Bible Commentaries
Mark 16

Verse 3

THE STONE AT THE DOOR

‘Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?’

Mark 16:3

The text suggests various questions.

I. Why was there ever a sepulchre on earth?—A sepulchre tells of sorrow, sickness, bereavement, death. How came it there? ‘By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.’ The sin of man, small so far as the act was concerned, but vast in the principle involved, and in the results it entailed, placed him and his posterity under the curse of the law. Every pang of sickness speaks of God’s broken law; every corpse of the power of sin; every grave of the penalty of disobedience.

II. Why was there a sepulchre for Jesus?—Because it was ordained in the counsel of the Godhead that Christ should be buried, as well as die. Had He not been laid in the sepulchre, we might have had reason to doubt the reality of His death. As the death of Christ was a true, real, and proper death, so His burial was a true, real, and proper burial. His body at death was confided to men above suspicion. His interment was witnessed by many spectators, and His tomb was such that it was eminently adapted to guard against a spurious, and to illustrate a genuine, resurrection. Thus was it necessary that Christ should be buried in order to verify His death; and because, as our substitute, He must lie down in the grave, whither we all must go. He Who was to be the ‘first-fruits’ of our resurrection, Who was both to illustrate its character and make known its power, must also Himself lie in one of earth’s graves, that He might thus sanctify the world as the resting-place of His sleeping saint.

III. Why was that stone put there?—Matthew gives the reason. Never did men more thoroughly overreach themselves than did the chief priests and Pharisees in desiring Pilate to seal the stone and guard the sepulchre. The very means by which they hoped to prevent the Resurrection were made the occasion of more gloriously effecting the purpose of God, and we should have lost some of the most striking and irrefragable proofs of the Resurrection, had not this request been made by the Jews and granted by Pilate. Thus did God cause the wrath of man to praise Him, and the plottings of the enemies of Christ to prove the strongest props to the doctrine of the Resurrection. The stone was rolled to the mouth of the sepulchre by Joseph to protect the body of Christ. It was sealed, so that it could not be removed without being detected. It was guarded by a band of Roman soldiers, disciplined in the stern severities of military law, in order to drive away or capture His disciples should they attempt to seize the body; and its presence, its sealing, and its guarding, designed as obstacles to the Resurrection, were really so many proofs of its accomplishment.

IV. Who rolled that stone away? and for what purpose?—Matthew will give us the answer. Here again we see the wonder-working power of God in the transactions connected with this scene. Had our Lord rolled away the stone, it might have been said that He was not dead, but only in a state of asphyxia, or trance, and that, reviving, He did, in exercise of desperate strength, remove the rock at the tomb’s mouth, and by collusion with the soldiers escape from the sepulchre, and so give birth to the story of the Resurrection. But in consequence of the earthquake and the angelic appearance, the Roman guard did shake with fear, and ‘became as dead men’; and while they thus seemed petrified with alarm, Jesus calmly rises from His rocky bed, folds His grave-clothes, and lays them in order in the tomb, and then walks forth ‘the Resurrection and the Life,’ the Conqueror of death, and the Victor of the grave.

Illustration

‘Compare the inscriptions on heathen and Christian tombs. Look at the tombs which still exist in that cradle-land of religion, art, and science—Egypt; and we find sculptured and painted over and upon them representations of jugglers and dancing women, and grotesque animals, and unsightly gods, and domestic or festive scenes; everything which speaks of this world, nothing of the next. Look at the graveyards of Mohammedan countries, with their painted and gilded tablets and turbaned headstones, and as you decipher their Arabic inscriptions, you find them all pointing to a life of sensual bliss in the paradise of the false prophet. But most emphatically is this contrast brought out at Rome in the Galleria Lapidaria in the Vatican. Opening the door of this long gallery, you see upon your right hand the wall covered with broken tombstones and tablets taken from the burial-places of old pagan Rome; and on your left, the wall lined with slabs and inscriptions dug up from the catacombs where, under Rome itself, were concealed and buried thousands of the early Christians. On the pagan side you see the records of despair, and read words of anger against the gods. “O relentless fortune,” writes a mother over her child, “who delighteth in cruel death! why is Maximus so suddenly snatched from me?” Read another inscription: “While I lived, well! my drama is now ended; soon yours will be: farewell, and applaud me.” Read another: “I, Proscopius, who lived twenty years, lift up my hand against him who took me away innocent.” On the Christian side you find records of peace and hope, comfort and resignation: “Sabbatia has retired in the sleep of peace.” “Arethusa sleeps in God.” “Salonica, thy soul is in bliss, thou wilt rise with the saints through Christ.” “Alexander is not dead, but lives beyond the stars, and his body rests in this tomb.” “The wave of death has not dared to deprive Constans of the crown to which he was entitled by giving his life to the sword.” All the sorrows of the old world, and all the sorrows of the heathen world, are of men without hope. For them there is a great stone at the door of the sepulchre still.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

IMAGINARY DIFFICULTIES

We may note some important lessons which this incident teaches:—

I. That gloomy forebodings should never prevent us from doing our duty.—These women apprehended that they could not roll away the stone, but were not turned away from their purpose.

