Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 16:7
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.
7. go your way ] Practical action must take the place of vague astonishment. There was a message to be borne.
and Peter ] No wonder it is in the Gospel of St Mark we find this wondrous touch. Who afterwards would have been so likely, as the Apostle himself, to treasure up this word, the pledge of possible forgiveness, after the dreadful hours he must have spent during Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night? What story would he have so often told to his son in the faith either in Eastern Babylon or the capital of the West?
he goeth before you ] as a true Shepherd before His sheep. It is the same word which ( a) He Himself used on the evening of the Betrayal, “After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee” (Mat 26:32; Mar 14:28); which ( b) is applied to the star “ going before ” the Magi at His nativity, and ( c) to His own “ going before ” His Apostles on the road towards Jerusalem, where He was to suffer. See note above, ch. Mar 10:32.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mar 16:7
Tell His disciples and Peter.
Loves triumph over sin
Matthew, who also reports the angels words, has only tell His disciples. Mark (the interpreter of Peter) adds words which must have come like wine and oil to the bruised heart of the denier, and Peter. To the others, it was of less importance that his name should have been named then; to him it was life from the dead that he should have been singled out to receive a word of forgiveness and a summons to meet his Lord; as if He had said through His angel messenger, I would see them all, but whoever may stay behind, let not him be wanting to our glad meeting again.
I. Notice the loving message with which He beckons the wanderer back.
1. A revelation of love stronger than death.
2. A revelation of a love that is not turned away by our sinful changes. Whilst we forget Him, He remembers us. We cannot get away from the sweep of His love, wander we ever so far.
3. A love which sends a special message because of special sin. The depth of our need determines the strength of the restorative power put forth. The more we have sinned, the less can we believe in Christs love; and so, the more we have sinned, the more marvellous and convincing does He make the testimony and operations of His love to us.
4. A love which singles out a sinful man by name. Christ deals with us not in the mass but soul by soul. He has a clear individualizing knowledge of each. He loves every single soul with a distinct love. He calls to thee by thy name-as truly as He singled out Peter here, as truly as when His voice from heaven said, Saul, Saul. To thee forgiveness, help, purity, life eternal are offered.
II. The secret meeting between Christ and Peter (Luk 24:34; 1Co 15:5). This is the second stage in the victorious conflict of Divine love with human sin. What tender consideration there is in meeting Peter alone, before seeing him in the company of others! How painful would have been the rush of the first emotions of shame awakened by Christs presence, if their course had been checked by any eye but His own beholding them! The act of faith is the meeting of the soul with Christ alone. Do you know anything of that personal communion? Have you, your own very self, by your own penitence for your own sin, and your own thankful faith in the love which thereby becomes truly yours, isolated yourself from all companionship, and joined yourself to Christ? Then, through that narrow passage where we can only walk singly, you will come into a large place. The act of faith which separates us from all men, unites us for the first time in real brotherhood, Heb 12:22-24.
III. The gradual cure of the pardoned apostle (Joh 21:15-19). Lovest thou Me? includes everything. Hast thou learned the lesson of My mercy? Hast thou responded to My love? Then thou art fit for My work, and beginning to be perfected. So the third stage in the triumph of Christs love over mans sin is when we, beholding that love flowing towards us, and accepting it by faith, respond to it with our own, and are able to say, Thou knowest that I love Thee. And when we love, we can follow. With love to Christ for motive, and Christ Himself for pattern, and following him for our one duty, all things are possible, and the utter defeat of sin in us is but a question of time. The love of Christ, received into the heart, triumphs gradually but surely over all sin, transforms character, turning even its weakness into strength, and so, from the depths of transgression and very gates of hell, raises men to God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
And Peter
I. Tell Peter, although he has sinned so grievously. It was heartless, repeated, public, wilful.
II. Tell Peter, for he has wept. Gods anger against His children ceases with the commencement of their penitence.
III. Tell Peter, for he has suffered. His thoughts were Gods chastening rod.
IV. Tell Peter he is dear to Christ. Sin can grieve Christ, cause Him to withdraw, wound and disfigure us; but it cannot alter His love.
V. Tell Peter, for he is your brother. They had sinned. Have not we denied our Lord? (Stems and Twigs.)
The news of Christs resurrection sent to Peter
No action of Christs life is without importance and significance.
I. To whom was this message particularly sent? To Peter, who was then distinguished from the other disciples, not in merit, but in guilt. He was not thus honoured, however, because of his guilt, but because he was now penitent and sorrowful. It was not his cursing and oaths which brought this mercy to him, but his penitence and tears. There is no comfort here for the hardened or careless sinner, or for the self-righteous, or for the man who, in the midst of his iniquity, feels no self-abhorrence, no deep contrition, for his guilt. But for the broken-hearted sinner, there is the sweetest comfort.
II. The gracious Being who sent this message.
1. Christ had just the same compassionate heart after His resurrection that he had before it. Death changed the nature of His body, but not the nature of His heart or the disposition of His soul. He still looks on those who seek Him, with the same tenderness, sympathy, and love.
2. The risen Jesus looks more on the graces than on the sins of the penitent Christian. He seems to have thought more of Peters sorrow than of his curses, more of his tears than of his oaths. He sees so much of the desperate wickedness of our hearts, as to make Him contemplate with pleasure the least good His grace enables us to bring forth. Who would not value a flower which he should find blooming on a rock, or throwing its fragrance over the sands of a desert? Not that in giving His grace and pardon, He overlooks the sin; to Peters everlasting shame the treachery which he committed is recorded against him in Gods Holy Word. The sin is forgiven, but the remembrance and shame of it still remain.
3. Christ sometimes vouchsafes to the believer, when bowed down with extraordinary sorrow, more than ordinary comfort It is not a light thing that will quiet the conscience of the Christian, after he had been overcome by temptation. The storm which sin occasions in his soul, cannot easily be soothed into a calm. The mourning Christian needs some special interposition of grace and mercy, before he can again cherish in his heart a hope of pardon and acceptance. In the mysterious riches of His goodness, the Lord sometimes vouchsafes to His Saints, in these seasons, peculiar consolations. He recalls their soul, tossed with tempest and not comforted, from the contemplation of its own depravity, and tells it to look again with the eye of faith on the cross of His Son.
4. The contrite sinner may draw much comfort and hope from Christs resurrection. What a ground for rejoicing have we in the fact that Christ is risen! Let us seek to know the power of His resurrection.
III. The messengers employed.
1. An angel. Why?
(1) To do honour to Christ.
(2) To teach us, that the breach between us and the angels is healed. They again regard us as friends and love us as brethren. They are made our ministering servants, and do not disdain the office.
(3) The contrite sinner is peculiarly an object of love to the heavenly hosts. The angel of the Lord has compassion on the weeping Peter, and rejoices to take to him a cup of consolation. What a lesson for ministers, what a lesson for every Christian, is here! It is a heavenly work to comfort the sorrowful.
2. Three poor women receive the message from the lips of this heavenly herald, and carry it to the mourning penitent. Why? They had been first in love, affection, service; it was but right that they should be first in honour and reward. And note the manner in which these women were sent. Go quickly (Mat 28:7). Why such haste? There was nothing sinful in the feelings which a view of their Lords tomb was likely to excite; but they were not suffered to stay there to indulge them, that we might be taught that pious feeling must lead to pious actions. It is good and sweet to think of Christ; but it is better to act for Christ. He is the best servant, not who delights to stand in his masters presence, but who carefully minds and diligently goes about his masters business. (Charles Bradley, M. A.)
