GOSPEL MEDITATION # 238

Mark 16:1-8

The Resurrection

(Also see: Matthew 27:62–66, 28:1–10; Luke 24:1–11)

1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
6. Jesus had already stated He would be crucified and be raised from the dead. (see Luke 24:6-7)
7. Monday morning, 3 women set off to anoint Jesus’ body with spices, unaware that Nicodemus had already done so. (see John 19:39) This was commonly practiced among the Jews.
8. The women did not expect or anticipate the resurrection.
9. The sun had just risen when the women arrived and they were worried about the stone sealing the tomb; it was very heavy.
10. It is not stated in Scripture exactly when Jesus was raised from the dead. Was it that very Sunday morning or earlier—this is not known. “Was raised” is an aorist passive indicative verb, meaning that Jesus did not raise Himself but was raised.
11. The stone had been rolled away and the 3 women entered the tomb. On the “right” side, not sure what “right side” might indicate, but there on the dais, where the body would have been, sat a “young man.” All four Gospel writers say something different— one young man, two young men, one angel, two angels—likely the angels looked like men and one spoke so one only mentioned, but there were two.
12. The angel(s) invites the women to see for themselves; there is not body at all to be found. (Only the burial shroud would be there.)

The disciples, and Peter is specially mentioned, are to be told that Jesus would see them in Galilee. All the disciples had fled, with the exception of young John, yet they were all still His disciples. And the women are afraid. And on that note, that preposition, the Gospel of Mark ends.