The Empty Tomb

The Empty Tomb:

We’ve been looking at Mark’s gospel over the last few days. We’ve looked at some of the key features of Mark’s gospel thus far, all of it with a specific goal in mind - the impact and significance of the Messiah/Christ’s resurrection.

Mark’s gospel actually opens as the fulfillment of Isaiah's “gospel.” I’d never really considered the book of Isaiah as one of the “gospels” before I began this study and these recent blogs on Mark, but from the opening line of Mark’s gospel we see Isaiah is, in fact, a “gospel” of the coming Messiah/Christ/King. Isaiah is also very clear about what kind of Messiah this would be:

From Isaiah 42: “Here is my servant… I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

From Isaiah 49: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

From Isaiah 53: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain… he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our sickness and bore our suffering, yet we dismissed him as punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.But in reality he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the sin of all humanity.”

Consider the fact that Isaiah was written approximately 700 years before Jesus’ birth. Consider that this prophet wrote about Jesus, God, the Bible’s anticipated Messiah/Christ/King (dating all the way back to Genesis 3!) and the kind of life He would live as an unassuming servant of the LORD.

So when Mark opens his gospel with “This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which began as the prophet Isaiah had written…” what Mark is doing is vividly demonstrating the undeniable connection and fulfillment of Isaiah’s “gospel” that eagerly anticipated the promised King of Heaven who would come to serve - serve - serve ALL of humanity (not just the Jews). Our Messiah/Christ/King would do this by opening our sin-blinded eyes to free us from our captivity to sin’s prison, and to release us from that dungeon of darkness of eternal separation from our Creator. Our SERVANT KING would ultimately serve by suffering - even unto a death - where He would be PIERCED, CRUSHED, PUNISHED, and eventually DIE at the Cross in our place.

The Cross is profoundly significant, but apart from the empty tomb… the Cross would mean nothing. As Mark’s gospel closes we read about two women named Mary who go to Jesus’ tomb to pay their respects, but when they get there something incredible happens:

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him...

What happened to John Mark in the midst of his mission journey that caused him to abandon and desert his friends? I don’t know. But I do know that something miraculous happened after that. God blessed John Mark with the gift of faith - not something from himself, but a transcendent gift from God Almighty. Mark realized that Jesus was in fact the one whom Isaiah had written about. Mark came to the realization that Jesus was in fact the seed of Eve who came and crushed the Serpent’s head and gained eternal victory for humanity. Mark finally understood that Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God was the LAMB whom Abraham had said God would offer up instead of Isaac.

Jesus didn’t “just” bear our sin at the Cross of Calvary. No, as Psalm 103:12 tells us, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Easter is our joyous celebration of the eternal significance of that empty tomb.

Our Messiah/Christ/King came to serve us, and He did so perfectly. He didn’t stay in that tomb as a martyr or example of righteous living. The angel told those two women - as the gospel of Mark informs us, “He has risen!”

That’s what Easter is about. Our God, our Savior, our glorious and wonderful Servant King is RISEN!

Blessings and Happy Easter,

Kevin M. Kelley

#KMKelley1968

amostunlikelydisciple.com