Women as ambassadors
The faculties and abilities of the soul appear both in affairs of state and in ecclesiastical affairs; in matters of government and in matters of religion; and in neither of these are we without examples of able women. For, for state affairs, and matters of government, our age hath given us such a queen, as scarce any former king hath equalled. And in the Venetian story, I remember, that certain matrons of that city were sent by commission, in quality of ambassadors, to an empress with whom that state had occasion to treat. And in the stories of the eastern parts of the world, it is said to be in ordinary practice to send women for ambassadors. And then in matters of religion, women have always had a great hand, though sometimes on the left as well as on the right hand. (John Donne, D. D.)
Reasons for the meeting in Galilee
Why was this meeting fixed in Galilee? Why was this long journey to be taken? Why did Jesus go to Galilee at all after His resurrection? Why was it evidently a matter of so much interest and importance to the mind of Jesus to go there? At Jerusalem He was crucified, at Jerusalem He rose, at Jerusalem He ascended; Jerusalem was the place of all honour; why then should He be so careful to go down to that northern province? Many reasons doubtless there were of which I know nothing; but I think we may be permitted to see some of them.
1. One might lie in that very fact of the distance and the difficulty. For 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.
2. There is no doubt also that Jesus did it partly because Galilee was despised. He had lived in Galilee as a child and youth; He had taken most of His apostles from thence; and now that He was risen and almost glorified, He was not going to pass by the place He loved in humble life. That would not be the Jesus with whom we have to do.
3. Underlying this feeling, there can be little question that there was a great principle upon which Christ acted,-of extending the proofs of His resurrection as widely as possible. Therefore He manifested His risen body in the two extremes of the land to which that dispensation was confined.
4. Christ was true to all the finer sympathies of our nature, and amongst those sympathies is the love of old, and especially early, associations. (James Vaughan, M. A.)
Mary of Magdala
She was-
I. A great sufferer healed by Christ.
II. A grateful ministrant to Christ (Luk 8:2-3; Mar 15:41).
III. A faithful adherent to Christ.
IV. A sincere mourner for Christ (Comp. Mat 27:61; Mar 15:47; Joh 20:1-2; Joh 20:11-18).
V. An honoured messenger of Christ (Joh 20:17-18; ch. 16:10). (T. S. Dickson, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Tell his disciples and Peter] Why is not Peter included among the disciples? For this plain reason,-he had forfeited his discipleship, and all right to the honour and privileges of an apostle, by denying his Lord and Master. However, he is now a penitent: – tell him that Jesus is risen from the dead, and is ready to heal his backsliding, and love him freely; so that, after being converted, he may strengthen his brethren.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
7. But go your way, tell hisdisciples and PeterThis Second Gospel, being drawn upas allthe earliest tradition statesunder the eye of Peter, orfrom materials chiefly furnished by him, there is something deeplyaffecting in the preservation of this little clause by Mark alone.
that he goeth before you intoGalilee; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you(See on Mt28:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter,…. Peter is particularly mentioned, not as distinct from the apostles, or as if he was not one of them, having sinned in the manner he had done; much less because he was the chief of them; but to comfort him in his great sorrow, on account of his fall; and to encourage him to meet Christ with the rest of his disciples, who might be both afraid and ashamed, because he had so basely denied him: this is a kind intimation, in favour of Peter; none of the other evangelists observe it; but this Gospel being published, as is thought by some, under the direction and examination of Peter himself, he was careful to relate every thing, that either aggravated his own crime, or illustrated the grace of God, and love of Christ towards him. The Persic version puts Peter first, rendering it, “say to Cephas and the rest of the disciples”; all copies, and other versions, put him last:
that he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him;
[See comments on Mt 28:7];
as he said unto you, as in Mr 14:28.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And Peter ( ). Only in Mark, showing that Peter remembered gratefully this special message from the Risen Christ. Later in the day Jesus will appear also to Peter, an event that changed doubt to certainty with the apostles (Luke 24:34; 1Cor 15:5). See on Mt 28:7 for discussion of promised meeting in Galilee.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “But go your way,” (alla hupagete) “But you all go,” go on your way quickly and tell what has happened, Mat 28:7. Standing, gazing into the empty tomb, would do no further good. There was good news to be spread, they were to arise and go, Joh 20:21; Act 1:8.
2) “Tell His disciples and Peter,” (eipate tois mathetais autou kai to Petro) “You all tell Peter and His disciples,” Peter, the broken-hearted disciple who profanely denied his Lord, and tell all the other disciples, who had forsaken Him and fled, Mar 14:50; Mar 14:68; Mar 14:70-71.
3) “That He goeth before you into Galilee: (hoti proagei humas eis ten Galilaian) “That He now goes before you into Galilee,” Mat 28:7; as He had said He would, Mat 27:31-32; Mar 14:28.
4) “There ye shall see Him,” (ekei auton opsesthe) “Up and out there you all will see Him,” and they did, some days later, even at a specific mountain in Galilee, where He had appointed to meet them, Mat 28:7; Mat 28:10; Mat 28:16-20.
5) “As He said unto you.” (kathos eipen humin) “Just as, He told you,” the night of His betrayal, Mar 14:28; Mat 27:31-32.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. And Peter The Greek word for and is by critics interpreted to be equivalent to and especially. Peter is especially mentioned here, as some suppose, because he was the most eminent of the apostles; and others, because of his late denial of his Lord. According to the former view it was a token of respect; according to the latter, of compassion and restoration to favour. Both views may be combined. Without assigning to Peter any official primacy, he was pre-eminent in character. And as he had pre-eminently fallen, so now he is pre-eminently remembered and named by the angel of the Lord.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“But go and tell his disciples, and Peter, ‘He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you.’ ”
These words reflect Mar 14:28 where Jesus, to encourage them, had said, “After I am risen I will go before you into Galilee.” The words would act as an assurance that the one who had spoken of them knew words of Jesus that could only have been known by an angel or a disciple. When first spoken they were an assurance that they would soon return home where He would meet with them. Now they would know He was fulfilling His promise. We must remember that they still needed encouragement.
‘And Peter.’ Here was confirmation that Peter was to be restored and take a full part in the future. (Had it been meant to indicate his superiority he would have been mentioned first). He too was to go to Galilee and be sure of Jesus’ welcome.
The emphasis on Jesus’ appearing in Galilee stresses the importance of Galilee in Jesus’ plans. It was there that He had carried out His main ministry and there where the largest number of disciples could be found. It was natural for Jews to think in terms of Jerusalem as the centre of God’s purposes, and to think of men flowing to Jerusalem in order to receive the truth, but the new way was to be totally unlike that. Jerusalem was no longer to be the centre of God’s purposes. God’s purpose here was to woo their minds away from Jerusalem as the centre of things.
That He did appear to His inner group of disciples in Jerusalem we know, probably because in their unbelief they would have been immovable (Mar 16:14). Promises were not enough. Once again their faith failed. But that His appearance to the wider circle (the five hundred at one time – 1Co 15:6) took place in Galilee as He had promised we must accept on the basis of these words, even though we would not appreciate from Luke’s Gospel that there were any such appearances. Both Matthew 28 and John 21 testify of appearances in Galilee, and Matthew gives the impression of a specific place previously appointed where His great appearance would take place. The ‘they’ of Mat 28:17 clearly indicates more than the eleven of Mar 16:16 as, after the earlier appearances, it is doubtful if any of the eleven would have ‘doubted’.
