How do the resurrection appearances all fit together? (Mark 16:1 - 8)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church exploring the background, context, meaning, and significance of the account of Jesus of Nazareth in the book of Mark.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into the Book of Mark. And uh, you know, we've talked about uh the women as witnesses of the resurrection, and then I wanted to address a question that somebody um asked me this last week, essentially around the chronology of the resurrection and um and geography in relation to the other gospels. Uh this type of question comes up, you know, around the resurrection, but other parts of the gospels as well, because each gospel writer provides their own perspective, their own um, their own kind of account of the events of Jesus. Sometimes there's this question of how do how do they fit together? And this comes up uh in the resurrection accounts in a number of different ways. Who was there, when, um, when, and then particularly when did they go out? Galilee, you know, Luke said to stay in Jerusalem. How does this all uh how does this all fit together? Um and uh I'm gonna use there's kind of two works that I think I've found helpful. Craig Blomberg's Jesus and the Gospels, uh, which is an introduction and survey. Well, great, great book to have. And then there's another one, George Elden Ladd's I Believe in the Resurrection, which actually goes into the detail of this question even deeper. Um, but if you want to do your own study, either of those would be uh would be helpful. But um, but I'll just kind of I'm gonna use Blomberg here and just give a summary of how these things uh may have fit together. And if you if you've looked at the different resurrection accounts and asked this question, this might be helpful um to you. Um and I I guess I a couple maybe a couple guiding principles for me as well, that even as we read these resurrection accounts, a few guiding principles. One, um sometimes it feels like uh for me, kind of like man, the questions of how does this all fit together? It sounds like the kinds of testimony we would get from people who are in shock encountering something they can hardly imagine. And different people remember different details about it. And yeah. Uh and I I think if it was people getting together and collaborating to make up a lie, you would actually find more cohesiveness. It sounds more like people who all experience like an earthquake together or car crash, and there's like kind of the different different people remember different fragments. That's the kind of thing I think we see in these gospel um accounts. Um the other thing, and this one's hard, especially uh for us moderns, that uh we have to let the gospel writers be the gospel writers. And what I mean is in the modern world, we value newspaper type reporting. Just tell us the facts. The gospel writers were 100% committed to the historic facts, but they also uh they were also committed to helping people understand the meaning of the events. And there's this emphasis on helping people get the the meaning of it, the significance of it, that was even more important than say getting the exact hour right, that it we struggle with sometimes. And we want we want gospel writers to write like moderns. Um and I think sometimes, and I and I and I'll have this conversation with people, we have to accept the Bible as God gave it to us, not the Bible we think God should have given to us. Um and so there's just a degree of what are the goals and the emphases the gospel writers are bringing here and allowing that to stand for itself. So, all with all those preambles, this is I'll give you the kind of the summary um that Blomberg gives, and I think is a good overall picture of that. The thing that seems really clear that um the resurrection accounts all start with a group of women heading to the tomb. A little unclear if Mary Magdalene went ahead of them. Mary Magdalene was clearly one of them, and there's other women as well. Did they travel together? Did they travel separately? But clearly these women show up to the tomb. There at the tomb, they meet uh a couple angels. I know Mark only mentions one, Matthew mentions a couple. It seems like there's these angelic figures who first announce um the resurrection of Jesus. The women then they leave the tomb. There's fear, there's joy. Um, and then at some point, these next couple things happen. Uh Jesus meets the women, whether all together, or meets some of the women and Mary Magdalene separate. There are these Jesus meeting the women accounts. And then there's also this account of Peter and John rushing back to the tomb, them finding empty. And so those those things are this is all Sunday morning still. These things are all happening uh Sunday morning. Peter and John of the tomb, Jesus appearing to the women, Mary Magdalene having her, you know, this um this one reported in John. Uh later that afternoon, then we get the Rhoda Maeus. Uh Cleopus and this other unnamed companion um meet Jesus, the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Um it seems that in a separate incident, um, Jesus also appears to Peter at this time. Um later that Sunday evening, so it's still Resurrection Sunday, Jesus appears to the um to the ten. Remember, but um Judas isn't there, and then Thomas isn't there yet. So appears to the ten behind locked doors in Jerusalem. A week later, he appears to the leaven in the same venue. Now Thomas is present. Um and then we're told that over the next 40 days, including in Galilee, over 500 people see Jesus. We're not told the details on this, but clearly there's this 40-day period where there's lots of resurrection appearances of Jesus, and over 500 people see him. Um at some point, they're up in Galilee, uh, where we get uh like Jesus and uh Peter and John and the sword of the Sea of Galilee, and then also in Galilee, we get the Great Commission, Matthew 28, this like climactic commissioning to the disciples to spread the news. But then at some point after that, they're back in Jerusalem because the final resurrection appearance and ascension at the very end of the book of Luke and the beginning of the book of Acts happens in Jerusalem and then he ascends on the Mount of Olives. And so uh there's some question, like, okay, uh when do they go to Galilee? And we don't, you know, you don't get an exact timeline. It's Jerusalem, this constellation of appearances, Galilee, constellation of appearances, back to Jerusalem, final appearances and ascension. And that's that's the kind of the overall harmony. And you can go through and kind of verse by verse, gospel by gospel, um, look at those things. But that's the overview of what appears to be happening. Um that it uh they all agree kind of on the big picture of how this went down. Um it does seem to me the kinds of testimony we get from people who all they're just it's like they experienced a plane crash. Like it's just so shocking to the system. They they kind of uh remember different fragments of it. And over through it all, it it seems like the emphasis of the gospel writers, yes, it's historical, yes, they're telling us it's eyewitness accounts, but they're less concerned about getting like the day seven, day right eight, day nine, kind of this is where they were. They're less concerned about that, and they're more concerned about establishing the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and what that means for the ongoing ministry of his community. So I hope that encourages you. Um uh and I hope it makes you want to spend more time um with the gospel accounts of the resurrection. Grace and peace.