The Tomb Is Empty: Do Not Be Amazed — Jesus Has Risen

Mark ends his public telling of Jesus’ life with a simple, startling scene: a few women who loved Jesus come before dawn to anoint his body. They expect a sealed tomb, a heavy stone, and a final act of devotion. Instead they find the stone rolled away and a young man in a white robe who upends their expectations. He tells them not to be amazed and points them beyond the empty place where Jesus had been laid to a new reality—Jesus has been raised—and then gives them a mission to go and tell the disciples, even naming Peter.

There are several shocks in this brief account that matter for us. First, the tomb is empty. The place that held death has been stripped of its power. Second, God meets those who come with faithful, sorrowful hearts—ordinary people who had lived through fear and failure—and invites them into the witness of the resurrection. Third, the message comes with both reassurance and command: don’t be amazed—this is what God has done—yet get moving and tell others what you’ve seen.

The phrase don’t be amazed might sound odd at first. Their amazement is real and human; trembling and astonishment seize them. The figure’s words are not meant to erase their wonder but to redirect it. The empty tomb is not an end in itself but the beginning of a new task. The risen Lord’s absence from the grave is evidence of victory over death and a summons: the resurrection changes everything, and it changes what we are to do in the world.

Notice also the inclusion of Peter by name. Peter had denied Jesus; he had failed. Yet the messenger singles him out, signaling that resurrection grace meets people where they are—broken, repentant, uncertain—and restores them for mission. If the earliest witnesses left trembling and silent, we should not be surprised when fear presses on us too. But fear is not the final word. The resurrection breaks the silence of despair and commissions the fearful to speak and follow.

Practically, Mark invites us to move from astonishment and fear into obedient witness. The empty tomb gives us hope when loss seems final. It restores people who have failed and sends them back into the world to testify. When we let this truth shape us, our lives become signs that death does not have the last word and that Jesus goes before us—into places of sorrow, into familiar ground, into broken relationships—to meet us and send us on mission.