It is not a simple matter to reconcile the differences between accounts of the Resurrection and the resurrection appearances. And that is what we would expect of honest accounts. They were written by different people using information provided by many who would remember what had struck them, and the events had been quite complicated with a lot of toing and froing. Each only had a part, a relatively small part, of what was a very complicated and intricate time and situation. They did not try to piece it all together. They presented the facts simply in order to concentrate on the main events and on what was confirmed to them by a number of witnesses. But facts are usually more complicated than they at first appear, for we are dealing with human beings and they do not just wander around thoughtlessly in groups like sheep. In such circumstances they make arrangements, they send one here and another there, they act individually as well as in groups, they make the facts very complicated. It would have been impossible, and unnecessary, to catalogue their every movement. What mattered was the basic happenings. And that is what Mark has given us here. (To do otherwise would have been to lose the main impact of the story).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mar 16:7. Tell his disciples, and Peter, &c. St. Peter is particularly mentioned, because hehad most need of comfort, under the anguish of his mind on account of his late denial.As this gospel is supposed to have been dictated, or at least revised by him, the addition of this circumstance implies the deep sense he had of the divine benevolence in sending this comfortable message to him, which gave him to understand, that though he had so basely denied his Lord, he had not entirely lost his favour; and that as he had let in a gleam of light upon the darkness of his affliction, so he would for the future help and succour those who fell like him, if, like him, they deeplyand thoroughly repented of their former sins. It might have served another end, and been intended by St. Peter to shew us, that though he had recovered his faith, and was re-instated in the favour of his Master; yet he had not forgotten how basely he had forfeited it, and how generously his Master had restored him. Our Lord’s promise of appearing to the disciples in Galilee, referred to in the words as he said unto you, was given to the twelve apostles, Mat 26:32 yet the angel speaks of it as made to the women, and to all the disciples. Hence we learn, that every promise made to the apostles which had not an immediate relation to their office and character, was really made to all the disciples, and was intended to be made known to them. This message, as well as that from Jesus himself, Mat 28:10 was sent to all the disciples, and not to the apostles in particular. The reason may have been this: our Lord intending to visit his apostles that very evening, there was no occasion to order them into Galilee to see him; but as most of his disciples were in Jerusalem, celebrating the passover, it may easily be imagined that on receiving the news of their Master’s resurrection, many of them would resolve to continue there, in expectation of meeting with himathing which must have been very inconvenient for them at that time of the year, when the harvest was about to begin, the sheaf of the first fruits being always offered on the second day of the passover week. Wherefore to prevent their being so long from home, the messages mentioned were sent, directing them to return into Galilee, well assured that they should have the pleasure of seeing their Lord there, and by that means be happily relieved from the suspicion of his being an impostor, which probably might arise in the minds of many of them, when they saw him expire upon the cross. Accordingly, he appeared to more than five hundred of them at once, who, in consequence of his appointment, gathered together to see him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
5 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.
6 And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
7 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.
Ver. 7. Tell his disciples, and Peter ] q.d. Tell him howsoever, for he is in great heaviness; and this will be very good news to him. Tell him that Christ is risen again for his justification, Rom 4:25 . Or, tell his disciples and Peter, quia ille se prae aliis incredulum ostenderat, as Tolet hath it, because he hath expressed so much unbelief above the rest, and is, therefore, it may be, set here behind all the disciples, as inferior to them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7. ] breaks off the discourse and turns to a new matter But now rather do ye
. ] It is hardly perhaps likely that the denial of Peter was the ground of this message, though it is difficult not to connect the two in the mind. The mention of him here is probably merely official as the ‘primus inter pares.’ We cannot say that others of the Apostles may not have denied their Master besides Peter.
It must not be concluded from this that we have a trace of Peter’s hand in the narrative.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 16:7 . , but; change in tone and topic; gazing longer into the empty grave would serve no purpose: there is something to be done go, spread the news! Cf. Joh 14:31 : But arise, let us go hence! , and to Peter in particular: why? to the disciple who denied his Master? so the older interpreters to Peter, with all his faults, the most important man in the disciple band? so most recent interpreters: ut dux Apostolici coetus , Grotius. , recit., introducing the very message of the angel. The message recalls the words of Jesus before His death (chap. Mar 14:28 ). , there, pointing to Galilee as the main scene of the reappearing of Jesus to His disciples, creating expectation of a narrative by the evangelist of an appearance there, which, however, is not forthcoming .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mark
THE INCREDULOUS DISCIPLES
LOVE’S TRIUMPH OVER SIN
Mar 16:7
This prevailing tradition of Christian antiquity ascribes this Gospel to John Mark, sister’s son to Barnabas, and affirms that in composing it he was in some sense the ‘interpreter’ of the Apostle Peter. Some confirmation of this alleged connection between the Evangelist and the Apostle may be gathered from the fact that the former is mentioned by the latter as with him when he wrote his First Epistle. And, in the Gospel itself, there are some little peculiarities which seem to look in the same direction. A certain speciality is traceable here and there, both in omissions of incidents in the Apostle’s life recorded by some of the other Evangelists, and in the addition of slight facts concerning him unnoticed by them.
Chief among these is the place which his name holds in this very remarkable message, delivered by the angels to the women who came to Christ’s tomb on the Resurrection morning. Matthew, who also reports the angels’ words, has only ‘tell His disciples.’ Mark adds the words, which must have come like wine and oil to the bruised heart of the denier, ‘tell His disciples and Peter.’ To the others, it was of little importance that his name should have been named then; to him it was life from the dead, that he should have been singled out to receive a word of forgiveness and a summons to meet his Lord; as if He had said through His angel messengers-’I would see them all; but whoever may stay behind, let not him be absent from our glad meeting again.’
We find, too, that the same individualising of the Apostle, which led to his being thus greeted in the first thoughts of his risen Lord, led also to an interview with Him on that same day, about which not a syllable of detail is found in any Gospel, though the fact was known to the whole body of the disciples. For when the two friends who had met Christ at Emmaus came back in the night with their strange tidings, their eagerness to tell their joyful news is anticipated by the eagerness of the brethren to tell their wonderful story: ‘The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.’ Paul, too, gives that meeting, when the Lord was alone with the penitent, the foremost place in his list of the evidences of Christ’s resurrection, ‘He was seen of Cephas.’ What passed then is hidden from all eyes. The secrets of that hour of deep contrition and healing love Peter kept secretly curtained from sight, in the innermost chamber of his memory. But we may be sure that then forgiveness was sought and granted, and the bond that fastened him to his Lord was welded together again, where it had snapped, and was the stronger because it had been broken, and at the point of fracture.
The man must be first re-united to his Saviour, before the Apostle can be reinstated in his functions. In secrecy, not beheld by any, is the personal act of restoration to love and friendship effected; and then in public, before his brethren, who were concerned in his official position, but not in his personal relation to his Lord, the reappointment of the pardoned disciple to his apostleship takes place. His sin had had a public aspect, and his threefold denial must, in so far as it was an outward act, be effaced by his threefold confession. Then he becomes again ‘Peter’-not merely ‘Simon Bar Jonas’; and, as the Book of the Acts shows, never ceases to hear the divine commissions, ‘Feed My sheep,’ ‘Follow Me’; nor ever forgets the lessons he had learned in these bitter hours of self-loathing, and in the rapturous moments when again he saw his Lord.
Putting all these things together-this message from Christ, the interview which followed it, and the subsequent history of the Apostle-we have a connected series of facts which may illustrate for us, better than many dry words of mine could do, the triumph over sin of the forgiving love of Christ.
I. Notice, then, first, the loving message with which He beckons the wanderer back.
Into this sorrow come the tidings that all was not over, that the irrevocable was not irrevocable, that perhaps new days of loyal love might still be granted, in which the doleful failure of the past might be forgotten; and then, whether before or after his hurried rush to the grave we need not here stay to inquire, follows the message of our text, a word of forgiveness and reconciliation, sent by the Lord as the herald and outrider of His own coming, to bring gladness and hope ere He Himself draws near.
Think of this message as a revelation of love that is stronger than death.
