there before them, and the stone is rolled away. God did not move it so that the body of the Lord could leave the grave. He moved it so that disciples could go in and see that the place where they laid Him is empty. No stone, however great, could hold the body of the Lord in the grave.
Mark notes that the stone was very great. Its size mattered to the women. It did not matter to God:
This is what resurrection can do; this is the power that comes with it. The hindrance was beyond their strength to move, and the stone that blocked the grave was very great. But this made no difference to God, and it was now rolled away.
The women's question did not die that morning. Wherever people judge resurrection by reason alone, the stone still lies across the door.
To the reasoning mind of the natural man, there is still a great stone at the grave of Christ. Cut off from God, fallen man finds the truth of resurrection an obstacle he cannot get past. The Greek philosophers, like the philosophers of today, may claim to believe that the soul never dies. But they refuse to accept the resurrection of the body. Man likes the thought that his soul lives on after it leaves the body. But raising the body would clearly take the power of God, and men hate God — so the thought of depending on Him disgusts them. Leave God out and resurrection is impossible; bring in God, and His power, and all difficulties vanish — the stone is rolled away.
The same question rises whenever a trouble waits up ahead of us. One writer answers it with a name.
We may, like Mary, feel like crying out, "Who will roll away the stone for us?" Who? The risen Jesus. Grasp resurrection, and you rise above the power of every burden... How often have we shrunk from the thought of some trial or burden! In the distance it looked like a dark cloud on the horizon. Yet when we came near it, we "found the stone rolled away from the tomb." The risen Jesus had rolled it away... She had come to the tomb expecting a great stone between her and the One she loved. Instead she found the risen Jesus between her and the difficulty she dreaded.
- Love goes first. Their spices suited only a dead Christ, yet love still brought them to the grave.
- The stone stops them. The stone was too big for them to move. It made no difference to God.
- God goes ahead. He had rolled the stone away before they arrived — not so the Lord could get out, but so His disciples could get in and see the empty place.
- The stone survives. Reason still puts a great stone at Christ's grave. Leave God out and resurrection is impossible. Bring Him in and the difficulty disappears.
- Your stone too. You dread a burden from far off. Often you reach it and find the stone already rolled away, with the risen Jesus between you and it.
And when they looked, they see that the stone has been rolled [away], for it was very great.
The women walked to the tomb with spices and one worry. A stone too heavy for them lay between their love and the body they wanted to care for. Then they looked up, and the stone was gone. Who moved it? Why move it at all? And why does Mark tell us how big it was?
Their errand assumed a dead Christ. One writer sets that beside what the Lord had already told them.
Here we have the women coming to the grave of Jesus with love, but no understanding of resurrection, and so in deep perplexity. They had bought aromatic spices so that they could come and anoint Him. The Lord had told the disciples clearly that He was about to rise from the dead. The faith of these saints of God was so small. On the very day He had prepared them to expect His rising, they were busy with what suited only a dead Christ, not the risen and living One.
Another writer looks at their timing. Their devotion came after the event it was meant to serve.
These dear women came to the grave very early in the morning on the first day of the week, but they were too late… Elsewhere we read that the women had asked each other who might roll the stone away from the grave (Mark 16:3), so that they could anoint Him. But the stone was already rolled away! The grave was accessible, but there was no body to anoint.
Mark ends the verse by noting the stone's size. That size measures the gap between what they could lift and what God had already done.
Here on earth, for the one who believes, the resurrection is the true solution to every difficulty… Such is the power of resurrection, such is the might that goes with it. The obstacle was beyond their strength to remove; the stone that blocked the grave was very great. But this made no difference to God; and it was now rolled away.
On the road they had talked about a problem that no longer existed. One writer draws an everyday lesson from that.
They talk about how impossible it would be for them to roll the stone away from the door of the tomb. They find, as we so often do, that it is useless to worry about difficulties before they come. The stone was already rolled away, a thing which they could not have done.
The women arrive to find that God has been there first.
Coming to the grave, these devoted women find that God had been there before them, and the stone is rolled away. It was not moved so the body of the Lord could leave the grave. It was moved so disciples could go in and see that the place where He had been laid is empty. No stone, however great, could hold the body of the Lord in the grave.
