The Angel's Message

Mark 16:1-8

When Joseph buried Jesus‘ dead body, Joseph did not use soil to cover the body. Instead, Joseph put it into a small room, which his workers had prepared. This room was a deep hole that the workers had cut into the rock. It was in a garden.

After Joseph had buried the dead body, he put a large stone in front of the hole. This stone covered the room so that people could not easily go into it.

At Friday‘s sunset, Joseph had done his work to bury the dead body. There was more work that the women still wanted to do. But the Jews do not work on Saturdays. So Joseph rolled the stone into its place. The work would have to continue on Sunday.

So the women returned very early on Sunday morning. They came to put seeds and oils on Jesus‘ dead body. The Jews did this for two reasons:

1. They wanted to show love for the person who had died. So they chose seeds and oils that have a lovely smell.
2. They believed that God will cause dead people to live again (Mark 12:24-27). Those seeds and oils are like the seeds and oils that people use to keep foods good. The Jews wanted the dead body to be ready for the day when people will live again. They knew that their seeds and oils would not make a dead body ready to live again. But they still used the seeds and oils. And they remembered what God would do.

The women were trying to find someone who would roll the stone away. But they were very surprised when they reached the place. Pilate had sent soldiers there. But the soldiers had left. They had run away because they saw an angel (Matthew 27:4). The women had not seen the angel yet. But they saw that someone had already rolled the stone away.

So, the women went in. There, they found a young man. This young man was the angel (Matthew 28:2-5). His clothes were bright white. They were like Jesus‘ clothes on the mountain (Mark 9:3). The women were very afraid of the angel.

The angel told them a message from God. The dead body was not there, because Jesus was alive. The women should tell the disciples. And they should tell Peter, too. Jesus was going to Galilee. They should meet him there.

Jesus had told them that this would happen (Mark 8:31; Mark 9:9; Mark 10:34). And he had told the disciples that they should meet him in Galilee (Mark 14:28). But they did not believe then. And they still did not believe. An angel had come from God to tell them this message. But the women did not go immediately to tell the message to the disciples. Instead, the women tried to run away. They said nothing about this event. They were too afraid.