The news of Christ’s resurrection must have struck awe, but not necessarily joy, into the disciples’ hearts. The dearest ones suffer so solemn a change to our apprehensions when they pass into the grave, that to many a man it would be maddening terror to meet those whom he loved and still loves. So there must have been a spasm of fear even among Christ’s friends when they heard of Him as risen again, and much confusing doubt as to what would be the amount of resemblance to His old self. They probably dreaded to find Him far removed from their familiar love, forgetful perhaps of much of the old life, with other thoughts than before, with the atmosphere of the other world round about Him, which glorified Him indeed, but separated Him too from those whose grosser lungs could live only in this thick air. These words of our text would go far to scatter all such fears. They link on the future to the past, as if His first thought when He rose had been to gather up again the dropped threads of their intercourse, and to carry on their ancient concord and companionship as though no break had been at all. For all the disciples, and especially for him who is especially named, they confirm the identity of Christ’s whole dispositions towards them now, with those which He had before. Death has not changed Him at all. Much has been done since He left them; the world’s history has been changed, but nothing which has happened has had any effect on the reality of His love, and on the inmost reality of their companionship. In these respects they are where they were, and even Calvary and the tomb are but as a parenthesis. The old bonds are all re-knit, and the junction is all but imperceptible.
This is how we have to think of our Lord now, in His attitude towards us. We, too, may have our share in that message, which came like morning twilight before He shone upon the apostles’ darkness. To them it proclaimed a love which was stronger than death. To us it may declare a love which is stronger than all change of circumstances. He is no more parted from us by the Throne than from them by the Cross. He descended into ‘the lower parts of the earth,’ and His love lived on, and so it does now, when He has ‘ascended up far above all heavens.’ Love knows no difference of place, conditions, or functions. From out of the blazing heart of the Glory the same tender face looks that bent over sick men’s pallets, and that turned on Peter in the judgment-hall. The hand that holds the sceptre of the universe is the hand that was nailed to the Cross, and that was stretched out to that same Peter when he was ready to sink. The breast that is girt with the golden girdle of priestly sovereignty is the same tender home on which John’s happy head rested in placid contentment. All the love that ever flowed from Christ flows from Him still. To Him, ‘whose nature and whose name are Love,’ it matters nothing whether He is in the house at Bethany, or in the upper room, or hanging on the Cross, or lying in the grave, or risen from the dead, or seated on the right hand of God. He is the same everywhere and always. ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love.’
Again, this message is the revelation of a love that is not turned away by our sinful changes.
Peter may have thought that he had, with his own words, broken the bond between him and his Lord. He had renounced his allegiance; was the renunciation to be accepted? He had said, ‘I am not one of them’; did Christ answer, ‘Be it so; one of them thou shalt no more be’? The message from the women’s lips settled the question, and let him feel that, though his grasp of Christ had relaxed, Christ’s grasp of him had not, He might change, he might cease for a time to prize his Lord’s love, he might cease either to be conscious of it or to wish for it; but that love could not change. It was unaffected by his unfaithfulness, even as it had not been originated by his fidelity. Repelled, it still lingered beside him. Disowned, it still asserted its property in him. Being reviled, it blessed; being persecuted, it endured; being defamed, it entreated; and, patient through all wrongs and changes, it loved on till it had won back the erring heart, and could fill it with the old blessedness again.
And is not that same miracle of long-enduring love presented before every one of us, as in Christ’s heart for us? True, our sin interferes with our sense of it, and modifies the form in which it must deal with us; but, however real and disastrous may be the power of our evil in troubling the communion of love between us and our Lord, and in compelling Him to smite before He binds up, never forget that our sin is utterly impotent to turn away the tide that sets to us from the heart of Christ. Earthborn vapours may hang about the low levels, and turn the gracious sun himself into a blood-red ball of lurid fire; but they reach only a little way up, and high above their region is the pure blue, and the blessed light pours down upon the upper surface of the white mist, and thins away its opaqueness, and dries up its clinging damp, and at last parts it into filmy fragments that float out of sight, and the dwellers on the green earth see the sun, which was always there even when they could not behold it, and which, by shining on, has conquered all the obstructions that veiled its beams. Sin is mighty, but one thing sin cannot do, and that is to make Christ cease to love us. Sin is mighty, but one other thing sin cannot do, and that is to prevent Christ from manifesting His love to us sinners, that we may learn to love and so may cease to sin. Christ’s love is not at the beck and call of our fluctuating affections. It has its source deeper than in the springs in our hearts, namely in the depths of His own nature. It is not the echo or the answer to ours, but ours is the echo to His; and that being so, our changes do not reach to it, any more than earth’s seasons affect the sun. For ever and ever He loves. Whilst we forget Him, He remembers us. Whilst we repay Him with neglect or with hate, He still loves. If we believe not, He still abides faithful to His merciful purpose, and, in spite of all that we can do, will not deny Himself, by ceasing to be the incarnate Patience, the perfect Love. He is Himself the great ensample of that ‘charity’ which His Apostle painted; He is not easily provoked; He is not soon angry; He beareth all things; He hopeth all things. We cannot get away from the sweep of His love, wander we ever so far. The child may struggle in the mother’s arms, and beat the breast that shelters it with its little hand; but it neither hurts nor angers that gentle bosom, nor loosens the firm but loving grasp that holds it fast. He carries, as a nurse does, His wayward children, and, blessed be His name! His arm is too strong for us to shake it off, His love too divine for us to dam it back.
And still further, here we see a love which sends a special message because of special sin.
If one was to be singled out from the little company to receive by name the summons of the Lord to meet Him in Galilee, we might have expected it to have been that faithful friend who stood beneath the Cross, till his Lord’s command sent him to his own home; or that weeping mother whom he then led away with him; or one of the two who had been turned from secret disciples into confessors by the might of their love, and had laid His body with reverent care in the grave in the garden. Strange reward for true love that they should be merged in the general message, and strange recompense for treason and cowardice that Peter’s name should be thus distinguished! Is sin, then, a passport to His deeper love? Is the murmur true after all, ‘Thou never gavest me a kid, but as soon as this thy son is come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf’? Yes, and no. No, inasmuch as the unbroken fellowship hath in it calm and deep joys which the returning prodigal does not know, and all sin lays waste and impoverishes the soul. Yes, inasmuch as He, who knows all our needs, knows that the denier needs a special treatment to bring him back to peace, and that the further a poor heart has strayed from Him, the mightier must be the forthputting of manifested love, if it is to be strong enough to travel across all the dreary wastes, and draw back again, to its orbit among its sister planets, the wandering star. The depth of our need determines the strength of the restorative power put forth. They who had not gone away would come at the call addressed to them all, but he who had sundered himself from them and from the Lord would remain in his sad isolation, unless some special means were used to bring him back. The more we have sinned, the less can we believe in Christ’s love; and so the more we have sinned, the more marvellous and convincing does He make the testimony and operations of His love to us. It is ever to the poor bewildered sheep, lying panting in the wilderness, that He comes. Among His creatures, the race which has sinned is that which receives the most stupendous proof of the seeking divine love. Among men, the publicans and the harlots, the denying Peters and the persecuting Pauls, are they to whom the most persuasive entreaties of His love are sent, and on whom the strongest powers of His grace are brought to bear. Our sin cannot check the flow of His love. More marvellous still, our sin occasions a mightier burst of the manifestation of His love, for eyes blinded by selfishness and carelessness, or by fear and despair, need to see a brightness beyond the noonday sun, ere they can behold the amazing truth of His love to them; and what they need, they get. ‘Go, tell Peter.’
Here, too, is the revelation of a love which singles out a sinful man by name.
Christ does not deal with us in the mass, but soul by soul. Our finite minds have to lose the individual in order to grasp the class. Our eyes see the wood far off on the mountain-side, but not the single trees, nor each fluttering leaf. We think of ‘the race’-the twelve hundred millions that live to-day, and the uncounted crowds that have been, but the units in that inconceivable sum are not separate in our view. But He does not generalise so. He has a clear individualising knowledge of each; each separately has a place in His mind or heart. To each He says, ‘I know thee by name.’ He loves the world, because He loves every single soul with a distinct love. And His messages of blessing are as specific and individualising as the love from which they come. He speaks to each of us as truly as He singled out Peter here, as truly as when His voice from heaven said, ‘Saul, Saul.’ English names are on His lips as really as Jewish ones. He calls to thee by thy name-thou hast a share in His love. To thee the call to trust Him is addressed, and to thee forgiveness, help, purity, life eternal are offered. Thou hast sinned; that only infuses deeper tenderness into His beseeching tones. Thou hast gone further front Him than some of thy fellows; that only makes His recovering energy greater. Thou hast denied His name; that only makes Him speak thine with more persuasive invitation.
Look, then, at this one instance of a love stronger than death, mightier than sin, sending its special greeting to the denier, and learn how deep the source, how powerful the flow, how universal the sweep, of that river of the love of God, which streams to us through the channel of Christ His Son.
II. Notice, secondly, the secret meeting between our Lord and the Apostle.
What tender consideration there is in meeting Peter alone, before seeing him in the companionship of the others! How painful would have been the rush of the first emotions of shame awakened by Christ’s presence, if their course had been checked by any eye but His own beholding them! How impossible it would have then been to have poured out all the penitent confessions with which his heart must have been full, and how hard it would have been to have met for the first time, and not to have poured them out! With most loving insight, then, into the painful embarrassment, and dread of unsympathising standers-by, which must have troubled the contrite Apostle, the Lord is careful to give him the opportunity of weeping his fill on His own bosom, unrestrained by any thought of others, and will let him sob out his contrition to His own ear alone. Then the meeting in the upper chamber will be one of pure joy to Peter, as to all the rest. The emotions which he has in common with them find full play, in that hour when all are reunited to their Lord. The experience which belongs to himself alone has its solitary hour of unrecorded communion. The first to whom He, who is ‘separate from sinners,’ appeared was ‘Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils.’ The next were the women who bore this message of forgiveness; and probably the next was the one among all the company who had sinned most grievously. So wondrous is the order of His preferences, coming ever nearest to those who need Him most.
And may we not regard this secret interview as representing for us what is needed on our part to make Christ’s forgiving love our own? There must be the personal contact of my soul with the loving heart of Christ, the individual act of my own coming to Him, and, as the old Puritans used to say,’ my transacting’ with Him. Like the ocean of the atmosphere, His love encompasses me, and in it I ‘live, and move, and have my being.’ But I must let it flow into my spirit, and stir the dormant music of ray soul. I can shut it out, sealing my heart love-tight against it. I do shut it out, unless by my own conscious, personal act I yield myself to Him, unless by my own faith I come to Him, and meet Him, secretly and really as did the penitent Apostle, whom the message, that proclaimed the love of his Lord, emboldened to meet the Lord who loved, and by His own lips to be assured of forgiveness and friendship. It is possible to stumble at noontide, as in the dark. A man may starve, outside of barns filled with plenty, and his lips may be parched with thirst, though he is within sight of a broad river flowing in the sunshine. So a soul may stiffen into the death of self and sin, even though the voice that wakes the dead to a life of love be calling to it. Christ and His grace are yours if you will, but the invitations and beseechings of His mercy, the constant drawings of His love, the all-embracing offers of His forgiveness, may be all in vain, if you do not grasp them and hold them fast by the hand of faith.
That personal act must be preceded by the message of His mighty love. Ever He sends such messages as heralds of His coming, just as He prepared the way for His own approach to the Apostle, by the words of our text. Our faith must follow His word. Our love can only be called forth by the manifestation of His. But His message must be followed by that personal act, else His word is spoken in vain, and there is no real union between our need and His fulness, nor any cleansing contact of His grace with our foulness.
Mark, too, the intensely individual character of that act of faith by which a man accepts Christ’s grace. Friends and companions may bring the tidings of the risen Lord’s loving heart, but the actual closing with the Lord’s mercy must be done by myself, alone with Him.
As if there were not another soul on earth, I and He must meet, and in solitude deep as that of death, each man for himself must yield to Incarnate Love, and receive eternal life. The flocks and herds, the wives and children, have all to be sent away, and Jacob must be left alone, before the mysterious Wrestler comes whose touch of fire lames the whole nature of sin and death, whose inbreathed power strengthens to hold Him fast till He speaks a blessing, who desires to be overcome, and makes our yielding to Him our prevailing with Him. As one of the old mystics called prayer ‘the flight of the lonely man to the only God,’ so we may call the act of faith the meeting of the soul alone with Christ alone. Do you know anything of that personal communion? Have you, your own very self, by your own penitence for your own sin, and your own thankful faith in the Love which thereby becomes truly yours, isolated yourself from all companionship, and joined yourself to Christ? Then, through that narrow passage where we can only walk singly, you will come into a large place. The act of faith, which separates us from all men, unites us for the first time in real brotherhood, and they who, one by one, come to Jesus and meet Him alone, next find that they ‘are come to the city of God, to an innumerable company, to the festal choirs of angels, to the Church of the First-born, to the spirits of just men made perfect.’
III. Notice, finally, the gradual cure of the pardoned Apostle.
The all-embracing question is followed by an equally comprehensive command, ‘Follow thou Me,’ a two-worded compendium of all morals, a precept which naturally results from love, and certainly leads to absolute perfectness. With love to Christ for motive, and Christ Himself for pattern, and following Him for our one duty, all things are possible, and the utter defeat of sin in us is but a question of time.
And the certainty, as well as the gradual slowness, of that victory, are well set forth by the future history of the Apostle. We know how his fickleness passed away, and how his vehement character was calmed and consolidated into resolved persistency, and how his love of distinction and self-confidence were turned in a new direction, obeyed a divine impulse, and became powers. We read how he started to the front; how he guided the Church in the first stage of its development; how whenever there was danger he was in the van, and whenever there was work his hand was first on the plough; how he bearded and braved rulers and councils; how-more difficult still for him-he lay quietly in prison sleeping like a child, between his guards, on the night before his execution; how-most difficult of all-he acquiesced in Paul’s superiority; and, if he still needed to be withstood and blamed, could recognise the wisdom of the rebuke, and in his calm old age could speak well of the rebuker as his ‘beloved brother Paul.’ Nor was the cure a change in the great lines of his character. These remain the same, the characteristic excellences possible to them are brought out, the defects are curbed and cast out. The ‘new man’ is the ‘old man’ with a new direction, obeying a new impulse, but retaining its individuality. Weaknesses become strengths; the sanctified character is the old character sanctified; and it is still true that ‘every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.’
It is very instructive to observe how deeply the experiences of his fall, and of Christ’s mercy then, had impressed themselves on Peter’s memory, and how constantly they were present with him all through his after-life. His Epistles are full of allusions which show this. For instance, to go a step further back in his life, he remembered that the Lord had said to him, ‘Thou art Peter,’ ‘a stone,’ and that his pride in that name had helped to his rash confidence, and so to his sin. Therefore, when he is cured of these, he takes pleasure in sharing his honour with his brethren, and writes, ‘Ye also, as living stones, are built up.’ He remembered the contempt for others and the trust in himself with which he had said, ‘Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I’; and, taught what must come of that, he writes, ‘Be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.’ He remembered how hastily he had drawn his sword and struck at Malchus, and he writes, ‘If when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.’ He remembered how he had been surprised into denial by the questions of a sharp-tongued servant-maid, and he writes, ‘Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness.’ He remembered how the pardoning love of his Lord had honoured him unworthy, with the charge, ‘Feed My sheep,’ and he writes, ranking himself as one of the class to whom he speaks-’The elders I exhort, who am also an elder . . . feed the flock of God.’ He remembered that last command, which sounded ever in his spirit, ‘Follow thou Me,’ and discerning now, through all the years that lay between, the presumptuous folly and blind inversion of his own work and his Master’s which had lain in his earlier question, ‘Why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake’-he writes to all, ‘Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps,’
So well had he learned the lesson of his own sin, and of that immortal love which had beckoned him back, to peace at its side and purity from its hand. Let us learn how the love of Christ, received into the heart, triumphs gradually but surely over all sin, transforms character, turning even its weakness into strength, and so, from the depths of transgression and very gates of hell, raises men to God.
To us all this divine message speaks. Christ’s love is extended to us; no sin can stay it; no fall of ours can make Him despair. He will not give us up. He waits to be gracious. This same Peter once asked, ‘How oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?’ And the answer, which commanded unwearied brotherly forgiveness, revealed inexhaustible divine pardon-’I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven.’ The measure of the divine mercy, which is the pattern of ours, is completeness ten times multiplied by itself; we know not the numbers thereof. ‘Let the wicked forsake his way . . . and let him return unto the Lord, for He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will multiply to pardon.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
and Peter. A Divine supplement, here.
see. Greek. opsomai. App-133. a
as = even as.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7.] breaks off the discourse and turns to a new matter-But now rather do ye
.] It is hardly perhaps likely that the denial of Peter was the ground of this message, though it is difficult not to connect the two in the mind. The mention of him here is probably merely official-as the primus inter pares. We cannot say that others of the Apostles may not have denied their Master besides Peter.
It must not be concluded from this that we have a trace of Peters hand in the narrative.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 16:7. , but go your way) in antithesis to [Mar 16:6] He is not here; [Mar 16:7] there shall ye see Him.- , and Peter) who subsequently proclaimed this testimony in his Acts and Epistles. [How great must have been the refreshment of spirit, as we may suppose, afforded by this to that disciple, overwhelmed as he was by sorrow!-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
tell: Mar 14:50, Mar 14:66-72, Mat 28:7, 2Co 2:7
there: Mar 14:28, Mat 26:32, Mat 28:10, Mat 28:16, Mat 28:17, Joh 21:1, Act 13:31, 1Co 15:5
Reciprocal: Jer 45:2 – unto Mat 14:31 – and caught Luk 22:32 – and when Luk 24:9 – General Luk 24:34 – hath 1Co 15:6 – he was
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.
Mar 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 sentimentpass 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.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Chapter 27.
The Same Jesus
“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. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils.”-Mar 16:7-9.
The Women and the Angel’s Message.
It may be that, if we wanted to reproduce with exactitude the happenings at the graveside on that first Easter morning, we should have to insert asterisks at various points in the evangelic narrative. Asterisks in a narrative imply the lapse of time, and I am quite sure that such lapses took place on Easter morning. And I am doubly sure of this when I come to Mark’s account, for of all the evangelists Mark is the most concise and compressed. I do not think, for example, that the angelic speech to the women went on without pause or break as Mary records it here. I believe that between Mar 16:6 and Mar 16:7 you ought to put the asterisks. “He is risen, He is not here, behold the place where they laid Him,” the angel said. And then he paused. He gave the women time to take that in. He gave them time to try to realise the tremendous fact that their dead Master was alive again. It needed time, for Resurrection was not in all their thoughts. I picture these women in the moments that followed that tremendous angelic word. I picture to myself the feelings that expressed themselves on their faces. For one mood followed another as sunshine and shadow chase one another on an April day. First there was mere and sheer fright at the sight of the empty grave and the vision of the angel. And then there was wonder, incredulous wonder almost. And then as the meaning of it all began really to come home to their souls, the wonder gave place to an expression of ecstasy and rapture. And then once again the sunshine gave way to shadow, and the rapture was replaced by something like doubt and fear.
A Dawning Fear.
The fear was caused by this-the women began to wonder whether the risen Jesus would be like the Jesus Who had companied with them in Galilee. Differences in rank and station have before today proved almost fatal to friendship. Here are two lads bosom friends at school. They go forth into life. One remains all his days poor and obscure. The other, blessed with more shining gifts, wins for himself name and fame and wealth. And it has happened before today that the man who has so advanced in wealth and position has forgotten his friendship for the poor man who was the school mate of his boyhood. Now the Resurrection, the women must have felt instinctively, must have made a difference to Christ. It revealed Him as a greater person than they had taken Him for. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead. He had lived humbly enough in the days of His flesh. Fishermen and humble women might dare to be on terms of friendship with One Who was Himself by trade a village carpenter-though even during those days of His lowliness they had been surprised now and again by flashes of glory. But by the Resurrection God had highly exalted Him and given Him a name which was above every name. It was one thing being on terms of friendship with Him Who was so poor that He had not where to lay His head; it was quite another thing being on terms of friendship with One Whom God had exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour. Perhaps a cold and chilling doubt crept into the souls of these women and brought a shadow into their faces, doubt as to whether this exalted Lord would still count them His friends and show them the old affection and love.
-A Fear Removed.
And it was to meet that doubt, and chase it clean away out of these women’s hearts that the angel spoke as he did. I do not think he spoke it in the same breath as the previous verse. You must put asterisks between the sixth verse and this one. He made the great announcement of Christ’s Resurrection to chase away the fear caused by the sight of the empty grave. He added this further word to chase away the fear that the Resurrection might have made a difference in Christ’s affection and love. For this is the effect of this further word which the angel spoke, it reveals Jesus as the same Jesus. The Resurrection had revealed as by a flash His divine glory, but the Resurrection had made not a whit of difference in His feelings towards the men and women who had companied with Him, and loved Him and served Him in the days of His flesh. The Resurrection has changed His form, it had not changed His heart.
Vision and Duty.
Now, let us look at this verse which shows us that Jesus was the same Jesus. “Go your way,” said the angel, “tell His disciples and Peter.” A place where angels are to be seen, is the kind of place that tempts one to linger. The disciples did not want to leave the Holy Mount where they saw their Lord in His glory. “Let us make three tabernacles,” they said, “one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” They would fain have lived in the enjoyment of that beatific vision. And possibly these women showed signs of remaining rooted to the spot, rapt in contemplation of the empty tomb and the living angel. Small blame to them if they did! I can understand and sympathise with them. To be able to converse with an angel, to hear the angel bear his testimony to their Master was a rare and wondrous privilege. But just exactly as our Lord brought the season on the Holy Mount to a close, and led His disciples back again to the business waiting for them in the plain below, so now it is the angel that brings the moment of vision and rapture to a close. “Go your way, tell His disciples,” he said. Vision was to end in duty. Rapture was to be interrupted because there was business to be done. Away in Jerusalem, in the Upper Room, there was a little company of men plunged in a gulf of deep despair because they thought that Jesus was dead; whose hopes were all shattered, whose hearts were wellnigh broken, and whose future was all dark, because they believed that Jesus was dead. And Jesus was alive. The women were not to remain at the grave in solitary enjoyment of the gladness. They were to remember those people in the Upper Room for whom the announcement that Jesus was alive would change winter into spring. “Go your way,” said the angel, “tell His disciples.” Rapture was to give way to duty. Their good news was to be shared!
Good News to be Shared.
The good news about Christ is always to be shared. Here is the reason for all missionary and evangelistic work; the joy of salvation was never meant to be a selfish and solitary possession; it was meant to be diffused, spread abroad, shared. The news of God’s love in Christ makes a difference. Wherever it goes, it makes a difference. It changes gloom to gladness, and fear to confidence and joy. And so long as there is in the wide world a solitary person sitting in doubt and fear, to whom the news about Christ would bring comfort and freedom and joy, we are bound to tell it to him. “Go thy way, tell!” that is the command still laid upon us. Life is not all rapture, it is service, ministry. It is not selfish enjoyment, it is a blessed sharing. The vision ends always in a duty. “We cannot at the shrine remain.” When we have heard the good news about Christ, we must straightway, go our way and tell.
The Considerateness of the Lord.
-As at Cana.
But it is not for the light it throws upon the duty of the Christian disciple, but for the light it throws upon the risen Lord that I chiefly value this verse. The angel dispersed the fears that were beginning to arise in the hearts of the women when he gave them this message for it showed this, that despite the glory of His risen state, He was still the same Jesus. Notice, to begin with, the considerateness of Christ as illustrated in this message. That was one of His great characteristics when He was alive. He was so considerate, considerate I mean of the comfort and happiness of others. Take the marriage at Cana for illustration. Possibly, as some of the commentators suggest, it was the unexpected arrival of Jesus and His disciples that brought about the shortage of wine which threatened to bring the rejoicings to a premature conclusion. After all the addition of half-a-dozen unexpected guests is enough to upset the calculations of any housekeeper. But whether that be so or not, I am sure that when Jesus heard His mother whisper to Him, “They have no wine,” He felt for the predicament in which the host and hostess found themselves. He knew the humiliation that would come upon them if their hospitality failed. And so without a word to any one as to what He was doing, He replenished the exhausted store with that water which His grace had converted into the wine of the finest vintage. None but the servants knew what had happened. The master of the feast did not know, the bride and bridegroom did not know, the assembled guests did not know. Our Lord had the fine instinct of the perfect gentleman. He spared the hosts the shame of a public announcement. He spared them even the anxiety of knowing that the supply ran short! It was all beautifully and exquisitely considerate!
-And with His Own.
Or think of His treatment of the disciples themselves when they came back after their first preaching tour. They were tired from their labours, they were excited with their success. “Come ye apart by yourselves and rest awhile,” He said to them. He was beautifully considerate always of their needs and welfare. Or think of His behaviour on the Holy Mount. Peter wanted to stay. Jesus Himself led the way down. The fact was, His own glory and happiness always came second to the needs and wants of others. Up on the holy hill, I think He could in His soul hear the shrieks of the demented lad, and the vain appeals of the heartbroken father; and in pure and beautiful considerateness for human need He left the scene of His glory and hurried to their help. And this verse makes it plain that that trait in the Lord’s character had no whit changed. His first thought on rising again was of His troubled disciples; His first message on rising was a message which was meant to dispel their sorrow. In a sense, you may say that the whole of the post-Resurrection appearances illustrate the considerateness of Jesus. When He rose again from the dead, Heaven was open to Him. But for forty days He lingered about the familiar scenes of His earthly ministry. The fact is there were humble friends of His who needed comfort and assurance. And not until He had clean dispelled their sorrow, and filled them with triumphant hope and gladness, did Jesus finally leave them to take possession of His glory. It was ever “others first” with Jesus. He was always delicately, beautifully considerate of the needs and wants of others. And the Resurrection had not changed Him in this respect. His first thought was of the sorrow and grief of His disciples. “Go your way,” was His first command after His rising, “tell His disciples and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee.”
The Forgiving Love of the Lord.
Not only was He the same in His considerateness, but this message shows this too, that He was exactly the same in His love. In a sense this is implied in what I have already said, for considerateness is one of the beautiful fruits of love. It is only the loving soul that is a really considerate soul. It was because Jesus loved His disciples so well that He was eager at the first possible moment to relieve them of their sorrow and grief. But it is not love in the general sense of a kindly and affectionate feeling that I am thinking of just now, but love in the particular sense of love that stoops, and lavishes itself on the unworthy, and forgives unto seventy times seven. Now that was a great, if not the outstanding, characteristic of Jesus in the days of His flesh. It differentiated Him from every other teacher of His time. He had a love which reached out to those who had gone farthest astray, and stooped to those who had fallen into the deepest depths. Enemies made it indeed the foundation of a slander. They called Him “the friend of publicans and sinners.” They said that He found His proper company amongst the outcasts and moral derelicts of Palestine. But the slander has long since lost its sting and been converted into a glory. That is Christ’s crowning grace, He was the mighty Lover of Souls. He loved not only kind and lovable people like Martha and Mary and Lazarus, but He loved a cheating publican like Zacchaeus, He loved the woman who was a sinner, He loved the dying thief. It was a love from whose blessings not even the vilest and the worst was outcast. And that was what drew the hearts of the sinful and the fallen with such passionate devotion to Christ. “The publicans and sinners drew near unto Him for to hear Him.” The people of whom every one else despaired turned with eager and thankful hope to Jesus. He had a Gospel for them. He loved them out of their sin and despair into newness of life.
-A Continuous Love.
But it was one thing for the Nazarene to be the “friend of publicans and sinners,” it was quite another for the exalted and glorified Son of God. Did the chilling doubt invade the souls of these women as to whether His love had survived the mighty change? Did Mary Magdalene wonder whether the Mighty Prince and Saviour would give her a place in His heart? In the days of His flesh, He had stooped to her help when she was a poor demented, derelict, unclean woman; He had cast seven devils out of her; but would the risen Lord give a thought to such a poor and humble creature? Well, again, if such fears did arise, they were dispelled by the angel’s message. “Go, tell His disciples and Peter.” It was the special mention of Peter that removed all doubt. It was the special singling out of Peter that made them sure there was no difference in the love. It was as if Jesus said, “I want them all to come, but specially I want Peter to come.” And I look back in my Gospel, and the last notice of Peter which I come across is this. “But he began to curse and to swear, I know not this man of whom ye speak.” I put the two verses side by side. “But he began to curse and to swear, I know not the man.” “Go, tell His disciples and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee,” and one thing becomes abundantly plain to me, and that is this, death has made no difference to the lavish, stooping love of Christ. After the Resurrection as before, it was a love that forgave until seventy times seven.
The Restoration of Peter.
It is a significant fact that it is only Mark who records the special invitation to the fallen Apostle. Now Mark was, as we know, Peter’s “interpreter.” He got his account of the Gospel story mainly from the Apostle’s own lips. When the Gospels came to be written, Matthew had forgotten about this special mention of Peter, Luke’s informants had forgotten it, indeed the Christian people as a whole had forgotten it; but Peter himself had never forgotten it. It was the turning point in his life. But for that special word “and Peter” he might have made his bed in hell. For I will believe, that the wide world contained no more unhappy man than Simon Peter during the two days that intervened between his shameful denial in the judgment hall, and the receipt of this special invitation, unless indeed it might be Judas Iscariot who had betrayed innocent blood, and who found his misery so intolerable that he went out and hanged himself. But the special invitation was like the bursting of the sun into Peter’s tempest-darkened sky; it scattered his despair. It was his Lord’s assurance to him that he still had a place in His heart, that his great and terrible sin had made no difference to the strength and tenderness of his Lord’s love. I say this special invitation was the beginning of Peter’s restoration. But its permanent significance, and its gracious assurance to you and me is this, that Resurrection has made no difference to the love of Christ. The love of the Lord is a love that survives in spite of sin. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it,” says the old Book. And we may adapt that and say, “Many sins cannot quench love, neither can our iniquities drown it.” The love of the Lord is a love that persists and endures and holds on. The love that gave an invitation to the blasphemer, invites and welcomes the world. There is not one outcast from it. He can save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.
“This Same Jesus.”
-And the Meeting-place.