II. That those who talk of difficulties have frequently but little knowledge of the actual state of affairs.—What chiefly troubled the women was the stone; but there were other circumstances of a more serious nature—the seal of the Roman governor, the company of soldiers, the jealous Jews; but of the latter they said nothing.

III. That difficulties, as difficulties, are sometimes more imaginary than real.—The feared obstacles may exist, but the difficulty they cause may be of no account. The stone, in the present instance, had doubtless been placed on the door of the sepulchre, but it had also been already rolled away.

Illustrations

(1) ‘What a striking emblem we have in this simple narrative of the experience of many Christians! How often they are oppressed and cast down by anticipation of evils, and yet in the time of need find the thing they feared removed and the “stone rolled away”! A large proportion of their anxieties arise from things which never really happen. We look forward to all the possibilities of the journey towards heaven. We conjure up in our imagination all kinds of crosses and obstacles. We carry mentally to-morrow’s troubles as well as to-day’s. And often, very often, we find at the end that our doubts and alarms were groundless, and that the thing we dreaded most has never come to pass at all. Let us pray for more practical faith. Let us believe that in the path of duty we shall never be entirely forsaken. Let us go forward boldly, and we shall often find that the lion in the way is chained and the seeming hedge of thorns is only a shadow.’

(2) ‘Burden not thy soul with sadness!

Make the wiser, better choice!

Tread the path of life with gladness!

God doth bid thee to rejoice.

In to-day’s bright sunshine basking,

Leave to-morrow’s cares alone;

Spoil not present joys by asking,

“Who shall roll away the stone?” ’

Verse 6

THE INVISIBILITY OF THE RESURRECTION

‘He is risen: He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him.’

Mark 16:6

Why did no man see Christ rise? The loving women were too late. He was gone. After the Lord was risen, an angel had rolled away the stone with an earthquake and was sitting upon it. The guards had fled; the sepulchre was open and empty. The Lord had risen and gone. None had seen Him rise.

There is evidently a Divine beauty in the fact, and it has beautiful analogies.

I. Why no man saw Him rise.—It could not have been otherwise, unless all the surrounding circumstances had been different. For this to be other, events and men must also have been other than they were. For not only the general body of the Lord’s followers, but the seventy, the nearer and truer ones who formed the one hundred and twenty at the beginning of the Acts, were utterly scattered; and even the eleven, all but John, who was probably with the Blessed Virgin. As to whether the guards beheld Him or not we are in ignorance. They are said to have trembled and become as dead men for fear of the angel; but nothing is said of their seeing Christ. They were clearly not worthy to see Him, and their testimony would have been worthless.

II. Would it have been better that the act of resurrection should have been seen?—Simple faith answers No. Let us see why God’s dealings were best. It may be that a loving report to the Apostles was conveyed in the circumstances, as if it had been said, ‘You would not be with Me in the hall. You did not see Me die. Shall you see Me rise?’ But, be this as it may, it is probable, from the subsequent conduct of the Apostles, that they were not prepared for such a sudden and, to them, astounding sight as Christ’s rising. They could scarcely have borne it, nor comprehended it, nor, perhaps, believed in it. Their faith still required education, and little by little grew to accept what they scarce believed in for joy when it was manifested. But, so far as we are concerned, this backwardness and slowness to believe, this state of mind, the very contrary of credulity, and the number of appearances, each of which is to us a separate proof, makes the evidential value of the manifestations of Christ risen much greater than that of Christ arising could have been—so far as we can perceive.

III. The argument from analogy.—Is not the secrecy of the rising just what might have been expected from analogy? Were not the revelations of God to Abraham and Jacob private? Was not Moses alone at the burning bush, and when God passed by manifesting His glory? Only three persons were present at the Transfiguration. It is true that the eleven beheld the Ascension, but then they had been purified and strengthened by the great forty days.