The stone was never a barrier to Christ. It was moved for the people who would look in, not for the Saviour.
Heaven broke the seal that man put on the tomb. But mark it well: not to let the Saviour out of the tomb, but to let us look in… He passed through closed doors on the first day after His resurrection. He could just as easily rise out of the tomb despite its thick walls. No human eye saw Him rise. He rose in wonderful power, raised by the glory of the Father. He deliberately left the linen clothes He had been wrapped in, and put the head napkin in a place by itself. All this shows nothing hurried. It shows that He was completely Master of the situation.
The state of the grave points to the same conclusion.
But when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, an angel had come down from heaven and already rolled the very large stone away from its mouth. The Lord was no longer there. He was risen, in divine power, in perfect calmness. All the grave-clothes lay in good order in the tomb… The great stone was no obstacle to the Lord's going out.
Their slow faith strengthens the record rather than weakening it.
Love and faith were clearly there. But as yet their faith was dull and had no understanding of His resurrection… Their dullness only makes the proofs clearer. In the end those proofs overwhelmed them with the conviction that He was risen.
- Stone — the worry. They spent the walk worrying about an obstacle that was already gone. Fearing trouble ahead proved useless.
- Stone — too great. Mark notes its size: too heavy for them to move, and no problem at all to God.
- Stone — moved before they came. God had been there first; no stone, however great, could hold the Lord in the grave.
- Stone — moved for them. Heaven moved it not to release the Saviour, but so that people could look in and see the place empty.
- Stone — turned into proof. Their slow faith makes the evidence that convinced them harder to dismiss.
And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right, clothed in a white robe, and they were amazed and alarmed;
The women reach the tomb expecting it to be sealed, and instead they find the stone gone and a young man in white sitting inside. Who is he, and why does the sight of him leave them terrified?
God had moved the great stone before the women arrived, and He had a reason for it.
Coming to the grave, these devoted women find that God had been there before them, and the stone is rolled away. It was not moved so that the body of the Lord could leave the grave. It was moved so that the disciples could go in and see that the place where He had been laid is empty. No stone, however great, could hold the body of the Lord in the grave.
The soldiers guarding the tomb had already met this same messenger. He looked nothing like this to them.
The angel appeared to the frightened women as "a young man … dressed in a white robe." A little earlier he had appeared to the guards with a face "like lightning, and his clothing white as snow," so that they were left as if paralysed. He was one thing to the world and quite another to disciples. He knew how to tell the difference, and he knew that these women were seeking Jesus, though they thought Him to be still in death.
Luke reports two men at the tomb. Critics use that difference to set the Gospel records against each other.
Here in verse 5 we read of "a young man." Against this, "critical" writers set Luke's "two men" (Luke 24:4). The women were trembling. Only one of the angels, we may suppose, was the spokesman, and he was the one who drew their attention.
Mark's Gospel has already told of a young man who fled at the arrest of Jesus. Now another young man appears.
They go into the tomb and see the angel as a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a long white robe. A young man had fled when our Lord was arrested; the most courageous of earth could not stand firm then. Here, a witness from heaven, clothed in purity, tells of our Lord's victory.
Mark uses the same word for their reaction that he uses for the Lord's own agony.
We may also note that the word meaning "amazed" in Mark 9 is a little stronger in force than what is nearly the same word in chapter 10. It is the same word in the last chapter, where the older Authorised Version says the women were "affrighted." But the Revised Version, as in so many cases like this, gives the stricter rendering, "amazed." In fact, no English word could express the very forceful original better, for the word itself is most forceful. Let me point to one more passage: "He began to be greatly amazed and deeply distressed" — this in Mark 14:33.
(The ESV says the women "were alarmed"; in Mark 14:33 it says Jesus "began to be greatly distressed and troubled." Older translations read "affrighted" and "sore amazed.")
The angel's first words end their fear. The reason lies in who else was there, unseen.