“He goeth before you into Galilee,” said the angel, “there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.” And this again only gives further evidence that He was still the same Jesus. For why was Galilee appointed the meeting-place? Surely to make the disciples feel that between them and their Lord there could be the old feelings of happy friendship and fellowship. I do not think that it was in our Lord’s plan to appear in Jerusalem at all. If the disciples had really believed His words, and had a simple faith in Him, immediately the Crucifixion was over they would have hurried Northwards and waited there for the reappearing of their Lord. It was fear and faithlessness that chained them to Jerusalem and constrained our Lord to show Himself first to them there. But Jerusalem was a place of bitter memories and painful associations. There was everything in Jerusalem to fill the disciples with shame and humiliation. It was in Jerusalem Peter had denied Him, it was in Jerusalem they had all forsaken Him and fled. The memories of Jerusalem would impose restraints and constraints upon their fellowship. But no bitter memories attached to Galilee. That was the place of their first enthusiasm, of the rapture of their early devotion. That was the place where their companionship with Jesus had been free and happy, and altogether beautiful. And it was there Jesus would meet with them. It was like telling them that He had no place in His memory for treachery and wrong and desertion. It was inviting them to resume the old and happy relationship of their first love.
“Unwearied in forgiveness still,
His heart could only love.”
The same Jesus! And what a Jesus! The hope of the world lies here, that Jesus has not changed. He is the same seeking and compassionate Lord! There is a length and breadth and height and depth in His mighty love which passeth knowledge.
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
7
Tell his disciples, and Peter. This does not mean that Peter was not a disciple; but he had denied Jesus three times, and it was fitting that his attention be especially called to the evidence that his Lord was alive again as he had predicted.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 16:7. But. Emphatic: instead of lingering here, go tell, etc.
And Peter. A special token of love to this one who had denied Him, and a recognition of his prominence among his equals.
Into Galilee. Comp. Luk 24:6-7. The question: Why seek ye the living, etc., probably preceded the words: He is risen (Mar 16:6).
As he said to you. Chap. Mar 14:28; see on Mat 28:7.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mar 16:7. Go your way, tell his disciples, &c. The kindness of this message will appear above all praise, if we call to mind the late behaviour of the persons to whom it was sent. They had every one of them forsaken Jesus in his greatest extremity; but he graciously forgave them, and, to assure them of their pardon, called them by the endearing name of his brethren, Joh 20:17. And Peter Though he so oft denied his Lord. What amazing goodness was this! Peter is here named, not as prince of the apostles, as the Papists think him, but, as the fathers say, for his consolation, to take off the scruple which might lie upon his spirit, whether, after his three-fold denial of his Master, he had not forfeited his right to be one of his disciples. Whitby. See notes on Mat 28:7-10.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 7
And Peter; that is, particularly Peter, who, remembering his denial of his Lord, might fear, perhaps, that he was not included in this invitation to meet him again.–As he said unto you. Before his death, Jesus had signified his intention to meet his disciples in Galilee after his resurrection. (Matthew 26:32.)
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
THE RESURRECTION NOT PROCLAIMED
7 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. 8 And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.
Well maybe the excitement and joy is yet to arrive, but they leave in fear of all that they had seen and heard. The message was to go to Galilee to meet Him “as he said unto you.” Now, just when did this conversation occur? Robertson mentions “Jesus did appear to the disciples in Galilee on two notable occasions (by the beloved lake, Joh 21:1-25, and on the mountain, Mat 28:16-20).” however does not mention the discussion about meeting them.
Mar 14:28 is the text that we are looking for. “But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.”
Rather seems that He knew some things in advance. He knew of His death and of His resurrection and of His going to Galilee after it is over. Why He went to Galilee is not clear other than it being a meeting place for the group that He had spent so much time with, in a comfortable familiar area.
There is probably the thought that He did not want to be in Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders were. He did not want to stir up the hornet’s nest and go through all that would have entailed. They had rejected Him and killed Him thus had He appeared there would have been confrontations that had no place in the plan of God. The Jews were now out of the picture for a time and He would concentrate on other things that needed to be attended to.
There is the other side, now that the Jews had rejected Him, His people were now the little band of believers that had followed Him off to Jerusalem. The crowds are not involved at this point; only the small band that had followed Him through thick and then – well followed afar off as we have seen.
Gill makes an interesting statement. “This news was first brought to the apostles by women, who were greatly honoured hereby; that as the woman was first in the transgression, and the cause of death,” I will let you chew a little on that one. True it was the women who brought the news and true it was an honor to the women who seemed closest to the Lord in this time, but as to “that as the woman was first in the transgression and the cause of death” I would challenge the reader to consider this carefully for clarity and truth. Does that really fit into the Biblical theological concept of the fall and transmission of the sin nature through the father? Was Eve really first?
Do a little Bible study and see if you can agree with Gill.
Peter seems singled out from the other apostles, but note it is not to be excluded from the group only singled out in a special manner. Most likely to draw him into the coming events in case he felt that he had so failed the Lord that he should be excluded from the group.
We should take interest in this invitation to Peter to be a part of events coming. When we fail the Lord most miserably He is there to invite us back into His fellowship. We can do nothing in this life that can isolate us from fellowship with Him except isolate ourselves from Him. He is there all we have to do is seek His forgiveness (1Jn 1:9)
We ought to understand Peter’s fear as well. He did not deny the Lord out of lack of commitment, but lack of the ability to overcome his fear of being arrested. This is a fear we in America should consider. Believers around the world are being persecuted and have been formany years. There is legislation introduced quite often in our own congress that would take away the rights of Christians to speak out against sin.
Since we are called to speak out the truth of the cross it is likely that in our own future we will face a similar fear to that of Peter; the fear of being arrested for giving witness to the Lord.
The fear of the women seems to have related to the new and unknown. I am sure they were not used to seeing angels sitting on a stone or anywhere else for that matter. Add to that the reality of being told that a dead man was now alive was probably rather shocking. They may have witnessed the raising of Lazarus, but this was certainly not a common sight in the land.
There is also that thought of knowing in their minds that they had found their Messiah, and then to have him killed on the cross. They would have come to some terms on that point over the days between the burial and resurrection then to find out He was no longer dead. Fear of the unknown is a terrible thing to the believer.
It is also a terrible fear for the lost so we as believers should have our fears controlled and be ready for assistance to the lost. Don’t sit down with them and add your fear to theirs, you should be able to alleviate their fears for them.
Fear of the unknown can stop us from doing that which the Lord has called us to do. Fear of the unknown is often fear of failure. We fear we cannot do what the Lord has called us to do, or we fear that there will be no provision for our needs so we just do nothing. This is allowing fear to control our life.
Just remember, even if you have allowed fear to control you, it does not need to ruin your relationship with the Lord – look at the great things Peter did as he was able to realize that his strength was in the Lord and not in himself.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Peter especially needed this good news in view of his triple denial of Jesus and his consequent despair. Mark only recorded this special reference to Peter probably because it meant so much to Peter. Jesus still regarded Peter as one of His disciples in spite of his failure.
Jesus had predicted the scattering of His sheep and their regathering in Galilee (Mar 14:27-28). Galilee was the appropriate place to launch a worldwide mission to Gentiles as well as Jews. As He had called His disciples to be fishers of men in Galilee (Mar 1:17), now He would commission them to be shepherds of sheep there (Joh 21:15-19).
"The final scene points back to Galilee, back to the beginning of the story. The young man’s message at the tomb with instructions for the disciples to go to Galilee suggests perhaps a fresh start for the disciples or for anyone in the future of the story world who chooses to follow Jesus. By implication, this fresh journey will result in the same complications and the same hostility met in Galilee by John and then by Jesus. Furthermore, Galilee points away from Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, toward gentile nations, where Jesus had said the good news was to be proclaimed before the end came." [Note: Rhoads and Michie, p. 71.]
However the disciples did not go immediately to Galilee. They needed further proof of Jesus’ resurrection, which Jesus provided, before they went.