Mark 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, 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 that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 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.
'He is risen!' (6) This is the glorious reality that made the gospel into a gospel, into a message of hope and power and salvation. Everything, literally everything was changed for the disciples by His rising again. The Resurrection was, and is, the great motivating and energising power of true Christian experience. What then is its significance? Look at it this way. Jesus was raised from the dead. This is what constitutes the gospel. But Lazarus was also raised from the dead, as were Jairus' daughter and the widow of Nain's son. But their rising from the dead did not constitute a gospel. The difference between theirs and His is an absolute one; it is that the death they died was essentially different from the death Jesus died, for death overtook them as death overtakes us. They were the victims of death. But death did not overtake Jesus, He died because He chose to die. It would be far truer to say that Jesus overtook death - indeed, He invaded death, entered into enemy territory, penetrated far into the heart of the kingdom of darkness and grappled once for all with the king of terrors himself and laid him low. Death was the great enemy to be dealt with - the sacrament and ultimate expression of sin - and how else could it be dealt with than by Jesus 'entering into it' and destroying it from the inside? This is where Mark's presentation of Christ in his Gospel story as Lord of all is really seen in its deepest significance. Christ, Lord of nature, disease, devils, angels and men - this Lord entered into death for our sakes, as our Champion! How could death hold such a prey? 'It was not possible that He should be holden of death' says Peter in Acts 2:24. But - and this is the point - this was something that needed to be demonstrated, and the Resurrection of Jesus demonstrates that in fact death did not hold Him. The Resurrection was necessary to prove that the victory had really been won, and that death, the great enemy, had really been vanquished.