Their terror vanishes: this is the use the angels make of the resurrection of Christ. Fear is natural to man in a ruined world where sin reigns. Now the resurrection proclaims the victory. These women stood in the presence of angels, but they were really in the presence of One greater than angels, whom they did not see — Jesus risen from the dead. Even the saints are called to a greater blessing than the angels have. Why should they be afraid? The saints are brought into a nearness to God that angels never had and never can have. … Though these women were converted then, they had not yet received the Spirit of adoption, and what power can there be without that? There may be the instincts of a new life, but no peace and no spiritual energy.
They came knowing little about the resurrection, but they came looking for Jesus.
They were seeking Jesus, and because of that, despite much ignorance and unbelief, all would be well. What are we seeking? Is Jesus the object of our hearts? As someone has said, "It is the devotion of the heart to the Lord that brings light and understanding to the soul." … The measure in which we "seek Jesus" is the measure in which we get light.
- Seeking. The women came looking for a dead body. They knew almost nothing about resurrection. Love for Christ, not knowledge, opened the tomb's message to them.
- Entering. The stone moved for their sake, not His. God moved it so that they could go in and see the empty place.
- Seeing. The angel appeared as a young man in white. He terrified the guards and calmed the women. The same messenger meets unbelief and faith in different ways.
- Trembling. Their alarm is Mark's strongest word, the one he uses of the Lord's own agony. The angel answers it with one fact: Christ is risen.
- Standing. A young man fled at the arrest; a young man now sits in victory. And the women he calms are called to a place above the angels.
but he says to them, Be not alarmed. Ye seek Jesus, the Nazarene, the crucified one. He is risen, he is not here; behold the place where they had put him.
The women came to the tomb expecting a dead body, and instead met a messenger with news. In a few words he takes their fear away and points them to an empty place.
The guards at the tomb had already seen this same messenger. There the effect was very different:
To the frightened women the angel appeared as "a young man… dressed in a white robe." A little before, he had appeared to the guards as one whose appearance was "like lightning, and his clothing white as snow." They froze, paralysed. He was one thing to the world and quite another to disciples. He knew how to tell one from the other. He knew these women were seeking Jesus, even though they thought He was still dead. They were ignorant, yet they loved Him; and that made all the difference.
Why should the women stop being afraid? One commentator answers from the resurrection itself:
Their terror vanishes: this is the use the angels make of the resurrection of Christ. Fear is natural to man in a ruined world where sin reigns. Adam had no reason to fear until the fall. What ground has a believer for fear now, since Christ, who died for him, is risen?
The same writer goes further. Someone greater than the angel was in that tomb:
Now the resurrection proclaims the victory. These women stood in the presence of angels. But they were in the presence of one greater than angels, whom they did not see — Jesus risen from the dead. Even the saints are called to blessing greater than angels. They are brought into a nearness to God that angels never had and never can have. The saints will reign with Christ; angels never do.
The angel calls Him by a name that carried dishonour among people. Yet that name follows Him all the way into glory:
But if this title is one of dishonour and disrepute among men, angels are not ashamed to use it. The angel at the tomb said to Mary Magdalene, "You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified" (Mark 16:6). The apostles in their preaching testified to Jesus of Nazareth expressly under this name, as the crucified but risen and glorified Messiah and Lord (Acts 2:22; Acts 3:6; Acts 4:10; Acts 10:38). More striking still, the exalted One Himself spoke from the glory to Saul of Tarsus, a fierce Jew and proud Pharisee. He called Himself by that name of reproach: "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 22:8).
The angel begins by naming what they were doing: seeking Jesus. One writer makes that the key to everything else:
They were seeking Jesus. Since this was so, despite much ignorance and unbelief, all would be well. What are we seeking? Is Jesus the object of our hearts?… The measure in which we "seek Jesus" is the measure in which we get light. We may seek many things that are good in themselves but fall short of Jesus. We may seek souls, seek service, the good of others, and the welfare of the saints. But if we "seek Jesus," everything else falls into its right place and we find light for our path.