—Rev. W. E. Heygate.

Illustration

‘Who ever saw the earliest rose

First open her sweet breast?

Or, when the summer sun goes down,

The first soft star in evening’s crown

Light up her gleaming crest?

Fondly we seek the dawning bloom

On features wan and fair;—

The gazing eye no change can trace,

But look away a little space,

Then turn, and lo!‘tis there

As when, triumphant o’er His woes,

The Son of God by moonlight rose,

By all but Heaven unseen.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

EASTER LESSONS

Not here, indeed, in one sense! Not here in the midst of enemies. Yet in another sense He is still here. He has not left us comfortless; He is with us yet by His Holy Spirit, with us in His Church, with us in His Sacraments. ‘He is risen.’ In that one assurance stands our hope as Christians.

I. Jesus has proclaimed release from the wrath of God.—That black cloud, which had hung over the earth since the first Adam fell, was cleared away on the bright Easter morning when the Second Adam rose. That heavy debt which we owed to our Heavenly Father, and which we had not wherewithal to pay, was paid when Jesus rose on Easter morning.

II. ‘He is risen,’ and we are freed from the power of sin.—Sin is no longer the ruling influence, and need no more have dominion over our mortal bodies. Satan cannot now lead us captives at his will. We are become more than conquerors through Him Who fought out that bitter battle on Good Friday, and rose triumphant on Easter morning.

III. ‘He is risen,’ and we are freed from the power of sorrow.—I do not tell you that we shall never more know sorrow, that this world has ceased to be a vale of tears; but I do tell you, O mournful ones, that you must not sorrow as those without hope. There is no grief so dark, no misfortune so desperate, that the light of the Resurrection cannot shine upon it and bring comfort. In the chamber of sickness, in the pinched home of poverty, in the prison cell, or the workhouse ward, in the agonised horror of the hospital, at the brink of the very grave itself, the power of the Resurrection asserts itself, and because Christ is risen, strength is given to us to rise out of the darkness of misery into the pure light of holy resignation.

IV. ‘He is risen,’ and therefore the whole character of death is changed.—The grave is no more a pit of destruction, but is now

That blessed tomb,

Become the room

Where lay Creation’s Lord asleep.

Death is no longer the grisly king of terrors, but the kind Friend who comes to set the sufferer free.

V. Jesus has risen, but have we risen with Him?—Are we trying to lead the higher life, and to seek those things which are above? Otherwise what is the joy of Easter to us—what the blessings of the Resurrection? We cannot be partakers of that Resurrection if, whilst Christ is risen, we lie still in the grave of corruption; if, whilst He has triumphed over sin, we are yet its slaves.

Illustration

‘It is no wonder that the Fathers of the Church lavished upon Easter Day every epithet of praise and affection; it is no wonder that they call it the Great Day, the Day of days, the Queen of days, the Sovereign of all Festivals. In the words of one, it is the Bright Sunday—God’s Sunday—the Lord’s Day of joy. In the language of another it is “God’s own Easter Day, the feast of feasts, solemnity of solemnities, so far passing all other feasts holden not only by or for men, but even those held in honour of Christ Himself, as the sun doth surpass and excel the stars” (St. Gregory Nazienzen). And yet another (St. Chrysostom) calls it “the desirable feast of our salvation, the day of our Lord’s Resurrection, the foundation of our peace, the occasion of our reconciliation, the end of our contentions and enmity with God, the destruction of death, and our victory over the devil.” No wonder that in the primitive Church Easter was one of the three special seasons chosen for the baptism of converts, and that at this holy Festival certain of the Christian Emperors were wont to loose from prison all except the worst of criminals, since “as Jesus delivered us from the grievous prison of our sins, and made us capable of enjoying immeasurable blessings, so ought we in like manner, as far as possible, to imitate the mercy and kindness of our Lord” (St. Chrysostom).’

Verse 7

WHY ‘INTO GALILEE’?

‘But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.’

Mark 16:7

The angel first exhibited the wonderful spot: ‘Behold where they laid Him,’ and then immediately added, ‘But.’ That word is teaching. Do not stay in sentiment—pass at once to duty. Never let a thought of yours go to any grave you love without taking thence a call to some one practical duty.

Why did Jesus go to Galilee at all after His Resurrection? At Jerusalem He was crucified, at Jerusalem He rose, at Jerusalem He ascended. Jerusalem was the place of all honour. Why should He be so careful to go down to that northern province?

