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. 

The Final Week of Jesus - Saturday

Final Week – Saturday

If I try to stick to the Gospel of Mark, then I can’t quote a passage of scripture. Mark is silent about the Saturday, and that’s probably right. Because if I put my imagination into action, then I start to think about how the disciples felt on that day, and at that point I don’t really want to think any more.

You see, for those who loved Jesus, that day must have been a day of absolute despair. Around them the city of Jerusalem is crowded with people celebrating Passover. For those people this is a time of great celebration and joy as they recall the promises of God and the exodus from Egypt. 

But somewhere in that city, there is a group of people who are probably sitting together because they’re scared about going out and suffering the same fate as Jesus, but also because their hearts are broken. The man they loved, the man they had pinned their hopes on was gone now.

Whatever you pin your hopes on will disappoint you at some point. But at the worst moment, it might be that the greatest things are happening. While these friends of Jesus couldn’t see it, something far greater than they could ever imagine was happening. 

Today, everything is bleak. Today, the sun might be shining but all I see is clouds. Today, the wind is still but all I hear is storm. Today . . .

Will the sun come up tomorrow?

The Final Week of Jesus - Friday

The Final Week – Friday

³⁷ With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
³⁸ The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God! 

Mark 15:37-39

Many people made their decisions about who Jesus was after seeing how he lived and how he acted. Peter concluded he was the Messiah. Pilate decided he was innocent. This man, this Roman soldier, concluded that he was the Son of God by watching Jesus die. 

I find it hard to imagine that this could be so, but consider this. Crucifixion is a terrible way to die, but it was also reasonably common for Romans to inflict this on people. This man would have likely seen many people die this way. He is now a Centurion, so he might have been involved in a number of crucifixions over his years of service. 

It can take days for someone to die by being crucified, and any final sound would be a whimper.

Now picture what he is seeing. He stands before three crosses, one of which holds a sign saying, “The King of the Jews”. Darkness comes across the land for three hours in the middle of the day – an unearthly and unexplained darkness. And in the midst of all of this, Jesus dies not with a whimper but with a loud cry. 

There was something very different about this death and it was enough to make this man to conclude 

“Surely this man was the Son of God.”

What makes you conclude that Jesus is the Son of God.