Christ Goes Ahead of You to Galilee: Leaving the Tomb

Introduction

Mark ends his Gospel on a strange scene: three women leave the tomb trembling with fear and say nothing to anyone. Stéphane Guillet starts from this text in Mark 16:1-8 to ask you a question that runs through the whole of Easter: how do you carry a message this powerful when you haven't yet grasped, in your everyday life, that God has already been at work there? Christ has risen, he goes ahead of you to Galilee, and he is waiting for you to leave the tomb and join him in your own life.

Message outline

1. Stewards of an extraordinary message

• Lebanese pastor Hadi Gantus reminds us that the Church is called to be an instrument of hope in a world that cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• "Christ is risen" is a very ancient formula, likely inherited from the Byzantine Orthodox Church, but it carries an immense challenge for today.
• Death does not have the last word: life belongs to God, the Son is life, the Spirit is the Spirit of life, life is made to triumph.
• This message is entrusted to disciples who, like the three women in Mark 16, often tend to bolt before they even dare to share it.

2. A Gospel that feels unfinished

• Mark stops his account at verse 8: the women flee, trembling and astonished, and say nothing to anyone.
• Verses 9 to 20 are, according to near-consensus among scholars, a 2nd-century addition, the best manuscripts don't contain them, and our Bibles often set them in brackets.
• By leaving his Gospel open, Mark forces the reader to ask what comes next: the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cannot end with disciples running away.
• The real question becomes: why do these women leave with fear in their gut, and what was missing from their encounter on Easter morning?

3. The stone already rolled away: seeing God in the small things

• On the way, the three women have a single worry: "Who will roll away the stone for us?", for the stones sealing tombs were very heavy.
• Once there, they see that the stone has already been rolled away, but they don't stop to take it in: they go straight into the tomb.
• The verb is passive: "the stone had been rolled back," and further on, "he has been raised." This is what scholars call a divine passive, God rolled away the stone, God raised Jesus (Daniel Bourget points this out in his commentary).
• Had they paused for a moment, they would have recognized that God had already been at work there before them, that he had already removed the obstacle worrying them.
• At the Last Supper, Jesus gives thanks for the bread and the wine, even knowing that he is about to be rejected and die on the cross: right to the end, he sees God in the small things.
• If you don't learn to discern God in the small, ordinary things, how will you recognize him in the great ones?

4. Looking for Jesus in the right place

• The angel tells the women: "You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here."
• Seeking Jesus is the disciple's fundamental posture, but they aren't looking in the right place: he is no longer in the tomb, he is in life.
• The angel redirects their search: he pushes them out of the tomb, toward where the Risen One wants to draw them.
• For God, it isn't enough that Jesus has risen: you also need to rise with him, or the plan remains unfinished.
• That's the meaning of baptism: with Christ we have been buried, with him we rise, with him we leave the tomb to enter into life.

5. The Risen One goes ahead of you to Galilee

• "He goes ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you."
• For the first disciples, Galilee was their ordinary place of life, their everyday world, where they usually lived.
• Your Galilee is your everyday world, that's where Jesus invites you to discern his presence and to grasp just how alive he truly is.
• Between the risen Christ who already goes ahead of you into the place of your life, and the empty tomb behind you, there is a space: that space is your life, which you are invited to inhabit so the Gospel is not left unfinished.

Key takeaways

• Mark deliberately leaves his Gospel open at verse 8: the rest of the story is our life as disciples today.
• "The stone had been rolled back", a divine passive that says God had already been at work there before the women, removing the obstacle worrying them.
• If you learn to see God in the small things of your everyday life, you'll also learn to recognize him in the great challenges.
• The empty tomb is not a destination: it's a starting point toward Galilee, toward the ordinary life where the Risen One goes ahead of you.
• For God's plan not to remain unfinished, Christ must have risen, and you must rise with him too.

Personal application

1. What obstacle is worrying you right now on your path, when God may have already "rolled away the stone" without you noticing?
2. Take a moment this week to give thanks to God in some small, ordinary thing in your life, a meal, an encounter, an unexpected problem resolved.
3. Are you looking for Jesus in the right place, or do you keep searching for him in a "tomb" where he no longer is?
4. What is your Galilee, the everyday place where the Risen One is waiting for you this week?
5. Concretely, what remains "unfinished" in the way you live out the resurrection: what part of your life has not yet been touched by the life of the Risen One?

Verses cited

• Mark 16:1-8
• Mark 1:1
• Mark 14:22-25 (Jesus gives thanks)
• Romans 6:3-4 (buried and raised with Christ)

Further reading

• What Is Spiritual Maturity?
• What Is Christian Discipleship?
• What Is Christian Service?

Frequently asked questions

Why does Mark end his Gospel at verse 8 with women fleeing in fear?

According to near-consensus among biblical scholars, verses 9 to 20 of Mark 16 are a later addition from the 2nd century: the best manuscripts don't have this ending, and our modern editions often set it in brackets. Mark deliberately chose to stop his account on this open scene, as if to tell the reader: the rest of the Gospel is yours to write, by going and announcing in your turn that Christ is risen.

What does "Galilee" mean in the angel's message to the women?

For the first disciples, Galilee wasn't a religious or spectacular place: it was their ordinary place of life, where they worked and lived every day. When the angel announces that Jesus goes ahead of them into Galilee, he is telling them that the Risen One wants to be encountered in everyday life, not only in great spiritual moments. Your "Galilee" is your everyday world.

What is the "divine passive" and why does it matter in Mark 16?

In the Bible, a verb in the passive voice with no named subject is often a discreet way of pointing to God's action, this is called a "divine passive." In Mark 16, we read that the stone "had been rolled back" and that Jesus "has been raised." In other words: it is God who rolled away the stone, God who raised Jesus. This invites us to recognize God's quiet action in places where, at first glance, we would have seen only an ordinary fact.