I. Because of the distance and difficulty.—It is a universal law that God always requires efforts, and always blesses the efforts He requires. You will not find your best privileges close to your hand. You must be content to go far for them. You must exercise self-denial, and labour to get at them. And whatsoever Galilee He fixes, He is gone before you there, and there you will see Him.

II. Because Galilee was despised.—He had put honour upon Galilee when He probably worked there as a boy, when He made two cities there His own cities, when He chose most at least of His disciples there, and gave the longest discourses there, and went up and down in their villages, and did His first and the greater part of His miracles there, and was transfigured there. And now He was risen and almost glorified, He is not going to pass by what He chose and what He loved in humbler life.

III. Because He would extend proofs of His Resurrection as widely as possible.—He carried His risen body, and manifested it into the two extremes of the land. It is true, after His Resurrection, Christ never appeared to the world, but only to His own, to the witnesses He had chosen. But those chosen witnesses numbered at least five hundred, and it is probable that very many, nay, the majority, were Galileans.

IV. Because Christ was true to all the finer sympathies of our nature.—Amongst those sympathies is the love of old, and especially early, associations. To Him there was no place, next to His own Jerusalem, there was no place like Galilee. And He had foreseen the feeling and made arrangements for its occasion. It was human, its was true, it was manly, and it was pure.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Verse 9

THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE RISEN LORD

“He appeared first to Mary Magdalene.’

Mark 16:9

To Mary Magdalene, before all others of Adam’s children, was granted the privilege of being first to behold the risen Saviour. A woman who at one time had been possessed by seven devils was the first to whom Jesus showed Himself alive. The fact is full of instruction.

I. Our Lord meant to show us how much He values love and faithfulness.—Last at the Cross and first at the grave, last to confess her Master while living, and first to honour Him when dead, this warm-hearted disciple was allowed to be the first to see Him when the victory was won. It was intended to be a perpetual memorial to the Church that those who honour Christ He will honour, and that those who do much for Him upon earth shall find Him even upon earth doing much for them.

II. It was intended to comfort all who have become penitent believers, after having run into great excesses of sin. It was meant to show us that, however far we may have fallen, we are raised to entire peace with God if we repent and believe the Gospel. Though before far off, we are made nigh. Though before enemies, we are made dear children. ‘Old things are passed away, and all things are become new’ ( 2 Corinthians 5:17).

—Bishop J. C. Ryle.

Illustration

‘There is nothing in the New Testament to justify the common notion that Mary Magdalene had been a sinner against the seventh commandment more than other commandments. There is no scriptural warrant for calling hospitals and asylums, intended for fallen women, “Magdalene Hospitals.” No better authority can be discovered for the common idea on the subject than tradition. At the same time it is only fair to say that there seems strong probability for supposing that the sins of Mary Magdalene had been very great. There was probably some grave cause for her being possessed by seven devils, though the nature of it has not been revealed to us.’

Verse 15

‘INTO ALL THE WORLD’

‘And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’

Mark 16:15

If ever there was a nation to whom these words were plainly and directly addressed, that nation is England.

I. Reparation to native races.—As a nation we owe some reparation to our heathen brethren (for they are our brothers), for the wars we have waged against them, for the curse of drink we have inflicted upon them, for the bad example which professing Christians have too often taught them. Certainly we do something in the way of sending to the heathen a better Gospel. A million and a half of money is annually spent on foreign missions; but this is not enough from the richest nation in the world, and looks small indeed when compared with the one hundred and thirty millions which are each year wasted on drink.

II. What we have received.—Consider now what it is that has made England great. Is it not the honesty, truthfulness, purity, and righteousness generally that, with all their faults, have been the ruling principles of the conduct of Englishmen? and where did these come from except from Jesus Christ? He it was Who made them ‘current coin’; so that what Lord Macaulay once said in Parliament is literally true. ‘The man,’ he said, ‘who writes or speaks against Christianity is a traitor to the civilisation of the world.’

III. The Lord’s command.—Nothing can be more direct and plain than the words of the text, and there is no better test of the vitality of a Christian community than readiness to obey the command.

IV. The claims of our own kith and kin.—We are bound not merely for the sake of the heathen, but for the sake of our own kith and kin, to follow with the teaching and ordinances of the Christian religion the stream of commerce and emigration that carries Englishmen to the ends of the world. ‘Charity to the soul is the soul of charity’ is a saying especially true in reference to the prevention of that spiritual destitution into which our emigrants would fall if they were not helped, when they make their first settlements in distant countries, by the great missionary societies.

