How do you respond to the news that the tomb is empty, that Jesus has risen? With fear? With joy? Why does Mark 16:1–8 emphasize fear? Do rejoice! But even so, don’t forget the element of fear he describes.
God reassures you that Jesus of Nazareth has risen! The tomb stands empty. The women were followers of Christ, who now were completing the burial process. They had witnessed Christ’s death and burial, Mark 15:40–47. Now, after the Sabbath, they had purchased spices and early Sunday, had come to anoint him. Their coming shows that they had forgotten Christ’s promised resurrection. Mark adds the detail that it is only as they were going to the tomb that they remembered that the entrance was blocked by a very large stone, too heavy for them to roll away. The news is genuine. The resurrection account has been dismissed as a story made up. But the first witnesses are women, perhaps unremarkable to us, but in first century Judaism, the testimony of a woman was not considered competent in court. An invented story would have had others go there, and would have concluded on a more positive note than verse 8. As these first witnesses approach, they find the heavy stone rolled back and on entering the carved out tomb, see a young man dressed in white. What does he say?
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