Tuesday: The Women at the Tomb
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 24th of September 2024
“The women who had stood by the cross of Christ waited and watched for the hours of the Sabbath to pass. On the first day of the week, very early, they made their way to the tomb, taking with them precious spices to anoint the Saviour’s body. They did not think about His rising from the dead. The sun of their hope had set, and night had settled down on their hearts. As they walked, they recounted Christ’s works of mercy and His words of comfort. But they remembered not His words, ‘I will see you again.’ John 16:22.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 788.
Read Mark 16:1-8. What happened, and how did the women first respond?
From the beginning of the Gospel, the reader knows that Jesus is the Messiah. But in the text itself, the first non-demon-possessed person who proclaims Him the Messiah is Peter in Mark 8:29. And this profession doesn’t happen until halfway through the book.
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All throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells people to keep quiet about who He is or about a healing that He did for them. In Mark 1:44, He tells a leper to tell no one of his healing. In Mark 5:43, He tells Jairus and his wife to tell no one of the raising of their daughter. In Mark 7:36, He tells a group not to tell people about His healing of a deaf and mute man. And then He commands His disciples not to tell people that He is the Messiah (Mark 8:30; see also Mark 9:9). No doubt the main reason for Jesus’ telling them to be silent was to allow Himself the time to finish His ministry according to the time prophecies of Daniel 9:24-27.
Now, in this scene, even after they had been told that Jesus had been raised, the women, fearful and amazed, fled from the tomb and, at least at first, didn’t talk about what had happened either.
The silence, however, didn’t last long. By the time we reach the end of the book of Mark, we read this: “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs” (Mark 16:20, ESV).
Thus, the motif of being silent about Jesus and about who He is and what He has done is shattered. The book ends with them preaching “everywhere.”
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Why must we not keep silent about Jesus and what He has done? Who can you tell today about Jesus and the plan of salvation? |
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Apart from the good news that Jesus had risen from the grave, Mark's story has one very special message in it.
If there is anyone in this story that needed inclusion, it was Peter. He needed the assurance that nothing had cut him off from Jesus. He was worthy of a special mention.
I think of all those "Peters" who once walked with us who for one reason or another, no longer believe. Those who have experienced broken marriages, abuse, being ignored, having a different view, or whatever. Jesus issued the invitation for the disciples, and Peter. Do we look out for the "Peters" who were once in our own congregations?
Dear brother Maurice,
Your message about 'Peters' is so touching. This type of inclusion is so important in our faith. God bless yoy
This is so true about the Peter in this story and beyond! If we could and would reach out to the hurtful doubters etcetera who once knew that as we know now; the Hope that lives within our hearts will someday spring forth and burst open our skies of doom and gloom to skies of Joy and forever peaceful Bliss! Let us go forth igniting the fires of warmth from within our hearts and bring a love one back into the fold of Jesus's hands with our heart of love! We too were once Peter!
Has Jesus done any miracles to me? The fact that I am alive is a miracle; I owe my life to Him. What about you? What do you owe Jesus?
JC you asked a question that deserves an answer, I will attempt to answer your question based upon my personal experience. I owe nothing to Jesus.
I will offer this illustration. If I, a dog lover, were to go to the place where unwanted and unruly dogs are housed, and I purchased a dog from death row, I may have redeemed him from an untimely death, but he owes me nothing. If I brought him home to the place where I lived, to the place I had previously prepared for him before he ever knew me, and there I treated him harshly, I would then expect for him to respond in kind. But if that place I prepared for him was in my home, the place where I lived, and I showered nothing but love upon him, treated him as though he were my only child, he still owes me nothing. and even when he chooses not to change his disposition and his attitude toward me and continues to be hostile toward me, even wounding me in the process, he still owes me nothing. as time goes on and i continue to treat him as my most treasured possession, and he begins to respond in kind, trading wickedness and nastiness, and meanness for life, and he has truly been delivered from bondage, and given a new life, a life founded on the principal of love, he still owes me nothing.
All that I have done for that dog has been motivated by love, enabled by love, and done through love, and all that the dog experienced was experienced by love enabled through love. The dog simply responded with love to the love he had received. If payment were required, it's no longer out of love, but for profit.
I am that dog. for I truly was rescued from death row, and after many years of selfless love being poured out upon me and within me, I have been enabled to respond in kind.
The choice has always been mine, and still is, In Genesis chapter 6 it is written that Father was sorrowful that He had created man, because the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. Even the sorrow of a broken heart could not restrain the One who is Love, from pouring out that Love upon and into those who hated Him. It's also written in another place that there is much Joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents. And in another place, for the Joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross despising the shame. I have been given the choice to either increase God's sorrow, or His Joy.
JC for me the miracle is that we are able to receive the Love and share the Love, without price. I hope this helps someone some where to receive the free gift without payment.
Shalom
The real issue is that Jesus requires no payment for my salvation but because of what He has done for me, I respond with a debt of gratitude and love. Not to earn my salvation. Thus I believe men, not dogs, were programed to respond in the way JC appropriately has questioned.
While I like your writing style, and your example, I still believe I owe Jesus everything. Even the dog owes his master. He could have stayed on death row and been abused and neglected and left to die. How much more we humans, who being the evil people we are, while we were at our height of evil doing, Jesus died for us. He risked being separated from His Father to ensure that we can have salvation, peace, joy, etc not just in this life, but for eternity...that my friend is a debt owed that I cannot pay.
I owe Jesus everything.
Knowing Jesus and He what has done for me is a big miracle. Now I need as well as Jesus is the holy spirit to guide and lead me with my walk in daily lives. Everyday I fall short and need a saviour daily, moment by moment.