—Rev. E. J. Hardy.

Verse 19

ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN

‘So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven.’

Mark 16:19

Why is it that the festival of our Lord’s Ascension is so little noticed? Is it because of the practical irreligiousness of our day? Or is it that Christians do not realise the priceless blessings brought thereby?

Throughout the New Testament the Ascension was regarded as a fact, without which the Church could not have come into existence.

The Incarnation of our Lord demanded His Ascension.

I. For Himself.—This is part of the joy He kept before Him, which enabled Him to endure the Cross and to despise the shame. St. Paul in the passage, Christ ‘emptied Himself,’ wherefore ‘God hath highly exalted Him,’ links together as cause and effect the Incarnation and the Ascension.

II. For us.—Taking the manhood into God, He came where we were and descended with us into temptation and trial, sorrow, pain, and death; carried our nature into the shadow of death, bore it triumphantly through the grave, rose with it on the third day, ascended with it into heaven, and has made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places.

In our ascended Lord lie the vast possibilities, the unthinkable future for human nature. ‘To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.’ Union with God. This is the beginning, the middle, the end of our religion.

Bishop A. T. Lloyd.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

REJOICE!

We should rejoice on Ascension Day. Why?

I. We see in the Ascension the glorification of our Master.—Now He shows Himself a King—not like a king of this world, of limited power, a terror to his subjects, yet only mortal; but One full of power, almighty, overflowing with mercy, eternal.

II. We see in the Ascension the earnest of our glorification ( John 14:1-4).—When an army is besieging a city, if the general mounts the walls the soldiers know that they will follow. If a storm-tossed fleet sees one vessel, the flagship, enter the port, they know that they will enter after it.

III. We rejoice because now our union with Christ can be perfected.—( a) The sanctifying Spirit has much to do to prepare us to inherit the Kingdom into which nothing defiled can enter ( John 16:7-11). ( b) Now that Christ has gone up above the white cloud, and entered within the veil, He can be touched sacramentally ( John 20:17).

IV. We rejoice because we know that our Mediator is interceding for us.

V. We rejoice because henceforth we need not fear death.—The Ascension is the consummation of the Resurrection. What though the dark river of death has to be crossed, if He be waiting for us beyond?

—Rev. S. Baring-Gould.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE PURPOSES OF THE ASCENSION

I. There was the triumph over His enemies and ours.—St. Paul describes this in his Epistle to the Colossians ( Mark 2:13-15).

II. To distribute gifts to those whom He had redeemed ( Psalms 68:18).

III. Further, that He might intercede for us ( Hebrews 9:24; Romans 8:34).

IV. To prepare heaven for us ( John 19:2-3); and while He is preparing heaven for us, He is preparing us for heaven ( Colossians 1:12).

How grand and glorious, then, the Divine purpose! ( Ephesians 1:18-23).

Illustration

‘We are not to think of the Ascension of Christ as of a change of position, and a going immeasurably far from us. It is rather a change of the mode of existence, a passing to God, of Whom we cannot say that He is “there” rather than “here,” of Whom we all can say, “God is with me,” and if God then Christ, Who has ascended to the right hand of God. When, therefore, we declare our belief in Christ’s Ascension, we declare that He has entered upon the completeness of spiritual being without lessening in any degree the completeness of His humanity.’

(FOURTH OUTLINE)

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ASCENSION

It was a solemn hour when Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives on the day of the Ascension: before Him Jerusalem and the Temple, at His feet Gethsemane and Bethany, beside Him the disciples, above Him heaven and the glory of the Father.

I. For Himself.—What was the meaning of Christ’s ascension as regarded Himself? Here below was less the home of Jesus than it is ours, who are called ‘strangers and pilgrims.’ If we have here no abiding city, still less had He. His home was most certainly not on earth.

( a) It was for Him, therefore, the return to His Father’s house.

( b) The entrance of a Victor in a woeful fight into the inheritance He has won ( Psalms 47:6).

( c) The eternal session of Christ as the Head of the Church. Now He rules all nations from His throne; all events of the world’s history are the developments of the Kingdom of God ( Php_2:9-11 ).

II. For His Kingdom.—Jesus is not to be separated from His work, the King from His Kingdom. His Ascension is not only, therefore, significant for Himself, but for His Kingdom. It is clear from this ascension that it is no worldly kingdom. Had it been, He must have stayed longer upon the earth, in order to lay its foundations.

