Entering the tomb (for the stone had been removed), they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him" . . . And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (Mark 16:5-8)
This is a very peculiar way to end the gospel. Some additional verses were added later, but most interpreters now believe that Mark meant to conclude this way. The news of the Resurrection caused the women to run headlong from the scene. Maybe this image would convey the message better than the usual one of the women kneeling reverently and peacefully, based on the rays of sunrise. Maybe the best Easter card would show the women hurtling pell-mell out of the empty tomb, terrified. Indeed, I found a card this year that conveyed something of this. The painting on the card was done by a Guatemaian artist in a primitive style. It showed the women reacting to the angels message in vivid action. The hair of one standing straight up as though she had received an electric shock. Another was throwing her pottery jar into the air as though it had suddenly become radioactive. Yet another woman was shown with her legs and arms splayed out as if she were leaping like a Cossack dancer. The Gospel of Matthew also convey something of the sense that something truly staggering has taken place. "And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men" (Matthew 28:2-4). This is not a story about the immortality of the soul.
The tomb was empty; the body was gone all four Gospels report this. Yet in a certain sense, the Easter Day sermon is the most difficult of the year because it is impossible to talk directly about the Resurrection. It is often noted that the various accounts in the Gospels do not agree. Most of us who are believers think that these discrepancies simply reflect the ineffable nature of the Resurrection, an event so transcendent as to belong to another order of meaning altogether. Yet in spite of the differences about the numbers and names of angels and witnesses, all evangelists agree that the tomb was empty. The body was nowhere to be found. Only the grave clothes were left behind. "And the disciples saw, and believed."
All the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection convey a sense of something completely un-looked for that has happened, something altogether without precedent, something that stuns and astonishes with this inexplicable power. Yet this event is revealed -- as being the Resurrection of Jesus to a bodily existence. To be sure, it is a different body, which passes through doors, isn't always recognised, it appears only to a chosen few; yet it is a real body that eats fish (Luke 24:42-43), cooks breakfast (John 21:12), and bears the marks of the nail wounds (John 20:27). The risen Lord was not a disembodied spirit, but a real body with whom the disciples had a continuing face-to-face relationship, as in his dialogue with Peter: "Jesus said to him, Simon (Peter), son of John, do you love me? (Peter) said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. (Jesus) said to him, "tend my sheep" (John 21:15-16). This exchange, repeated three times, corresponds to the three times that Peter denied the Lord before his crucifixion. This kind of intimate human encounter, with all that it conveys of forgiveness, repentance, and restitution, cannot take place without bodily presence.
Paul writes quite sharply to the Corinthian church: "if the dead are not raised then Christ has not been raised." If immortality is what we are talking about, then everything we apostles have told you about what happened to Jesus Christ is a lie: "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain," Paul says. Furthermore, if you want to just go back to some kind of general belief in a soul that lives on after death, all the benefits of Christ's Cross are lost to you: "if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." Not only that, Paul continues, you need to know that if Christ is not been raised, your eternal future is at stake also. If there is no Resurrection, then "those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." Thus in various ways Paul seeks to remind the Corinthians that the Resurrection is a completely new happening in the world: the single, definitive, and unique action of God to vindicate and enthrone the crucified Messiah.
Quoted from Fleming Rutledge's book, (The Undoing of Death)
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