Entering
into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed.
Mark 16:5
Mark 16 [1.] When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” for it was very big. Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back.
Mark 16 [5.] Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed. He said to them, “Don’t be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him! But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you.’”
Mark 16 [8.] They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid. Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. When they heard that he was alive, and had been seen by her, they disbelieved. After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country. They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t believe them, either.
Meaning:
The women had come at sunrise, worried about who would roll away the great stone, and found it already rolled back (Mark 16:4). This verse takes them inside. Instead of the body they came to anoint (Mark 16:1), they meet a heavenly messenger.
- “Entering into the tomb”
Tombs cut into the rock around Jerusalem often had a low doorway leading into a small chamber, with a shelf or bench where the body was laid. The women could walk in and see the place for themselves. It took courage to step into a burial chamber at dawn, but their love for Jesus carried them through the doorway.
Mark stresses what they saw. The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out; it was rolled away so that witnesses could go in and see that the tomb was empty. The messenger will soon invite them to look: “Behold, the place where they laid him!” (Mark 16:6).
- “they saw a young man sitting on the right side”
Mark calls him “a young man”, describing what the women saw. Matthew makes clear who he was: “an angel of the Lord descended from the sky, and came and rolled away the stone from the door, and sat on it” (Matthew 28:2). Angels in Scripture often appear in human form, and the people who meet them do not always recognise them at first.
He is “sitting”, calm and at rest, as one whose work is done and who has been waiting for them. The detail “on the right side” is the kind of small point an eyewitness remembers. It may also hint at honour and good news, since the right side is often the side of favour in Scripture. Earlier in Mark another “young man” appears, who fled naked from Gethsemane leaving his linen cloth behind (Mark 14:51-52). That young man ran away in shame; this one sits in glory where the linen-wrapped body had lain.
- “dressed in a white robe”
White clothing marks heavenly glory and purity. At the Transfiguration Jesus’ clothing “became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow” (Mark 9:3). Daniel saw the Ancient of Days, whose “clothing was white as snow” (Daniel 7:9). At the ascension, “two men stood by them in white clothing” (Acts 1:10). The robe tells the women that this is no gardener or grave robber, but a messenger from God.
- “and they were amazed”
The word Mark uses describes deep alarm, a mixture of shock and awe. It is a natural response when the heavenly world breaks into ordinary life. Mark often records such reactions: after the storm was stilled the disciples “were greatly afraid” (Mark 4:41), and at the Transfiguration Peter “didn’t know what to say, for they were very afraid” (Mark 9:6).
The messenger’s first words answer this amazement directly: “Don’t be amazed” (Mark 16:6). God does not leave people in terror; he sends a word that explains what he has done.
The Significance of Mark 16:5
- The empty tomb is a place of revelation
The women came to a place of death and found a messenger of life. God often meets us exactly where we expect only loss, and turns it into a place where he speaks.
- God explains his works
The empty tomb on its own could have been misunderstood, as the later rumour of a stolen body shows (Matthew 28:11-15). God sent a messenger to interpret it. In the same way he gives us his word so that we can understand what he has done in Christ.
- Awe is the right response to God
The women’s amazement was not unbelief but a true sense of the holy. Reverence and awe belong to faith, but God means them to lead on to trust, not to stay as fear.
Cross-References:
Matthew 28:3: "His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow." Matthew’s description of the same messenger.
Mark 9:3: "His clothing became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them." Heavenly glory at the Transfiguration.
Acts 1:10: "While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing," Messengers in white at the ascension.
Mark 16:6: "Don’t be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen." The message the young man brought.
Conclusion: When the women entered the tomb, they did not find Jesus’ body but a young man in a white robe, sitting calmly on the right side, and they were deeply amazed. Matthew identifies him as an angel of the Lord, and his white robe shows that he came from God’s presence. He was there to explain the empty tomb and to turn the women’s alarm into understanding. This verse reminds us that God meets us in our places of grief and fear, and speaks a word that leads from amazement to faith.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible