Mark 16: The Empty Tomb Changes Everything, and Changes You Too

Introduction

After sixteen chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Beau Spencer, a member of the pastoral team at Riverview Church, reaches the final chapter. He opens with an image: the spinning top in the film Inception, still turning as the screen goes black. The audience walks out with their questions.

The Gospel of Mark ends in much the same way. It leaves us hanging, in front of an empty tomb and women running away, trembling. No neat conclusion, but a question handed back to the reader: now that Jesus is risen, what will you do?

The pastor focuses on the eight verses of the original text. The empty tomb changes everything, and it changes us too, even in the middle of suffering. And he puts a question to each of us: will you follow Jesus into this new life?

Outline of the Message

1. An Ending That Leaves You Hanging

In Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010), Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, enters people's dreams. To know whether he is dreaming or not, he spins a top: if it keeps spinning forever, it is a dream; in reality, it eventually wobbles and falls.
At the end of the film, he is reunited with his children, spins the top, then leaves it spinning to go play with them. The camera comes back to the wobbling top, and the screen goes black. Like the post-credits scenes in Marvel films, you are left with the question: what is going to happen?
Mark 16:1-8 tells how Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome come to anoint the body of Jesus. The stone has been rolled away, and a young man dressed in white tells them: "He has risen. He is not here." They flee, trembling, and say nothing to anyone, because they are afraid.
Beau Spencer points out that verses 9 to 20, found in some Bibles, are generally considered an addition to the manuscript, made in the second century to give a more complete ending. He sticks to the eight verses written by Mark.
Did the women pass on the news? What did the risen Jesus look like? Why is Peter named separately? Mark does not answer. He almost forces us, as readers, to fill that silence with our own response.

2. The Empty Tomb Changes Everything

Jesus did not simply come back to life. The empty tomb proves that he is alive, divine and Lord, but the New Testament points to something bigger: his risen and transformed body is the beginning of the new creation.
Paul writes it in 1 Corinthians 15:20: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep." Jesus set the pattern: the first fruits have appeared, and the rest will follow in the same way.
The pastor uses the image of a mango lover who plants a tree, waters it and tends it season after season. One day, the first mango is ripe. He cuts it into little cubes and savors it. But his joy does not come only from that fruit: the first mango announces the harvest to come. The tree is doing what it was planted for.
Jesus is that first fruit. His resurrection is not only proof of God's power over death, it is the beginning of the promised harvest. What happened to Jesus is the start of what God wants to do for all who belong to him.
Mark does not use this language of first fruits. But what Paul would explain later was already happening that morning.
One day, our bodies will be raised and transformed like the body of Jesus, and the whole creation will share in that renewal. Paul writes in Romans 8:21 that "the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." All of it begins at the empty tomb.

3. The Empty Tomb Changes You Too

When Jesus walked out of the tomb, he did not just undo what had happened in the previous chapter. He opened up a new reality. "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Reducing the gospel to "your sins are forgiven, you can go to heaven" is too narrow, the pastor says. Jesus did not come only to patch our lives back together so that everything goes back to the way it was.
Of course, Jesus forgives, heals and restores. But his goal is bigger than bringing us back to where we were: he brings us into the new life of the kingdom of God and transforms us to become the people we were created to be.
Picture an old rusty car: brakes shot, clutch broken, paint damaged, tires flat. The mechanic offers you two options. Fix the clutch, pump up the tires, redo the paint: deep down it will be the same car, as good as the day you bought it. Or give you a brand new car, a sports car, better in every way. "The old has gone, the new has come," concludes this very theatrical mechanic.
The pastor acknowledges the limits of the image: God does not get rid of the person we were created to be, he erases neither our personality nor our story. He redeems us and brings us into a new reality, where our desires, our identity and the direction of our life are more and more shaped by Jesus.

4. When Transformation Gets Uncomfortable

Transformation can be uncomfortable. We are happy when Jesus fixes our lives: when God solves a problem, heals a wound, sets us free from an addiction. But what happens when he calls us to an entirely new way of living, to give up our old desires and the identity we used to have?
When the gospel moves from fixing our lives to changing them, that is often where people start to drift away. Yet Jesus never softened that call. In Mark 8:34-35, he says: "Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
In John 6, after the multiplication of the loaves and fish, the crowd still wanted signs. Instead of new miracles, Jesus called them to seek him, and no longer just his signs. "At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him" (John 6:66).
They wanted to keep the comfortable old car. The message of a God who fixes our life is easy to accept: we can easily imagine a life without the weight of sin, the way we imagine our car with new brakes. "Just take me back to the way it was."
The reality of the risen Jesus is harder to receive, because it calls us into the unknown: a new creation, with changed loyalties and transformed desires. It is not about God fixing the old car, but about leaving it behind and trusting him for an entirely new road.

