What Does the Resurrection Mean for Us?

I love history

I love puzzles.

And when those two things come together, I get really excited. That’s why the National Treasure movies are my ultimate rewatchables. If you haven’t seen the first movie, for starters you should, the plot is basically that Nicholas Cage is a treasure hunter looking for a massive fortune hidden by the founding fathers during the American Revolution.

But they have left clues as to where the treasure is located!

One of these clues is written in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence. So, Nick Cage being Nick Cage, steals the Declaration from the National Archives. But in order to read the invisible ink, he has to use find a way to make it visible. So, through a careful use of lemons and hair dryers, he finds a cypher on the back — which is just a collection numbers that correspond to a word in key.

It’s basically a code on the back of the Declaration of Independence that tells him a hidden message.

Oddly enough, this is what the Gospel writer, Mark, has done in the last three chapters of his book.

Think of Mark 14-16 as the Declaration of Independence and to find the hidden message, we have to use a cypher that he has embedded in the text.

So here are the clues to our cypher in Mark 14-16 that will tell us a hidden message:

• Young Man

• White Robe

• Linen Cloth

You ready? Let’s find that treasure.

Clue 1: The Young Man

The final story in the book of Mark is in Mark 16 when Jesus is resurrected. And the way in which Mark uses certain words in Mark 16:5 is very much like the cypher in National Treasure.

So check it out.

In Mark 16:5, Mark uses very rare, very unique buzzwords to get you thinking about previous stories in the book. Basically, he’s using words as a bridge to connect different stories together in order to give us a hidden message.

First, he’s going to do that with the phrase “young man” in Mark 16:5 and Mark 14:51-52. Here are the verses:

And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. -Mark 16:5

And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. - Mark 14:51-52

Mark 16: The Young Man in White Robes

The phrase “young man” only appears two times in the book of Mark and it only appears two times for a reason — because, again, Mark is connecting two stories together.

In Mark 16, the young man is probably an angel but the identity of this particular young man isn’t necessarily important in the story. It’s more important that we understand that this young man is standing outside of a grave that is empty, wearing white robes. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

Mark 14: The Young Man in Linen Cloth

The story in Mark 14 describes what happened on the night Jesus was arrested and betrayed.

That night, chaos erupted. Guys were pulling swords, ears got cut off, and all the disciples ran away from the scene.

Then you have this young man who is mentioned — to my knowledge the only streaker in the Bible. Most scholars tell us that this young man was Mark himself, the author of the book of Mark. He was there the night that Jesus was arrested and he ran away, abandoning Jesus like everyone else.

So big detail.

It’s important to understand that in Mark 14-16, Mark is giving us the narrative of Jesus’ death and resurrection but hidden in the text, he is also telling us his story!

Now that we understand that the “young man” is actually Mark himself. What is (or was) he wearing? He’s wearing a linen cloth which he squirms out of as the soldiers are about to seize him.

So if we’re doing our cypher thing, in Mark 16:5 at the empty tomb, Mark wants us to think about the time when a young man was wearing a linen cloth that was taken from him as he ran away naked on the night that Jesus was arrested.

Got it? Ok.

Clue 2: White Robe

The second phrase Mark is going to do the cipher thing with is “white robe.” Again, that phrase “white robe” is only going to be used one other time in the book of Mark. It’s in Mark 9:3 at Jesus’ Transfiguration:

And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. -Mark 16:5

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. -Mark 9:3

Here’s what you’ve got to know about the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration was the time just before the death of Jesus that showed the disciples the glory and majesty Jesus would have after His resurrection. Basically, the Transfiguration was meant to show them what He would look like after He was resurrected from the dead.

So let’s recap so far:

• The young man in Mark 16:5 at the empty tomb is supposed to make us think of the young man who fled naked from the scene of Jesus’ arrest

• The young man is wearing the same clothes Jesus wore when He was glorified at His Transfiguration.

You’re like, I’m not seeing the connection. I know because there’s still one more piece of the puzzle I have to tell you.

Clue 3: Linen Cloth to White Robe

Ok. Last piece of the puzzle.

Check out Mark 15:46. This is after Jesus has died and He is being put into the tomb by Joseph of Aramithea.

And Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. -Mark 15:46:

Question: Who was wearing a linen cloth that was taken from him?

Answer: The young man on the night Jesus was arrested. Probably Mark, the author of the book.

Question: Now who is wearing the linen cloth? It’s the same word by the way.

Answer: Jesus is wearing the linen cloth.

It’s obviously not the same linen cloth but do you see what Mark is telling us here?

How he has connected a string of events with those two words?

Symbolically, the linen cloth that the young man was wearing was placed on Jesus when He went into the tomb and what came out was a young man wearing the same white robes Jesus wore when He was glorified at the Transfiguration.

Do you see the symbolism here? Especially since Mark is telling us his story within the broader story.

Mark is telling us that his linen cloth taken from him on the night Jesus was arrested represented his guilt, his shame, his sorrow, his despair, and his pain. What he is saying is that Jesus died and went into the grave clothed in it. And what came out of the grave at the resurrection represented him, not dressed in his linen cloth of sin, but white robes of glory.

He’s giving us a picture of the Gospel.

In this story within a story, this cypher if you would, Mark is subtly telling us that Jesus took our linen cloth of sin into the grave and we get white robes of glory in the resurrection.

The Gospel: Jesus Takes Our Dirty Laundry and Gives us National Treasure

A young man is wearing a linen cloth stained with guilt and shame.

Jesus took that guilt and shame into the grave with him in the place of the young man.

Through His death and resurrection, Jesus exchanged that guilt and shameful linen cloth for pure and radiant white robes.

The Gospel is that Jesus says, “You bring me your pain, you bring me your despair, you bring me your guilt, you bring me your shame, you bring me your fears and I’ll put all of it on my back. Because I already went into the ground with your linen cloth of sin and what you get to do is walk out of an empty tomb with a white robe of glory.

So let me unpack this a bit practically:

• Here is what the Resurrection of Jesus means: The resurrection means that the salvation Jesus purchased on the cross is paid in full. That it worked. The resurrection is God’s stamp of approval.

• Here is what the Resurrection of Jesus portrayed through the eyes of this young man in the book of Mark practically means for you: The resurrection means that God has the final word on everything broken in your life and will restore it.

Think from a personal perspective what the resurrection of Jesus meant for Mark even. Mark’s darkest hour had been the night he ran away when Jesus was betrayed and then killed the next day. The next few days were probably a time of utter despair and shame.

But then Sunday, the tomb is empty and His sadness turns to joy. His despair is turned into triumph. And he realizes that the whole time, God had a plan. Yes, those were painful days, but there was a Sunday coming that had the final word and reversed it all.

The guilt, shame, and despair that Mark personally experienced on the night of Jesus’ arrest and betrayal did not have the last word because the resurrection of Jesus reversed it all. And what that also means is that the guilt, shame, and despair that you personally experience in your life does not have the final word because the resurrection of Jesus reverses it all.

Because Jesus took the linen cloths of sin into the grave, we get white robes of glory in the resurrection.

That is an adventure worth taking and a treasure worth finding.