Easter Clothes (Mark 15:37-16:8)

Sermon for Easter 2025

Easter Clothes (Mark 15:37-16:8)

A man was driving one Easter morning, when he heard a thud. He’d hit something. It was a large rabbit. A basket of colored eggs was scattered about its lifeless body. “Oh no!” he cried and dropped to his knees

Just then another car stopped. A lady came to the man and asked, “What’s the matter, Honey?” The man wept, “I’m so horrible. I killed the Easter Bunny!” She looked over at the dead rabbit and said, “Wait right there, I think I can help!” She went to her car, got into the trunk, and came back with an aerosol can. She sprayed up and down the body of the bunny. Soon the rabbit’s nose started to twitch, then its feet started to kick. Then, all of a sudden, the rabbit jumped up and started hopping away. About every 3rd hop, the bunny stopped and turned to wave. Then another few hops, stop and turn to wave. It kept hopping and waving until it was out of sight.

The man stood there dumfounded! “What’s in that can of spray?”

The woman smiled and said, “I’m an Avon lady, and this is one of our many wonderful products.” She showed him the label. It read:

Hair Restorer. Brings life to dead hair, adds bounce, and a permanent wave.

Hoppy Easter, everyone!

 

Easter is not about the bunny. It’s about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Some say Easter is the birth of the Church. It is certainly the dawning of a new kind of existence.

 

Resurrection is not the same as resuscitation. Those brought back from death by medical intervention, will one day die again. But resurrection is forever. It is a new category of existence. Only one establishes new categories of life, the Creator.

The apostle Paul writes of our God and the faith of Abraham.

He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. (Romans 4:17)

God gives life to the dead and creates new forms of existence. Jesus is the firstborn of the dead, the very first resurrection. He appeared to his disciples. His wounds were still visible. He ate fish and bread in their presence. But at the same time, Jesus appeared to them suddenly like a ghost while they were hiding behind locked doors. We really don’t know what this resurrected body is like. Paul says that it is not flesh and blood, but a spiritual body.

Whatever this mysterious form of existence might be, Paul encourages the church to trust the creator who chose what type of body the fish and birds would have. God chose the form the sun, moon and stars would have. Can God not be trusted with the type of body we will enjoy in eternity?

 

Resurrection is the gift of a new spiritual body that can endure eternity with God. Our bodies wear out and ultimately fail in death, but the resurrection body has no such problems.

 

There are those within the church who do not believe in resurrection. They think it a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment. Some have said the New Testament accounts of experiencing the Risen Lord Jesus were like a mass grief episode, where those in grief cannot accept their loss and their mind plays tricks on them.

 

The apostle Paul had words for such doubt in the church.

 

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep (died) in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are, of all people, most to be pitied. (1Co 15:17-19)

 

Paul is confident in the reality of resurrection and in its fundamental importance to faith.

 

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9)

 

The Easter proclamation that Christ is risen is a bedrock solid foundation for life. Belief in resurrection means eternal hope, a hope that cannot be shaken by anything.

 

The gospel of Mark is unique in its handling of the Easter story. Most modern Bibles will inform the reader that the original Gospel of Mark ends at Mark 16:8. In its original form, there are no accounts of seeing the risen Jesus. All we read about is an empty tomb, and a young man in white who tells them Jesus is risen. The women were so afraid, they don’t say a word to anyone.

 

As they approached the tomb with oil and spices to anoint Jesus’ body, they asked, “Who will roll away the stone for us?”

 

The large stone cover took several men to move. I assume the other disciples were still hiding in fear. But we know the answer.

 

In Isaiah, God promises.

On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
⁸     he will swallow up death forever. (Isa 25:7-8a)

 

“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
    I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction? (Hosea 13:14)

 

God promised to set his people free from the power of death. Who will roll away the stone for us? God will!

 

If God will give us the gift of new bodies that endure for eternity, then what else might God be able to roll away from our path? Anything. As creator of all things, God is the supreme authority. All things are possible with God.

 

The women saw the tomb was open. They looked inside and saw Jesus’ body was missing, but there was a young man there sitting on the right of where Jesus’ body had lain. There are significant implications in the details Mark shares.

 

We aren’t told the identity of the young man, but there’s a clue. There is only one other place in the gospel of Mark where the Greek word (neaniskos) translated as young man is found. That is in the Garden of Gethsemane. When Jesus is arrested by the temple guard, all the disciples scattered. Among the disciples, was a young man wearing a linen ephod.

 

An ephod can be a simple loincloth or a short skirt-like cloth to cover one’s sensitive areas. Or it can be a full length garment covering from the shoulders to mid-calf. Priests and Levites wore such a linen ephod.  As the young man ran from the temple guard, he left his linen cloth behind and ran off naked. His nakedness reminds us of the story of Adam and Eve. After they ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened. They felt ashamed of their nakedness and hid from God.

 

I was once at a conference of pastors and our speaker was a humorist. He asked the audience to come up with humorous ideas for a theme for a local church directory. I suggested the theme of “naked and not ashamed.” It drew laughter that day. But neither Adam and Eve, nor the young man running for his life, were in any laughing mood. They were ashamed and terrified.

 

I suggest that the young man represents us. Like Adam and Eve, we’ve all done things we should not have done. We were meant for a paradise-like existence with God, naked and unashamed. But we listened to the voice of selfishness, a voice of fear, greed, lust or angry defiance. Instead of keeping God’s commands which lead to life, we chose another path which led to shame. But God in His great love acted to save us.

 

When Jesus died upon the cross, the veil covering the Holy of Holies tore in two. The Holy of Holies is where the ark of the covenant sat. It is where God was said to be seated above the ark. The tear in the veil is an announcement. The way back to paradise with God has been opened. Jesus’ sacrifice wipes away the barrier our sins put between us and God. We can stand before God unashamed, for Christ has expunged our record. God has cast our sins as far as the east is from the west, and remembers them no more.

 

The young man sat to the right of where Jesus had laid. This too is symbolic. He is seated at the right side, an indication of divine favor. We’ve all heard of the right-hand man. Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. He is seated in glory and majesty in the most favored place. Jesus placed you at His right hand. He died for you, that you might be set free of the power of sin and shame. And He rose for you, that you might share in His resurrection.

 

The young man was robed in white. White symbolizes purity. To be pure is to follow the righteous path, and shun sinful behavior. The white robe of the young man isn’t just any white linen. It is brilliantly white.

The only other place that Mark uses that description is at the transfiguration of Jesus. While praying upon the mountain, Jesus’s clothing became radiant, brilliantly white. Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with him. Heaven was opened on that mountain. Jesus experienced a foretaste of what is to come.

 

What does it mean that the young man was clothed in brilliant white? I suggest that the young man of the Garden of Gethsemane and the young man in the tomb is one and the same. And he is us. God has covered our shame, and suited us for heaven!

 

In Revelation 3:5, Jesus promised,

 

The one who is victorious will… be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.

 

John had a vision of a multitude, beyond counting, surrounding the throne of God and dressed in white. They had remained faithful to Christ through all the trials of life, washed in the blood of the lamb of God.

 

they are before the throne of God
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
    will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶ ‘Never again will they hunger;
    never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’
    nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷ For the Lamb at the center of the throne
    will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
    ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Rev 7:15-17)

 

The young man promised the women that Jesus is going ahead of them into Galilee. “There you will see him, just as he told you.” (Mk 16:7)

Keep the faith, and you will see Jesus. He has washed you and suited you for heaven. For Christ prepared you a place at his right hand.

 

Christ is risen!