III. For us.—( a) Without this ascension we should be robbed of the sacraments of grace. They could no longer have any meaning. ( b) Because of this ascension our thoughts are continually to aspire heavenwards ( Colossians 3:1; Colossians 3:3).

(FIFTH OUTLINE)

THE BLESSINGS OF THE ASCENSION

What blessings we are to expect from the ascended Christ may be gathered—

I. From His last command.—‘Go ye into all the world.’ They are blessings for all men. He Who gave the command will give power for its fulfilment.

II. From His last promise.—‘In My name,’ etc. This is a promise conferring special powers on the Apostles and them that believe.

III. From His eternal session.—He is ‘sat on the right hand of God.’ What for? It is to rule the world and the Church.

Illustration

‘Between us and His visible presence—between us and that glorified Redeemer Who now sitteth at the right hand of God—the cloud still rolls. But the eye of Faith can pierce it; the incense of true prayer can rise above it; through it the dew of blessing can descend. And if He is gone away, yet He has given us in His Holy Spirit a nearer sense of His presence, a closer infolding in the arms of His tenderness, than we could have enjoyed even if we had lived with Him of old.’

(SIXTH OUTLINE)

RESULTS OF THE ASCENSION

There are some results which come to us from firmly holding the belief in Christ’s Ascension.

I. The strengthening and increase of our faith, which is ‘the evidence of things not seen.’ ‘Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’ His ascent is the cause and His absence the crown of our faith. Because He ascended we the more believe; and because we believe in Him Who hath ascended, our faith is the more accepted.

II. The strengthening of our hope.—We could never expect our dust and ashes should ascend the heavens; but seeing our nature has gone before in Him, we can now hope to follow Him. ‘Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil, whither the Forerunner is for us entered’ ( Hebrews 6:19-20).

III. The lifting up of our affections.—‘For where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.’ Where Christ is ascended up on high, we must follow Him with the wings of our meditations and with the chariots of our affections ( 2 Kings 2:1-2; Colossians 3:1-3).

IV. From the Ascension of Christ follows the descent of the Holy Spirit, and therefore power in the preaching of the Gospel. ‘If I depart I will send Him unto you.’

Pearson ( adapted).

Illustration

‘There are two closely connected ways by which Christ, after His glorification, began a new work for mankind, the one inward, towards God; the other outward, towards the world. The first is the exercise of an immeasurably increased power of intercession. The sacrificial task was at an end when His life was laid down on Calvary—which answered to the slaughter of the typical victims. The whole point of the sacrifice lies in the presentation of that life, enriched and consecrated to the utmost by having undergone death, and still and for ever living in the inmost presence of God. (See the sprinkling of the blood upon the mercy-seat, Hebrews 9:12-24.) Christ then has passed within the veil to complete His merciful work for men by pleading for them in the irresistible power which His perfect discharge of His mission has given Him. The second activity of the glorified Christ is a result of the first. He is always engaged in sending the Holy Ghost to us from the Father ( John 16:7). Before His exaltation Christ had not yet won the gift by His Passion; men were not capable of receiving it, so long as they had Christ with them in the flesh.’

Verse 20

PREPARATION AND EFFECT

‘Confirming the word with signs following.’

Mark 16:20

If we wished to make the Gospel for Ascension Day the subject of a sermon, one way of dealing with it effectively might be this: to consider the preparation for the Ascension, and the effect of the Ascension; in both cases with reference to the disciples.

I. Preparation for the Ascension.—We have in the passage, obviously, a sort of epitome of the conversations held by our Lord with His disciples between the Resurrection and the Ascension. He establishes, first, the fact of His Resurrection. Then He gives them their commission. They are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. To reject their message will be no trifling matter, for ‘he that believeth not, shall be damned’; and it shall be enforced by the many ‘signs’—manifestations of miraculous power—which shall be seen in the case of those who have received the message.

II. The effect of the Ascension is a prompt and glad obedience on the part of the previously disheartened disciples. They return from the Mount of Ascension to Jerusalem with ‘great joy.’ And why with great joy? Because they feel that their work is to claim the Kingdom for the King, to Whom all power in heaven and in earth has been given. The cause is one which is certain to succeed. The King is invisible, it is true; but He is not absent. He is with them, and with them always. He ‘works with them,’ for the cheering of their hearts, for the confusion of their enemies, for the confirmation of their message. They have something present to point to, and not only to speak of something future.

Do ‘signs’ follow now? Yes; but spiritual signs. The casting out of the devils of impurity, pride, deceit; the speaking with a new tongue the praises of God.

Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.