Episode 8: "He Is Not Here"

What if the baptism of Jesus in Mark 1 and the crucifixion in Mark 15 are meant to be read as one story?

This week, Pastor Steven walks us through his Good Friday and Easter sermon preparation, tracing the stunning literary and theological connections Mark draws between those two pivotal moments — the torn heavens at the Jordan, the torn curtain at Calvary, and two declarations of "Son of God" separated by the entire arc of Jesus' earthly ministry.

We also spend time with two men who were surprised by the crucifixion: the centurion who had witnessed thousands of deaths and still couldn't explain what he was seeing, and Pilate, shocked that Jesus was already gone. What did they see that everyone else missed?

Then we turn to Easter morning where Mark tells the greatest story ever told in just eight verses. The angel's message is almost startlingly simple: “He is not here.” “He is risen.” But those four words, Pastor Steven argues, are enough to reframe everything — every disappointment, every doubt, every moment of fear or grief.

We close with reflections on why Mark names the women at the tomb — eyewitnesses the first century would have ignored — and what that tells us about the reliability of the resurrection accounts and the dignity God gives to those the world overlooks.