A Covenant with God

Jann Martin April 16, 2006

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Mark 16:1-8

Gospel Lesson ¹

¹Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. ²Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. ³And they said among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?" ⁴But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away-for it was very large. ⁵And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶But 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. ⁷But go, tell His disciples-and Peter-that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you." ⁸So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

After sundown on the Sabbath, the three women would have gone to purchase the spices they needed so that they could get an early start in the morning to head out to Jesus' grave and anoint His body. This was done as a sign of respect and devotion, and also to show their love for Him. The spices they took would have been like us taking flowers to the grave of one of our loves ones.

As they walked along and talked, they were concerned as to how they would roll the stone away. It would have been a very large wheel shaped rock blocking the entrance. It probably took at least a couple of men to move the stone in place. As they approached the tomb, they saw that the stone had already been rolled away. The angels didn't move the stone so Jesus could get out of the tomb; they moved it so they can get in to see that He had risen from the dead as He said he would.

In verse 6, the angel tells the women: "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." "The resurrection is vitally important for many reasons: 1) Jesus kept His promise to rise from the dead, so we can believe He will keep His other promises. 2) The resurrection ensures that the ruler of God's eternal kingdom will be the living Christ, not just an idea, hope, or dream. 3) Christ's resurrection gives us the assurance that we also will be resurrected. 4) The power of God that brought Christ's body back from the dead is available to us to bring our morally and spiritual dead selves back to life so that we can change and grow. 5) The resurrection provides the substance of the church's witness to the world. We do not merely tell lessons from the life of a good teacher; we proclaim the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ." ²

As the angel continues to speak in verse 7, "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." We too can be comforted by these words. If Jesus can forgive Peter for his denials before the rooster crowed three times, then we too can be forgiven for our times when we stumble and fall in our faith. Like Peter, we can have great responsibilities in helping our church to grow in strength and numbers. We need to go out and share our faith about the good news of Christ with our family, friends, neighbors, and everyone we meet. In this way we can continue to help His church grow and bring more people to understand the love and care that all can have if they only turn their lives over to Him.

The angel said that the disciples were to meet Jesus in Galilee. This was where He did most of His ministry and where many of their homes were. Why, on the first day of His eternal life, did Jesus go first to Galilee?

One might have thought that, upon being raised from the dead, Jesus would stride triumphantly back to Jerusalem. Imagine what a stirring sight that would have been!

"Pilate, you made a very big mistake," the risen Christ might have said as He strode triumphantly into the palace and confronted all of the important, political people. Or He might have stood on the steps of the temple, addressing the crowd, chiding them for their fickleness and betrayal, showing Himself to the multitudes.

"Jesus did none of that. Rather, He went on ahead of His own disciples, promising to meet them back in Galilee where the story began."

Jesus began His ministry in Galilee, and now He begins it again after His resurrection at Galilee. He was not in the tomb when the women came to anoint Him; He was ready to meet all who would come to Him at Galilee, just an ordinary town like ours. He will meet us in our daily lives just as He met the disciples. We will betray Him just as the disciples had, but He will forgive us too and help us to move on and tell what we have seen and heard. We are all given a chance to begin again. Jesus meets us wherever we are, whether it is at church, breakfast, home, our car or even on the golf course, He'll be there to talk to us and help our faith to grow.

In verse 8, we heard, "So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." The women went to the disciples to tell them that Jesus had risen, just as He had told them He would, but they were afraid to tell anyone else on their way to their home. Will you go from here this morning and tell those you come in contact with that Jesus is risen? In our daily lives, there are many times and places we are restricted from praying or talking about God in public, here is one way some students got around it in a meaningful way:

---- THE SNEEZE

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt.

Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would not pray during the commencements----not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it.

The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine... until the final speech received a standing ovation.

A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened. All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED!!!!

The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, "GOD BLESS YOU, each and every one of you!" And he walked off stage...

The audience exploded into applause. The graduating class found a unique way to invoke God's blessing on their future with or without the court's approval.

Isn't this a wonderful story? Pass it on to all your friends... and

GOD BLESS YOU!

Why don't you see how creative you can be in sharing the Good News.

Jesus came to bear the weight of our sins and to give each of us the gift of salvation. All we have to do is accept the gift of grace from Him, and our sins will be forgiven so we can gain entrance into heaven.

Alleluia, He has risen.

Amen.

©Jann Martin 2006