What Will You Do with the Empty Tomb? | Mark 16:1-8 | The Story Isn't Over

Watch This Sermon: “What Will You Do with the Empty Tomb?”

Why would Mark end his Gospel with silence and fear? In this Resurrection Sunday meditation from Mark 16:1–8, Pastor Mark explores how the earliest and most reliable manuscripts leave us with the women fleeing the tomb in astonishment. Rather than tying a bow on the story, Mark presses the question onto the reader: What will you do with the empty tomb?

🔍 Looking to reflect further on this message? Read the 5-day devotional series based on Mark 16:1–8 and consider how the resurrection shapes your everyday life.

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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week, we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us.

If you were writing the ending to the most important story that you've ever told or were going to tell, how would you end that story? Well, you'd likely make sure that it ended with a clear resolution of the plot. Right? You would make sure that it would fill the readers with joy and a sense of completion. This is how most stories and most movies end.

But with verses one through eight of Mark chapter 16, we don't get that. We don't get those one of those clean resolutions that we like. Instead, the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of Mark's gospel leave us with silence and fear and with the women running away from the tomb. We see in in, Mark chapter Mark chapter 16 verse eight here that it ends without any resurrection appearances. There's no joyful reunion told to us by Mark. There's no great commission like the gospel of Matthew, and there's no telling of the ascension like the gospel of Luke.

And this morning, I want us to consider that abrupt ending to Mark's gospel, that abrupt ending that the earliest Christians would have read and heard. Why? Why would Mark have stopped there? Well, I think it's because it does something really powerful. In stopping there, he isn't just telling us the story of the resurrection. As the readers of this gospel, we are confronted with an important decision.

Now we know the full story of the resurrection. We know Jesus appears to the disciples. Thomas doubts, but when he sees Jesus, what does he do? He falls down and he says, my lord and my god. And as I said, we know the story of the great commission from the gospel of Matthew. We know that call to go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations. And from the book of Luke and Acts, we are aware that Jesus is ascended to the right hand of the father. And then we can even go outside of the first five, you know, the first four gospels and then the historical book of Acts. We can go outside of that and hear of the resurrection, particularly from the letters of Paul and specifically first Corinthians 15. The apostle Paul tells us there that Jesus appeared to more than 500 men. And Paul says that at that time that he was writing that letter, most of them were still alive. Essentially saying, hey. If you wanna check out this story, go ask these people. 500 people saw it. You can go check it out.

But this earliest manuscript of Mark slams on the brakes at the tomb. And it's almost as if Mark takes the pen out of her his hand and hands it to you. What are you going to do with the empty tomb? How is the good news of the victory that the lord Jesus Christ has over sin and death and hell going to impact you? What story will you write about the empty tomb? And that's what I want us to reflect on quickly this morning.

So let's go back to the scene in the garden that first resurrection morning. Just after sunrise, the women make their way to the tomb. Their mission is a simple one. They are going to anoint their dead friend. They're going to his body. Now despite what Jesus had alluded to and what he had said about the resurrection, they are not expecting that. Their primary concern is a very understandable concern. Who's gonna roll away the stone? They have no idea how that giant rock is going to get out of their way, and so they don't know how they're gonna do what they are on their way to do. These women have no anticipation of joy. They only have grief because the last few days for them have been a nightmare. Even if they have slept, they have likely woken up to find their pillows covered with tears. These women are filled with despair.

But when they come to the tomb, everything changes. The stone isn't covering the mouth of the tomb. It's been rolled away. But now there's a new obstacle to their mission of anointing the body. There's nobody there at all, but there is a messenger. This messenger tells them what happened. They learn that Jesus has risen. And just like that, everything is turned upside down. Everything that they've ever known. Jesus was dead. They went to the garden to anoint a corpse because that's what you do. Death is final. Death is the end. We have to remember that these women lived in an era where death was not hidden from them. There was a high mortality rate. They didn't have nursing homes and hospitals and hospice houses where people would be secluded away and you didn't have to deal with death as a culture. You couldn't ignore death. That was likely not the first time they were on their way to anoint the body in their lives, And I'm guessing it wasn't the last time they made a trip to a grave to anoint a body. Death was common. It's what they did. They had, like I said, likely gone to a tomb before to anoint a body, and they would do it again. But this wasn't like any other time they would do it. There was only one time where they went to do this and the body wasn't there. Because every other time, the body was there for them to anoint because that's how death works. It's final.

But despite this amazing development of Jesus being gone, we don't see rejoicing here in Mark's gospel, and Mark doesn't spell out for us the ramifications of this great victory over death. None of this is lined out for us here. We don't get the rest of the story. We don't see rejoicing. We don't see the running to tell the disciples. Instead, we get verse eight. Can you bring that up for me, Kellen? Two over, I think. Is it not there? Oh, okay. Well, I'm gonna read it for you then. And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. That's what we get. They're afraid.

I'm gonna ask again, how in the world is this the ending of the gospel of Mark on those earliest manuscripts? Why would you end it that way? What I want us to see here is the point that verse eight isn't the end. Mark isn't finishing the story because the story isn't over. Instead, verse eight draws us, you and I, into the story. Seeing the natural shock and fear of these women presses a question deep into us. It asks this question, what would you do with the resurrection? How would you respond?

And all throughout the gospel of Mark, if you read it, you'd get a real sense of urgency. It's a quick and fast paced sell telling of the story of Jesus. Pick up the gospel of Mark and read it, and you will see the word immediately numerous times. The idea is that this is an urgent message that something fast paced is happening here, and that urgency doesn't stop at the end of Mark's gospel. It's felt through the whole book and it continues beyond it.

Because here at the end of Mark's gospel, the urgency isn't where Jesus is going or what the disciples are doing anymore. The urgency comes to rest on us. The tomb is empty. Jesus is risen from the dead. Death has been defeated. What are you gonna do with the message? What will you do with the empty tomb? Sisters and brothers, we can't be silent. We can't shrink back in fear. This is a message of hope. This is a message of peace. This is a message of life and light in a dark and dying world. It must be proclaimed.

And so we leave here today filled with joy. May we not leave the message buried in fear or in silence. The lord Jesus Christ has in fact risen from the dead. Because of that, everything has changed. So may we speak the truth of the resurrection. May we live in light of the truth of the resurrection. May we share the truth of the resurrection because the story is true. The tomb is empty. What will you do with the empty tomb? Amen.

Let us pray. Gracious and merciful god, we come to you as a grateful people. A people that has been blessed with not only the story of the empty tomb, but the Holy Spirit that has kindled faith in our hearts to believe this truth. And we pray, oh lord, that we would not be afraid, that we would not be silent, that we would not leave the message dead, but that it would flow out from us because of the joy we have of the light and salvation we have in the lord Jesus Christ. May his victory over sin, death, and hell be before our eyes and our minds and on our lips in all that we do. May we be bold witnesses to the truth of your gospel. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website edgertonfrc.org.

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