Mark 16:10

Some of you, dear Friends, have seen those small pictures by famous Dutch artists where, with many little touches— very lifelike, very suggestive, very homely—they depict an interior. Now Mark is that kind of painter. He delights to give us interiors. He is best pleased when he can record something which nobody else seems to have described, or when he can take a description by somebody else and fill in the details, the finishing touches that have been omitted.

Some of you, dear Friends, have seen those small pictures by famous Dutch artists where, with many little touches— very lifelike, very suggestive, very homely—they depict an interior. Now Mark is that kind of painter. He delights to give us interiors. He is best pleased when he can record something which nobody else seems to have described, or when he can take a description by somebody else and fill in the details, the finishing touches that have been omitted. I do not remember that we are told by Matthew, or Luke, or John, how the disciples behaved themselves while their Lord was in the grave. It is left to us to imagine their feelings, with this exception—that Mark tells us that "they mourned and wept." Remember, this was on the morning of the third day after our Lord's death. They had had the Jewish Sabbath for quiet reflection and, no doubt, for lamentation and mourning. But this is the morning of our own Lord's-Day, the first day of the week, and when Mary Magdalene comes into the room, she tells them that she has seen the risen Lord! And what is the scene which is presented to her eyes? In two or three words, Mark stipples it in thus, "as they mourned and wept." They were mainly men, I suppose. If Mary came only to the eleven, they were all men, yet this is how they are occupied—"They mourned and wept." We know most of them. We have read so much of them and they stand out in such clear light—these early leaders of the Church of Christ, these first few chosen men—that I seem to be almost able to see them all in my imagination just now. They were not grouped around a table as they are in that celebrated picture of the Last Supper, but sitting together in the room and not able to restrain their emotions. They are all mourning, and most of them are expressing those emotions in a way not usual to men. "They mourned and wept." There were sighs, cries and salt tears.

Let us mark, in these verses, what abundant proof we have that our Lord Jesus Christ really rose again from the dead . In this one passage Mark records no less than three distinct occasions on which He was seen after His resurrection. First, he tells us, our Lord appeared to one witness, Mary Magdalene — then to two witnesses, two disciples walking into the country — and lastly to eleven witnesses, the eleven apostles all assembled together. Let us remember, in addition to this, that other appearances of our Lord are described by other writers in the New Testament, beside those mentioned by Mark. And then let us not hesitate to believe, that of all the facts of our Lord's history, there is none more thoroughly established than the fact, that He rose from the dead. There is great mercy in this. The resurrection of Christ is one of the foundation-stones of Christianity. It was the seal of the great work that He came on earth to do. It was the crowning proof that the ransom He paid for sinners was accepted, the atonement for sin accomplished, the head of him who had the power of death bruised, and the victory won. It is well to remark how often the resurrection of Christ is referred to by the apostles. "He was delivered for our offences," says Paul, "and was raised again for our justification." (Rom. 4:25.) "He has begotten us again to a living hope," says Peter, "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Peter 1:3.) We ought to thank God that the fact of the resurrection is so clearly established. The Jew, the Gentile, the priests, the Roman guard, the women who went to the tomb, the disciples who were so hesitant to believe, are all witnesses whose testimony cannot be gainsaid. Christ has not only died for us, but has also risen again. To deny it shows far greater credulity than to believe it.