Jesus has cried out for the last time. As He hangs His head and dies, we pick up the story…
TEXT: Mark 15:39 to 16:8
39And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Jesus has died. Our attention moves to a Roman centurion. He confesses faith that Jesus is the Son of God. He is not one of the disciples, not one of the 12 (11). He is a Roman. He looks upon the body of Jesus and declares, “Son of God.”
Where are the apostles? They are not there. They have fled. They are hiding. Who is there to witness the death of Jesus and declare Him? A Roman officer. A pagan, not a Jew. Jews would not even eat with this Roman officer because he was unclean, yet here he stood, confessing their Messiah.
But He was not alone.
From a distance some women were looking on.
40There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome.
41When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.
We get a list of some of these women. There was Mary Magdalene. She is the one from whom Jesus had expelled 7 demons. There was Mary, the mother of Little James and Joses. She might have been the mother of Jesus, because Jesus had brothers by those names. And Solome was there. Who is she? She is the mother of James and John, the apostles.
Where did these women come from? Galilee, the hometown region of Jesus and most of the apostles. And there are more women. Mark says “there were many other women” who made the trip to Jerusalem. This band of women had begun forming much earlier in Jesus’ ministry. Look and see:
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. –Luke 8:1-3
You may wonder how Jesus and the 12 supported their ministry for three years. The answer is probably right here. These women loved Jesus, for they had been forgiven much. They were nearby often and helping to pay the bills when they could.
Notice that one of them is the wife of Herod’s household manager. Herod is an Edomite (an ethnic cousin to the Jews) and the puppet king of a region of Israel, put in charge by the Romans. Somehow, this wife of an important man in the area heard Jesus and began following Him. Some of these women were likely among those present at the time of Jesus’ death.
Also, John’s gospel adds to the list, in John chapter 19:
but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.—John 19:25
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her sister. You can imagine that these two women had a very special pain at the crucifixion. Mary had been told at the time of Jesus’ birth that a sword would pierce her own heart. That day had come. Her sister, who had no doubt loved little Jesus like any good aunt adores her sisters’ children, was also there. And another Mary –the wife of Clopas—was with them. I don’t know who Clopas is, but he is not there—only his wife.
We can begin to piece together a picture of a group of women who had known one another in a very intimate setting, living each other’s stories, seeing how Jesus had made the difference in each other’s lives.
It is a sweet treasure when women gain new sisters by their faith in Jesus. Women need one another. They need to know and be known, and to be able to share life with other women. These were united in their devotion to Jesus. They had each other in this terrible moment –a moment when all the men had run away and hid, they determined that they would not go anywhere. They would watch and wait.
42When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
43Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.
Joseph of Arimathea is close by. He had not run away. Why should he have run away? He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the priestly body that had turned Jesus over to the Romans to be slain. Not only was he free to walk around near the cross, he was dressed as a one of the men who approved the death of Jesus. He was a very important man.
But, the outside of a man does not reveal what is inside. Hidden away was the desire to care for the body of Jesus. Why? Luke tells us a little more about Joseph:
And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; --Luke 23:50-51
When they held the vote to send Jesus to Pilate, Joseph said, “Nay!” apparently. And yet this has happened. Sometimes the group of people you run with are not good people, and they make poor decisions. But to stand against the group? That is hard. If the priests had crushed the Messiah, what would they do to Joseph if he took a bold stand? Furthermore, what would the grumpy Roman governor do if he asked him for the body of a crucified man? Romans normally let the bodies hang till they rotted, or they threw them into a heap to rot outside. Mark points out that Joseph “gathered up courage” and went in before Pilate. I bet he did!
44Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead.
45And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
46Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
Joseph only had so much time to get this job done. When the sun went down, the Sabbath would begin. He could not bring the spices and do the job properly. He did what he could, putting him in his own tomb, fulfilling the ancient prophecy that said:
By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. –Isaiah 53:8-9
Although Jesus’ closest men were not there to take care of His body, God had arranged a righteous remnant of the Sanhedrin to take care of that detail.
47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid. 16:1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. 2Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.
The ladies now knew where He laid. They would gather up the spices needed, and be ready when the sun came up on the first day of the week.
5Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. 6And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. 7“But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’ ” 8They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
And so, Jesus, who died to pay the price for the sins of the world had risen. This is important news, because if Jesus had not risen from the dead, there would be no eternal life for us humans. People often think the gospel stops on the cross, when Jesus made the payment for our sins, but that is not so. If He did not rise, then we would not have eternal life.
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. --1 Corinthians 15:17
The first people to know that Jesus was raised were these women. Mark does not tell their individual stories, but speaks of them generally dispersing in fear of the angel. (There are details of what some of them said and did in the hours that followed. You can find these stories in the other gospels.)
