Sermon: St. Mark 16:1-8

THE EASTER GOSPEL

Sermon Text, Mark 16:1-8 (v. 1, 5-7; preceded by 14:27-28). Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.” … Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples – and Peter – that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”

Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. On this day, Lord Jesus, we thank You not only for Your glorious resurrection, but also for the Easter Gospel, the message of the angel that You are risen and Your tomb is empty. Let the Easter Gospel ring out in our hearts every day, and so imbed itself in us, that we always see our tombs empty, live in view of all the company of heaven, and follow wherever You, our risen Lord, lead. Amen.

Dear people loved and redeemed by God by the precious blood of Jesus, your crucified and risen Savior: I bring you grace and peace from Him.

We’ve heard the Easter Gospel, Mark 16:1-8. There are four “gospels” – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – that tell what Jesus said and did. All four tell this most important part: Jesus’ resurrection. The one chosen centuries ago for Christians to hear every Easter Sunday, is the one from Mark. So by “Easter Gospel” we usually mean it’s the Easter reading from this gospel.

But the Easter Gospel existed long before St. Mark wrote it down. Gospel doesn’t just mean one of the first four books in the New Testament. The word gospel actually means “good message,” but the word translated message is the same as “angel.” So hearing the Gospel means you’ve had “a good-angel-ing.” It’s good for us to pause and think how this was the Easter Gospel – a good-angel-ing – long before it was ever written down.

Do you know, Mark uses the word “gospel” more by far than any of the other writers of the gospels? But he never explains what the word means. He doesn’t tell you what “gospel” means. He shows you.

He does that here, by repeating over and over again: “look!” and “see!” First, when the women came to the tomb, they “looked up [and] saw” that the stone was rolled away. When they came into the tomb, “they saw” an angel sitting there. The angel keeps telling them to see. First, “He is risen! He is not here.” Although the angel doesn’t actually say “see,” you can picture him gesturing toward Jesus’ grave clothes lying there, the rest of the tomb empty. Then the angel does say: “Behold!” – “See!” – “The place where they laid Him.” This is when Mary Magdalene leaves to find the disciples. Then the angel repeats Jesus’ words to the disciples from the upper room, “After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee,” and adds what Jesus meant: “There you will see Him, as He said to you.”

From all this we can know what the “gospel” is, what it means to receive a “good angel-ing.” It’s not just that an angel does it. The women weren’t the only ones to get a “good angel-ing” because they saw the angel. After all, before anyone else could come to the empty tomb, the angel was gone.

But the Easter Gospel wasn’t gone. The angel said, “Go, tell,” and the women did. What did they tell? It was the Easter Gospel, 30-some years before Mark wrote it down: that there was no death in Jesus’ tomb – even though these women, as Mark is careful to tell us, are the very ones who saw Jesus laid in the tomb dead on Good Friday.

The key thing that makes this the Easter Gospel is whom this was to be spoken to, as the angel said: “Go and tell the disciples – and Peter – that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” This is what makes it the Gospel. It has hearers.

For the disciples all knew what came with the words about Jesus’ going into Galilee. So do we, we said them in our Lent services: “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ ” Jesus added: “But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

The angel says this last part. But it goes with the first part. They’ll recall when Jesus said this. It was on the way to Gethsemane, to His anguish and affliction. He said they would all stumble. Peter said he wouldn’t. But Jesus’ words that they would all be scattered came true. Peter even vehemently denied Jesus, three times. But they were still scattered, even now. It’s why you don’t hear about the women finding the disciples right away. They’re scattered. Mary Magdalene could only find Peter and John.

So these words are to be spoken to Jesus’ disciples who have failed Him. The Gospel is not spoken to angels. It isn’t for people who have proven themselves. The Gospel is for people who don’t deserve to have it spoken to them. It’s for people who fail, who are too weak to live out their faith when pressures come, or when you’re tired, or if you’re in the minority.

The Law is what shows us this. The Law shows us our sins. It makes us afraid. It makes us unsure we can be forgiven or make it to heaven. This is being “scattered,” feeling so far from the Shepherd.

But this is who the Gospel is for. This is what makes it the Gospel. It isn’t the Gospel without sinners who need it. When the women saw the empty tomb, and the angel said, “He is risen!” it proved that all the sins were forgiven. God accepted Jesus’ death as enough to pay for all the sins of every person in the world, and Jesus’ resurrection proves it. “He was raised for our justification. … If Christ is not risen, you are still in your sins” – so, Christ having risen means your sins aren’t on you, for His sake.

But are you still unsure? Like Peter? This is why he’s singled out. This is only in Mark’s Gospel, that the angel pauses after the words, “tell His disciples,” and adds: “and Peter.” We know that Mark’s gospel was Mark writing down what Peter recalled, so you can almost hear Peter telling him, “Yes, yes, put that: ‘and Peter,’ the angel said it, I know it breaks up the flow of words, but it’s important.”

By the time Mark’s Gospel was written, Peter’s denial was well known. His sin was out there for everyone to know. Imagine a sin of yours being out there so everyone in the world would know it for generations to come!

But here the forgiveness of that sin is put out there too, for all to know. Not just for Peter’s sake, but yours. So you can know that every sin – yes, even that one that shames you – is swallowed up by Jesus’ death, buried in His grave, never to be seen again by God or anyone. The risen Jesus makes you sure not just that you can be forgiven but that you are forgiven.

It’s why the apostles were eager to put this out there to everyone: so everyone could know the certain forgiveness of all sins! This is why we exist as a church, to put it out there to others, but first: to have it put in front of us. The angel directed them to Galilee.

Here in church, and in His Word, this is our Galilee where we “will see Him as He said.” We come here Sunday after Sunday to be shown this, to receive a good-angel-ing, to see the risen Jesus. Just as the angel said, “You seek Jesus,” as if to say: “You’re expecting to see death,” and then said: “[but] He is risen!” – in the same way, you come here in the midst of looking at your sins, dwelling on your own gloom, and what do you hear? – “But He is risen! Your sins are gone! Heaven is open to you!”

Every Sunday you hear the Easter Gospel. You don’t hear Mark 16:1-8 every Sunday. But when I pronounce the forgiveness of your sins, when I preach a sermon to you, when I give you the Lord’s Supper, pronounce the benediction and say “the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace,”– and as I say that, you need to feel singled out like Peter was, so you hear it being addressed just to you – I say all of it because of the Easter Gospel.

Children, when you pray the Lord’s Prayer and say to God, “Forgive us our trespasses,” you know He’ll answer “Yes, I will,” because the angel said, “He is risen!” All of it is based on the Easter Gospel.

You receive the same Easter Gospel, the same “good-angel-ing” that the women at the tomb received. But these are not just words on a page. He’s writing it into your heart as you hear the Gospel and get this “good-angel-ing.” So that you see by faith that your tomb is empty, you have a bright future. So that you see that in Him, by faith in this Gospel, your sins are gone, you’re as holy as the angels and all the saints in heaven! So that you gladly follow wherever the risen Lord is leading, no matter what it means for this life, because He is leading you to life in heaven. Amen!