Joy Came in the Morning (Mark 16:4-7)

“When a man dies, will he come back to life? If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle until my relief comes” (Job 14:14). The relief that Job, a man of sorrows, was seeking did come. Death was conquered when the one whom Isaiah called “Man of Sorrows” appeared. Jesus spoke to Martha, in her grief, concerning the death of her brother Lazarus and gave her hope. “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live” (John 11:25). But did hope die on the cross for the three women who were present for the death and burial of Jesus?

Their eyes were swollen from the weeping they had endured in the night. It was still dark, and their minds were downcast with sorrow as they gathered together with their spices to anoint Jesus. In the twilight before sunrise they made their way to the grave, their hearts heavy with grief. But the darkness of night could not restrain the bright morning star, and the promise that had been given long ago was kept. Joy came in the morning!

When they looked up they found that the heavy stone they had feared would block their entrance had been rolled away. They entered the tomb, but to their amazement they found a young man dressed in a long white robe sitting there. “‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he told them. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been resurrected! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there just as He told you’” (Mark 16:6,7).

What had He told them? On the night before His death Jesus had told His disciples that after He had risen He would go ahead of them to Galilee and meet them there. What else had Jesus told them? “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Death could not conquer life. The grave was not victorious over the resurrection. In the words of John Mark McMillan, “The Man, Jesus Christ, laid death in his grave.”

Job had asked in his grief, “When a man dies, will he come back to life?” When Jesus died on the cross He paid the wages for our sin once and for all. When He rose from the dead He broke the curse of death. Hope did not die on the cross, it was established. Jesus promised that “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).