5. A New Heart, New Desires

This transformation has always been God's plan. "Also delight yourself in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). For the pastor, this is not a promise that God will give you whatever you want, but that he changes your heart so that your desires line up with his.
Ezekiel was already announcing this new language: "I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). This promise is fulfilled in God's saving work in Christ and in the work of the Spirit, who renews our lives every day.
When God changes our hearts, the way we see the world changes. We notice people we used to ignore. We begin to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. The transformed life becomes visible.
As the one responsible for pastoral care and local mission, Beau Spencer hears these stories all the time: members committed to making sure everyone, including people experiencing homelessness, has a home, others supporting people living on the street, serving in prison chaplaincy or through sport, others alongside Indigenous young people. Many families in the church have stepped into adoption. Others live out their faith at work, at school, in business and in their everyday relationships.
These are not just people doing good things. They are glimpses of what happens when God changes our hearts: we love what he loves, and we take part in the work he is doing in the world.

6. Transformation in the Middle of Suffering

Transformation is not always spectacular. Sometimes it happens in the middle of pain. God does not always change our circumstances as quickly as we would like, but he keeps shaping us while we wait.
For Beau Spencer and his family, this has become very personal. Thirteen years ago, God gave them the desire to open their home to children in need, as a foster family. Today there are seven of them, including five children, plus a dog "who doesn't help matters."
This calling has taken them through very difficult seasons, especially over the last fifteen months: mental health struggles, trauma, crises, risky behavior, trips to the hospital. For the first time in his life, his own mental health showed signs of strain.
He is clear: knowing that this calling is part of God's work of transformation does not make the pain any less real, and it does not make things any easier. There were times when they struggled to see what God was doing. But they are learning that not seeing God's work does not mean he has abandoned them, or that his work in them has stopped.
One day, holding one of his daughters in his arms, he prayed: "Why won't you fix this? In the name of Jesus, take this pain away." Nothing changed, and sometimes things got worse. Over time, another question emerged: "Who am I becoming through all of this?"
That does not mean you stop praying for things to change, or pretend the pain is not there, or have all the answers. But the work of Christ does not only change what is around us, it works within us. God is teaching them to depend on him, to keep loving, to be present day after day. "He holds us while we hold our kids."
It is not easier when you understand that it is a calling, but it makes more sense. If you are going through a season like this, with your family, your friends or on your own, the pastor encourages you: Jesus is always present, and he is shaping you, even when life feels confusing, painful or simply slow.

7. Will You Follow Jesus?

Back to the empty tomb of Mark 16. Here is what we know: the tomb is empty, Jesus is risen, and he is going ahead of his disciples. So the question becomes: will you follow him into this new, resurrected life? Will you let him transform you and keep transforming you?
Paul's language is always past, present and future: God has transformed, he is transforming, he will keep transforming. Not only what you believe, but the way you live and interact with the world.
Jesus does not offer just a belief system, a theological framework or a moral code. He offers himself, he offers his life.
For some, this transformation looks like something new, visible, unexpected. For others, it is a season of hidden work in the middle of hardship and grief. But he is at work if we let his Spirit lead us.
The pastor closes with a time of reflection around the question that stayed with him throughout his preparation: "Who am I becoming?" What are you showing me about myself, Lord, and what are you showing me about you through all of this?

Key Takeaways

Mark ends his Gospel with an empty tomb and an open question: now that Jesus is risen, what will you do?
The risen Jesus is the first fruits: his resurrection is the beginning of the new creation promised to those who belong to him and to the whole creation.
God does not settle for fixing your old life, he makes you a new creation and changes your desires so they line up with his.
Many drift away when the gospel moves from fixing their life to transforming it. Jesus never softened his call to follow him.
In suffering that does not go away, God remains present and keeps shaping you into the image of his Son.

Personal Application

Are you mostly expecting Jesus to fix your life so it goes back to the way it was, or are you ready to let him transform it?
What "old desire" or old identity are you finding hard to leave behind in order to follow Jesus?
What people or what needs are you starting to notice since God began working on your heart?
If you are going through a season of pain, how can you move from "why won't you fix this?" to "who am I becoming?", without giving up on praying for things to change?
Take a moment this week to ask God: what are you showing me about myself, and what are you showing me about you?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the Gospel of Mark end at verse 8?

Beau Spencer explains that scholars generally agree that verses 9 to 20 were added to the manuscript later, in the second century, to give a more complete ending. The original text stops with trembling women who say nothing to anyone. This open ending leaves the reader in front of the empty tomb with a question: now that Jesus is risen, what will you do?

What does it mean that Jesus is the "first fruits" of the resurrection?

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:20 that Christ has been raised as the first fruits of those who are asleep. Just as the first mango on a tree announces the harvest to come, the resurrection of Jesus is not only proof of God's power over death: it is the beginning of the promised harvest. What happened to Jesus is the start of what God wants to do for all who belong to him, and one day for the whole creation.

Does God still transform us when suffering does not go away?

Yes. Beau Spencer shares about a very difficult season his family went through. Knowing that you are part of God's work of transformation does not make the pain any less real or the situation any easier. But not seeing what God is doing does not mean he has abandoned us. He teaches us to depend on him, to keep loving and to trust him, and he forms us into the image of his Son right in the middle of the trial.