Mark 16:1-8 (ESV)
The Resurrection
16 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, 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.
{Prayer}
The phrase “angel eyes” may conjure up a few different thoughts depending on your age and your interests. Older music lovers may think of the 1946 jazz standard popularized by Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. But if you’re more of an 80’s power ballad music fan, you may think of the song “Angel Eyes” released by the Jeff Healy Band in 1988. Listeners to modern country music will be more likely to think of the 2012 song “Angel Eyes” by the band Love and Theft. Dog lovers may recognize “Angels’ Eyes” as the brand name for products which help clear up tear stains around the eyes of dogs. A husbands may be thinking about the angel eyes of his wife.
Whatever thoughts originally came to mind when you heard the phrase “angel eyes,” I want you to forget about them. Forget about them because this morning we aren’t focusing on the song, the tear product for dogs, or about my wife’s eyes. We are going to focus on a different set of angel eyes. We’re going to focus on the eyes of the angel who we find sitting in the empty tomb of Jesus on Easter morning.
It’s funny that we call it the “empty tomb,” especially since in Mark’s account of Jesus’ resurrection this empty tomb seems to be a bit overcrowded. You have in there the two Marys and Salome who were shocked to discover the large stone rolled away from the tomb. When they go inside they are startled to see a young man dressed in white sitting up where Jesus’ body should have been lying. Their alarm is nothing which should surprise us honestly. The women come looking for the dead body of Jesus to anoint it, but it’s not there. They don’t come looking for an angel. Besides, angels are scary. Despite what you have seen in figurines, artistic depictions, or on the Hallmark channel … God’s angels aren’t cute, chubby like babies in diapers flying around with wings holding a heart shaped bows and arrows. God’s angels are majestic creature who strike fear into the hearts of onlookers. Because of this, the first words out of an angel’s mouth is always “Don’t be afraid!” As we go through the sermon this morning, I want you to tuck away in the back of your mind, the word we translate as “angel” in the Greek also carries this meaning of “messenger.”
On Easter morning, this angel sitting where the body of Jesus is supposed to be says to the terrified women, “Don’t be alarmed” (Mark 16:6). These women don’t need to be afraid of this angel because he comes not to destroy but to bring them some absolutely awesome news! He announces to them that they don’t need worry about what has happened to the body of Jesus because He is risen! “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you’ ” (16:6-7).
The angel directs the women to see with their own eyes that Jesus isn’t there, and then he explains what his angel eyes have witnessed. The angel knows that they are looking for Jesus “who was crucified” or “the crucified one.” Remember, these women had seen Jesus suffer for the sin for the whole world under the wrath of his Heavenly Father on the cross in the darkness of Good Friday. They had seen Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus. They had seen it all … or so they thought. The angel, however, has seen something which they hadn’t. The angel saw the resurrected Jesus with his own eyes. And even though Jesus rose from the dead, the angel still calls him “the crucified one” and that is because he still bears in his hands and side the marks of his crucifixion.
Later that same afternoon, Jesus appears to ten of his disciples and proves his identity to them by showing them these marks. Jesus extends out his hands and says to them “Peace be with you.” A week later, this morning to be exact, Jesus invites doubting Thomas to not only look and see these marks but to touch them. This turns doubting Thomas into believing Thomas as he cries out, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Still later, Paul would encounter the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus and then write to the Corinthians, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Paul characterized his preaching to the Galatians this way: “Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified” (3:1b).
You might be thinking, on this first Sunday after Easter, why so much talk, why so much focus on the crucifixion of Jesus? Because the cross has to always be at the center of our theology, it is the focal point of life. A God who has not been crucified on your behalf would do you no good. It would be useless. If you look through the angel’s eyes you see that Jesus is the Crucified one, the one who was put to death for your and my sins. The cross is our life. Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20); and “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (6:14).
Of course, the resurrection of Jesus is also essential. Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). I need you this morning to see through the angel’s eyes. I need you to see and believe that Jesus was raised on Easter so that you would be made right with God. Good Friday, the death of Jesus, and Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, are like two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other. Have you ever tried to buy something with a one-sided quarter? You can’t! Jesus couldn’t pay for your salvation only by dying or only by living. He had to do both. Jesus had to actively obey God’s Law perfectly, which you can I can’t do, fight against Satan, whom you and I could never defeat, and die for all the times you and I have fallen short and have fallen for the devil’s temptations. Jesus had to die, go into the grave, and deposit there all of your sins. But He also had to come out alive. In doing so, he left all of our sins in the grave. In rising from the dead, you are truly forgiven of your sins and Jesus has given to you the eternal promise of everlasting life in the new creation to come.
After Jesus’ resurrection, he continues the pattern he established on that first Easter by using angels to proclaim His death and resurrection. Though you are like the women at the tomb and cannot see Jesus with your own eyes, the reliable testimony of the Easter angel recorded in Scripture is a precious Gospel which you should keep before your eyes at all times. Though Jesus remains hidden from our physical sight, He has continued to send us angels to testify to His presence among us. No, I’m not talking about cute chubby Hallmark angels or even the heavenly angels but instead earthly angels. Earthly angels who proclaim the Gospel. Remember how else I said the word angel could be translated? It also means messenger. In the Bible, “angel” doesn’t necessarily imply a heavenly being but can be an earthly one.
After Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus sent his disciples out to be his angels, his messengers, to preach the Good News to the whole world. And those angel apostles appointed everywhere they went pastors and teachers to continue sharing the Good News of Good Friday and Easter.
There is nothing particularly angelic about Christ’s apostles then or even about Christian pastors today. We are a pretty sorry lot … just ask our wives. Nobody would look at me and say, “Wow, he’s got angel eyes.” But what apostles and pastors of Christ do have are beautiful feet. Not literally, but the prophet Isaiah and Paul both say, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news” (Romans 10:15). In other words, the footsteps of angels who preach the Gospel to us are beautiful because they proclaim the beautiful message of Christ.
We don’t see Jesus here with us … but through His angel messengers, through you as you live your life out to God’s glory and honor, through the very words of God found in Scripture, and through the Sacraments … we know that Jesus is with us. May our angel eyes always stay fixed on Jesus, the crucified and risen Savior of the world, now and forevermore. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.