Mark 16:1 Commentary and Bible Study

In Mark's Gospel, when he speaks of the resurrection of Christ, he repeatedly mentions the unbelief of the apostles. He records the devotion of the women, but he also implies their unbelief too. Luke tells us of the unbelief of other disciples on the road to Emmaus – the second tier of disciples, if you like – but Mark particularly emphasises the unbelief of the apostles, and how Christ had to reprove them quite severely after he was risen from the dead for their unbelief, for their hardness of heart. The Jewish sabbath ended at 6 pm on Saturday, and the women had then purchased sweet spices to anoint the body of Jesus, or at least to unwind some of the grave clothes and anoint them. It had already been done by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, but now the women want to do it themselves. We read it was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome – the same women who had been present at the crucifixion, ‘looking on afar off’ (Mark 15:40). Luke also adds Joanna. As they plan to do this, they say among themselves, ‘Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?’ They had watched where the body of Jesus was laid in the unused tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and they had observed the great stone that was put across the door and realised they could never move it on their own. Possibly they had lingered long enough to see the mounting of the guard, which would have been a Roman guard as Matthew 27:65 makes clear. The chief priests and the scribes had appealed to Pontius Pilate, the procurator, to mount the guard and he had made available his own soldiers. They feared lest the disciples should steal away the body, and claim that Christ was risen. What gave them that idea? Christ in his teaching had spoken about the prophet Jonah, and had said that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so he would be in the heart of the earth, and he hinted and spoke of the resurrection. The chief priests were astute enough to remember that: he claimed he would rise again. Extraordinarily, the disciples failed to remember it. Three times in the Gospels the Lord said to them that he was going to Jerusalem, and he would be arrested, and be crucified and slain, and he would rise again the third day and ascend. He told them this plainly three times, but the disciples didn't remember it. Yet the chief priests, who had only heard it spoken of in figurative language said, Look, they may claim he is risen again. ‘Seal the tomb.’ We read elsewhere in Matthew that there was an earthquake. It might have been a very localised quake around the area of the garden tomb outside the city, something explicitly designed by God to remove that stone sealing the tomb. It might have been felt in the city as a tremor, but it is not mentioned or thought of by the ladies. They are saying, ‘Who will roll the stone away?’ At the time of that earthquake those Roman guards had been rendered unconscious by the power of God. They were, says the Gospel, as dead men. They had subsequently fled in fear, and gone into the city, and when the opportunity arose they reported to the chief priests, ‘The body has gone and we don't know how. We don't know what happened.’ By the time the women arrive at the tomb the day is dawning, and they see that the stone is already rolled away.