Project 119: Mark 16
| Project 119 | Amy Hirsch
What is a witness? Merriam-Webster’s website provides several helpful definitions for the word including “one that gives evidence” and “one who has personal knowledge of something.” Of course, there’s also the legal definition of a witness as “one who testifies in a cause or before a judicial tribunal.”
Mark 16 introduces us to the witnesses of the resurrection. We see these three women–Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James), and Salome–venture out early on Sunday morning to anoint the body of Christ, their final act of loving devotion to their Master. Can you imagine the surprise and shock they felt when the arrived at the tomb and found that the stone (which had concerned them in verse 3) was rolled away? What must have gone through their heads? They might have believed that someone had snuck in to maliciously steal Christ’s body.
Thankfully, the women were not alone at the tomb. An angel was there at the tomb, described by Mark as having the appearance of a young man in a white robe. This messenger declared to them that Christ’s body was not there because He had been raised to life. No human eye was witness to the resurrection firsthand. Only the angels in heaven saw when God Himself raised Christ to life. And the stone wasn’t rolled away to make the resurrection possible; it was rolled away as evidence of the resurrection that had already happened, as a witness to these women.
It’s interesting that these women were witnesses to so much at the end of Mark’s gospel: they were the ones who witnessed Christ’s death, they were present for His burial, and here they are as the first human witnesses to the resurrection. In fact, all four gospels attest that women were the first on the scene that Sunday morning, which gives us even more proof for the validity of the resurrection and the veracity of the gospels. In the Greco-Roman court of law in the first-century, women’s testimonies were ineligible. Can you imagine the gospel writers including this detail had it really not happened this way?
Their story in Mark ends abruptly, but other gospels tell us that these women, as witnesses to the good news of Christ’s resurrection, responded by telling others. In many ways, the gospel of Mark leaves the news open-ended to us as readers–because we too are witnesses. It is as if Mark is saying, “Now that you have heard the good news, what shall you do with it?”
God, we praise You for the hope we have because Christ was raised to life! We thank You for the opportunity to share this news–the best news of all–with a world broken by sin and enslaved to death. Empower us, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to be faithful witnesses to the hope of the resurrection wherever You may send us, even to the ends of the earth.
Mark 16 (ESV):
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has 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 to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
[Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9–20.]
9 [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]