Carmen, welcome to the hardest race you'll ever run, the human race. The struggle is a sign of life. When you fall down, reach out and take your Savior's outstretched hand, get back up, and continue walking with Him.
Blessings to you.
Carmen, I believe that recognizing and remembering our need is actually the secret of Christian's strength.
Paul writes, "When I am weak, then I am strong," (2 Cor. 12:10) and Jesus pronounces a blessing on all who recognize their spiritual poverty when He sats, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." (Matt. 5:3)
If we nurture a spirit of dependence on Jesus, He will bring us through to "win the race." I believe that the real struggle is to stay close to Jesus and depend on Him, rather than to do our own thing and depend on self.
The women at Jesus' tomb are an exemplification of how love can motivate individuals to act, even in the face of adversity. They showed their dedication to Jesus by attending to him both before and after his death, and by remaining present while others fled.
After reading today’s question, the parable of the Talents comes to mind. Each of the rich man's servants received their talent(s), and, according to the number of talents received, they engaged. Only the one who received the one talent engaged by 'burrying' it, event though the owner of the estate expected from this servant to receive an increase as well; all are called upon to invest – no exception.
Whether little faith or great faith, everyone needs to invest their new nature in their daily life and so reap spiritual returns by doing so. I do not think that it is only done by ‘telling someone about Jesus’. I consider this ‘talent’ to be our conviction of the truthfulness of the Word of God which we live every day of our live. Its testimony will speak ‘louder than words’, and were appropriet, we can follow it up with the Word of God leading to the conviction of the living soul.
The following is from an online article, "What the Women at the Tomb Reveal about God's Redemption" by Gretchen Ronnevik. I thought that her perspectives on this matter are rather interesting.
"There are many possible reasons the women were there and the men were not—even fear. But the fact that men were absent is not even entirely correct. Peter and John were there. John 20:1-10 says that Mary Magdalene [and likely the other women from the other gospel accounts] ran back to the disciples to tell them that Jesus’ body was not there, and Peter and John raced each other back to the tomb.
They were there—and they didn’t see the angels. They didn’t see Jesus....
The angels appeared to the women. Jesus appeared to the women—not to Peter and John. This was an intentional, ordered meeting. Jesus wasn’t five minutes late and just happened to miss Peter and John. He wanted to see Mary first. It was the proper order of things....
To understand this proper ordering, we have to go back to Genesis 3. In the garden, it was Eve who gave the fruit to Adam. They both sinned against God, and God sought them out, and spoke a word over the serpent, the woman, and the man—in that order....God, the great real-life storyteller, intentionally picked them as characters to remind us of the very purpose of the resurrection....
The angels appeared to the women. Jesus appeared to the women—not to Peter and John. This was an intentional, ordered meeting. Jesus wasn’t five minutes late and just happened to miss Peter and John. He wanted to see Mary first. It was the proper order of things.
To understand this proper ordering, we have to go back to Genesis 3. In the garden, it was Eve who gave the fruit to Adam. They both sinned against God, and God sought them out, and spoke a word over the serpent, the woman, and the man—in that order. He cursed the serpent, and prophesied how the woman’s offspring would strike him down. He told the woman that her labor pains would be intensified, and her desire would be for her husband, yet he would rule over her. Then he spoke over the man. God said the ground would be cursed, and the man would eat from it by means of painful labor, and his work would be among thorns and thistles, and he would eat by the sweat of his brow.
The serpent, the woman, the man. Once sin broke the world, God spoke to these three to condemn this sin and then offer his promise to defeat the serpent. Then he covered his children and led them away from the garden, away from the tree of life. They would need to die to be resurrected.
When Jesus took our sins to the cross, and died our death, he went down to hell [the,grave] to show the curse had been broken. Then he went to the women, to show the curse had been broken. Then he has the women tell the men before he showed his living body to the men, to show the curse had been broken. Piece by piece, thread by thread, the resurrected Jesus unwinds the curse from the garden.
Every part of Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene in John 20 was incredibly intentional and personal for God to systematically redeem what was lost."
[Moderator Note to Beverly: Please check your email and/or provide an email address that you use regularly. Thank you.]
Hello Beverley!
An interesting perspective for sure. One thing the author missed is that the Risen Jesus appeared first to Satan and his minions at the moment of the resurrection. I'm sure they were also guarding the tomb with the Roman soldiers, hoping to keep Jesus from resurrecting, as if that would be possible. In that sense He would have retraced and rewound the curse, because in the Garden of Eden He first chastised the serpent (Satan's media) then the woman, and lastly the man.
There is no Scripture or Spirit of Prophecy quotes that I am aware of to refute the author's theory. What we do know is that God does nothing haphazardly, or coincidentally. An interesting perspective indeed, one which I hadn't considered.
While the author did not specifically address Jesus' encounter with Satan at the time of the resurrection, it can be inferred through the guards who acted on his behalf. This indirect confrontation aligns with your view through his representatives. While I cannot confirm with absolute certainty that Satan and his angels were actually present, it is highly probable.
Hi Beverly.
I did find this interesting insight from Ellen White's writings regarding the evil angels and Satan at the tomb.
Tim, thanks for sharing Ellen White's quote. I somehow believe that Satan and his angels would have been there, but I had no authoritative source to make that claim.
Satan was next to Christ in heaven. However, because of his rebellious spirit, when it comes to the Godhead, he makes makes the most stupid decisions. How could He have possibly thought that Jesus, who is God, could not raise Himself from the dead as He had prophesied?