The Final Week of Jesus - Oh no it's not.

The Final Week – Sunday

⁶ “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. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” Mark 16:6-7

When an angelic figure turns up in the Bible, the first thing that is said is “Do not be alarmed”. That says something about those angels and just how different they are to the cute picture we might have in our minds. But this time it is particularly important. 

These women have spent yesterday (probably) with the rest of the disciples fearful of what might happen to them. The day and night will have been restless worrying about every footstep they didn’t recognise and every voice they didn’t know. 

Today, they have risen early to go to the tomb of Jesus so they can do for him what they could not do before he was buried.  They have prepared themselves for what they will find. 

Well, that’s not true at all. They have prepared themselves for what they expect they will find. “Who will roll the stone away?” is the question they ask themselves as they walk to the tomb. What they do find is that the stone has already been rolled away, Jesus missing, and an angelic young man telling them “He has risen! He is not here.” And their life changed dramatically.  

If these women thought they had good news to share about Jesus a few weeks earlier, that’s nothing compared to the good news they – and you – have now.