I would like to make a few obersvations about Mark’s report of the resurrection story.
1. In Jesus, women are not only treated as equal in value to the men, they are necessary for the ongoing ministry of Jesus
Ever since the 60’s, most interactions between men and women have been portrayed as a war or a competition. Who is better? Who is more important? Who is the boss? And on and on. But this strife should not exist in the family of God.
God made male and female, and before Him they are both equally loved and equally important. Jesus displays the heart of God towards men and women in His ministry. He preaches to women, He teaches women, He heals women, He casts out demons from women, He travels with women and all the rest. They love Him and call Him friend.
Yet, He purposely appoints only men to his highest leadership positions. The twelve apostles are men. This is no accident. God had established that men were responsible to step up and lead in the family and in worship from the beginning of time, and from the beginning of His nation, Israel. This does not change as He establishes His church.
But the example He shows that there is not to be power struggles between the sexes, but the loving interaction of family. The women follow the leadership of Jesus and the apostles, both before the cross, and after the resurrection. We do not see many glimpses of what the community of followers was like during the ministry of Jesus, but we can imagine that, like all large groups of people working and living together, it had the same practical needs and the same interactions that happen in large families or gatherings.
Mark says that the women ministered –the word he used was “deaconayo.” The word means servant. The word would soon become the title of one of the two offices of the church, deacon. What they did, we are not told, but they served, they made the ministry go. We saw also from Luke that they paid the bills too! They had money and the spent the money to keep the ministry afloat.
Bottom line, people often think that in a church with men only as the elders that the women are somehow oppressed and kept down. But that is not so. The women and men are brothers and sisters, and all are in submission to the Lord through the handful of men He puts in charge. If all will serve the Lord with a good heart, harmony will be the result.
2. Boldness and courage are some of the marks of men who have faith in Christ
Josephus took a bold stand. The apostles had run off and hidden. The women wisely kept their distance. But in order to do what Josephus needed to do, he had to speak up, go against the grain, and risk his standing in his community.
We need to do this in our day and age. One of the elders of Harvest Church was recently part of a large training intended to indoctrinate his company on the need to be diverse, and sensitive, and woke, and to watch out for privilege, and all the rest that goes into this modern religion of cultural Marxism sweeping through out nation’s corporations. Then, since he is a supervisor of many workers himself, he had to pass on the training to his people. So he did. He read them Romans 13:9, which says:
For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”—Romans 13:9
He told them, “If you do this, you won’t have to worry about diversity or intersectionality or whatever.”
Of course, someone claimed to be oppressed and offended by his words, so he was called before human resources to explain himself. He informed them that he often used verses from the Bible to teach his team the best way to do things, but he was not requiring them to convert. This was the second time he had been called to the carpet for being a Christian at work. He got away with it a second time.
But you know what he did? He took a stand. Did it take the courage that Joseph needed to ask for the body of Christ? Probably not –but it took courage. And one day, God might require more of him, and it might cost him everything.
Christian men, it is time to stand up –not in anger, not in hate, but in love and wisdom. It is time to share the truths from the only source of truth: God and His Bible. At work, in college, in school, with family, with friends, it is time to stop biting our tongues. We must say, “Well, God says,….” And let the world know the truth. This is what leadership looks like.
3. Jesus forms a fellowship by being the object of love and worship for many
At the end of his gospel, Mark does not focus on the apostles, does he? Who does he show us? He tells us of a Roman centurian who declares Jesus to be the Son of God. In fact, in the verses preceding the ones for our text today, he pointed our attention towards an African named Simon of Cyrene and his gentile sons, Rufus and Alexander. Simon helped Jesus carry His cross.
Mark tells of the various women who had given up much to follow Jesus. He tells of a group of women that included a formerly demon-possessed woman, and an woman from the household of the Edomite, Herod.
What do these people have in common? Nothing, really. Nothing. They don’t shop in the same stores. They don’t hang with the same people. They didn’t grow up together. They didn’t go to the same schools. They didn’t do hobbies together. Yet, they are the team that God pulled together to minister to Jesus at the end of Jesus’ life and His resurrection.
Actually, they had a lot in common. They all looked to the same man to be their Savior. They all found mercy in Jesus’ love for them. They all had faith. They all, whether they knew it at that moment or not, had been formed into a family, into a fellowship, bound together by the Spirit of God and a common love for and commitment to Jesus.
My friends, from then to now, God has been collecting people from all walks of life, from families of the poor, families of the rich, from thieves and drunkards, from priests and cops, from the educated and the illiterate, and made us family.
We are are His church. We are His family.