The angel tells them to look at an empty place. One writer explains who moved the stone, and why:
Coming to the grave these devoted women find that God had been there before them, and the stone is rolled away. It was not moved so that the body of the Lord could leave the grave. It was moved so that disciples could go in and see that the place where He had been laid is empty. No stone, however great, could hold the body of the Lord in the grave.
Mark's account does not end with the women rejoicing. One writer names what they still lacked:
They little knew the power of resurrection yet. They knew the fact, but not the power.
- Seek — the women came in ignorance but they came for Jesus, and that is why all was well with them.
- Hear — the messenger who terrified armed guards told these women not to be alarmed; he knew who was in front of him.
- Look — the stone moved not to release Him but to let others see the empty place where He had lain.
- Own — angels use the name of scorn, "Jesus of Nazareth." So do the apostles. So does the glorified Christ Himself.
- Live — knowing the fact of the resurrection is not yet knowing its power.
But go, tell his disciples and Peter, he goes before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said to you.
The angel's message at the empty tomb names one man out of the group — the one who had denied Jesus days before. Why add the two words "and Peter," and why Galilee?
Peter is not named because he had done best. He is named because he was in the worst state. Peter longed to have it out with the Lord after his fall, and the Lord wanted that meeting too.
Peter wanted to have it all out with the Lord, and the Lord wanted it too — for Peter's sake. Nothing damages a soul more than an unsettled question between it and the Lord... Why Peter? Why is he the only one that is named? Because he was the one that most needed it. Love always goes out most where there is need most.
A general message to "the disciples" would have left Peter free to exclude himself.
Why "and Peter"? Oh, the grace of it! If the message had been for the disciples in general, poor cursing Peter would hardly have dared to claim a part in it. But the touching addition, "and Peter," assured his heart. Despite his terrible fall, his Lord still acknowledged him.
Notice what the message does not say. There is no rebuke, no condition, no trial period. The old words stand, and Peter's old place stands with them.
An angel's message assures Peter that he still has his place among the other disciples. One might have thought he could no longer be counted with them. The message takes no notice of any breach, so it attempts no repair. It is the Master of former days, and the old words to be fulfilled, and the disciple as of old. There is no breach: He will not allow one.
Mark himself once turned back from the Lord's work. One writer finds that no accident.
It is very instructive to see who wrote this. John, whose surname was Mark, had broken down in his own service. For a while he turned back from the Lord's work (see Acts 13:13). Yet God used him to record the sentence, "Go, tell his disciples and Peter" — a message of deep comfort to another servant who had also broken down. Unless we have broken down ourselves, we are not able to help those who have broken down.
The meeting place is not chosen at random.
The link between Jesus and His disciples here below would indeed be broken. But He would not be the one to forsake them... Still, the hand of God was in all this. He would strike the Shepherd. But once He rose from the dead, Jesus would take up His relationship with His disciples again — with the poor of the flock. He would go before them to Galilee, the place where this relationship began. Galilee lay far from the pride of the nation. There the light had appeared among them, as the word of God had said.
The prophecy Jesus pointed them to did not stop at the scattering. The writer quotes Zechariah in an older translation. It reads "turn my hand upon the little ones," where the ESV has "against."
He warned them of what lay ahead. He pointed them to the prophecy of Zechariah, which foretold the striking of the Lord's Shepherd and the scattering of the sheep. But the prophet went on to say, "and I will turn my hand upon the little ones"... His sheep as a nation were scattered. But the "little ones" — whom Zechariah elsewhere calls "the poor of the flock" — were gathered again on a new basis, once the Shepherd had risen from the dead. So He was to meet them not in Jerusalem but in Galilee.
The closing phrase anchors everything to a promise already spoken — and stretches beyond that one morning.
As in the days of His life here, so now in resurrection, He will "go before" His disciples to lead the way. They will "see Him," and all will come to pass "as He said." May we not say something wider still? Despite the ruin of the church in its responsibility, and the scattering and failure of God's people, the time is coming when He will gather all His sheep around Himself, our risen and glorious Lord. We shall see Him face to face, and every word He has spoken will be fulfilled.
- Need — Peter is named because he needed it most; love moves toward the deepest need, not the best record.
- Named — A message to "the disciples" alone would have let Peter rule himself out. The added name made that impossible.
- No breach — Nothing needs repair, because the Lord allows no break: the same Master, the same words, the same disciple.
- Gathered — The struck Shepherd rises and goes ahead of the scattered flock, back to Galilee, where He first gathered them.
- As He said — Every word the Lord spoke will come true, right on to the day His people see Him face to face.
And they went out, and fled from the sepulchre. And trembling and excessive amazement possessed them, and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.
The women leave the tomb with the news of the resurrection, and they say nothing to anyone. Some of the oldest copies of Mark also stop right here, on the word "afraid."
Saying nothing to anyone looks like a contradiction, because the disciples did get the message. One writer answers by asking where the silence happened.
The only passage here which presents any difficulty is "they said nothing to anyone," Mark 16:8. From verse 7 it is clear that in the end they did tell the disciples. It was only while they were going (fleeing) that they said nothing to anyone on the road, until they reached the disciples.
Another writer fits the accounts together the same way, and marks where the silence ended.
Then other women (Luke 24:10) come. They see the angels and flee. While fleeing they say nothing to anyone, until they meet Jesus. His words rally them, so they deliver their message about Galilee to the eleven.
The women were not short of information. One writer names what they still lacked.
They little knew the power of resurrection yet: they knew the fact, but not the power.
What was still missing was a Person, not more evidence — and that shortfall is not only theirs.
They had seen the empty tomb, they had listened to the angel, but Jesus they had not seen. As we read in the gospel of Luke, "but Him they did not see." Apart from Christ Himself, the great stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the vision of angels, only leave us trembling and amazed.
The argument is over verses 9–20, and the copies pull in two directions.
Up to this point (16:8) all agree that Mark wrote. Did his Gospel end there? If so, it ended very abruptly, quite unlike the other writers, whose histories are not cut short in any such way. The genuineness of what follows (9–20) has been much questioned. Of several manuscripts, the two oldest leave out the rest. On the other hand, by far the greater number have it, though in a few it appears with variations. And translations older than any manuscript we have include the passage as part of the Gospel of Mark.
One writer also weighs the short ending against the aim of this Gospel. Mark's subject is the servant Son of God and His ministry.
Had the gospel ended without this, we would have had a real gap, which ought to have been felt... Chapter 16 would have closed with the silence of the women and its cause, "for they were afraid." What conclusion could be less worthy of the servant Son of God! ... Can anyone who knows the character of the Lord and of His ministry imagine such an ending for a moment? Would we be left with nothing but a message blocked by the alarm of women?
Not everyone reads the abrupt ending as a flaw. One writer looks for meaning in the fear itself.
If nothing here is without a purpose — and we are not going to question that — then this non-fulfilment, this fear instead of joy, must have some meaning for us. Christ is come, Christ is risen. There is a promise for believing Israelites which, as such, is not fulfilled for them. In short, their history, and the history of the ministry to the Jews, with which Peter's name is especially connected, is just such a broken fragment as we are given here. It will be completed, but only in another age, after the period of the Church's history is over, when Israelites turned to God share again in the hopes and promises of the nation.
Read on, and the silence here is the first of several failures in witness. One voice breaks through them all.
We see then that in each case the testimony given through His own fails. That would leave us discouraged, except that the value of His own direct word shines out by contrast... Notice now the result of His direct speaking to them: "So then after the Lord had spoken to them … they went out and preached everywhere." What a contrast! And has it no lesson for us? As believers, do we not want Him to speak directly to us in His word?
- Silence — the women told no one on the way; the message reached the disciples once they arrived.
- Fact — they had the report of the resurrection and still shook; knowing the fact is not yet knowing the power.
- Absence — a rolled stone, an empty tomb and an angel, without Christ Himself, leave a person trembling and amazed.
- Ending — the two oldest manuscripts stop here; most others, and the older translations, carry on. Commentators differ on the silence. One calls a close on fear unworthy of the servant Son of God. Another reads the broken fragment as Israel's unfinished story.
- Voice — every human witness in this chapter fails. Then the Lord speaks Himself, and they go out and preach everywhere.