On the day my father died, I visited his hospital room. The bed was empty. When I asked the nurse where he was, she looked alarmed and said, “Didn’t anyone call you?” I looked again at the empty bed, hoping my eyes had played a trick on me. But my father was gone.

Mary Magdalene “and the other Mary” (the wife of Alphaeus and the mother of James) must have felt similarly disoriented when they came to Jesus’ tomb, only to find its massive stone already rolled away. They had come to complete the burial rites and wondered how they would remove the stone (Mark 16:2). Upon arriving, they found the tomb open but not empty. However, instead of seeing the body of Jesus, they were greeted by an angel whose “appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow” (v. 3). The angel invited the women to inspect the place where Jesus had been laid, then commanded them to “go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him’” (v. 7).

This testimony laid the foundation for the Apostles’ gospel and is still the bedrock upon which it stands today. These women had watched Jesus die and were the first of His disciples to enter the empty tomb (see Mark 15:40). They were also the first to see the risen Christ (v. 9). The apostles and other disciples did not immediately accept their good news. According to Luke 24:11, “their words seemed to them like nonsense.” We should not be surprised or discouraged when others are put off by the gospel and express skepticism about its message. Even Jesus’ own disciples were slow in accepting what seemed too good to be true.

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