First Presbyterian Church
Mark's Easter
Sermon for April 16, 2006
by Pastor Susan Barnes

I had this sermon pretty well outlined in my head; I had a theme and a conclusion, and a clever title earlier this week. And then I looked at the text closely, and translated some of it, and realized my plans were wrong, my title had an error in it, and I had to change everything. Don't you just hate it when reading the Bible makes you change? So the title is instead just “Mark's Easter.”

This week we've heard the story of how Jesus held the last supper with his disciples and predicted one disciple would betray him, Peter would deny him, and the rest of his disciples would scatter. That indeed is what happened. Jesus was arrested and crucified. Joseph of Arimathea laid the body in the tomb, while Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched. Listen for the word of God as it is found in the sixteenth chapter of Mark.

1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

3 They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.

6 But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."

8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

This ends our reading of the word of God.

What a strange ending. They didn't know that the young man spoke the truth, that Jesus was raised. But we know that Jesus was raised.

Anthem

There is such joy in celebrating the resurrection, why doesn't that celebration happen at the end of the gospel according to Mark? The abrupt ending is so strange that some later manuscripts have added different endings to Mark.

Most of us grew up with Bibles that had the longer ending of Mark. The longer ending was a mix of how the other three gospels end – with Jesus appearing to the other disciples and teaching them. But the most reliable manuscripts we have stop after verse 8.

Some of you might be surprised to hear that the gospels end differently, but they do. They are different stories about the same events, told and retold by different people to different communities. Eventually the gospels were written down, and the writers of those traditions chose to emphasize different parts of Jesus' life and his death. We can understand more about the gospel of Mark if we stay in the story world that Mark creates.

Throughout Mark's gospel, the disciples misunderstand Jesus, but he stays with them. People are asked not to tell: the leper who was cleansed, the synagogue ruler and his wife, the deaf-mute, the blind person from Bethsaida, and Peter and the disciples at the transfiguration. Most of them talk, and Jesus continues to reach out to the sick, the poor, and the sinners. Finally in the last chapter, people are supposed to tell: Salome and the two Marys. But they don't because they are still afraid.

The literal translation of verse 8 is “And going out, they fled from the tomb, seized for they trembling amazement and to no one nothing they said were continuing to be afraid for.”

What kind of an ending is that?

I had a professor who said this is the kind of ending that invites us into the gospel, to see that we tell the story, even if we are afraid.

The two Marys were supposed to tell Peter and the disciples. Why do you suppose Peter was singled out? It might be Mark's way of publicly declaring Jesus' forgiveness of Peter, even though Peter denied Jesus. But we don't know what happened from Mark's story; we only know from Matthew, Luke, and John.

So what do we do with Mark?

We can celebrate the good news it tells. The resurrection is not a test. We do not need to understand it perfectly or completely in order to be Christians. William Sloane Coffin said that the empty tomb is an expression of faith, not a basis for faith.

I've been reading a book called The Meaning of Jesus: Two visions. In the book, two scholars, one liberal, one conservative, write chapters like “How do we know about Jesus?” and “What did Jesus Do and Teach?” They each come up with very different answers. And they disagree about the important questions to ask. My favorite thing about the book is that they wrote it out of friendship with one another and faith in God. They enjoy their dialogue and their arguments and treat one another with respect.

One wrote “the significance of Jesus' resurrection is not simply that it opens up hope for life after death for individual Christians, but that the new creation has already begun.” 1The other wrote about Easter “Jesus lives and Jesus is Lord…” which doesn't surprise me, but then he says “This story looks to me to be a metaphorical narrative with rich resonances of meaning.” 2Doesn't that just sound like a biblical scholar.

I appreciated reading their loving dialogue with one another. Sometimes we Christians spend too much time complaining about what another believes, rather than living out what we believe.

One pastor wrote “Like the women and Peter, we all come to the proclamation of the resurrection from different places in our lives. Some will hear the word that Christ is risen and be dumfounded. Others will greet the news with eagerness, finding in it immediately a message of healing from grief or [from] self-hate. Many will want to believe, but just not know exactly what to make of this extraordinary message. As a pastor, one of the most frequent concerns that people share with me is their inability to fully comprehend the resurrection, the message that Christ is risen, the message of the empty tomb. My answer to their concern is that we have no evidence that anyone at any time has perfectly understood or accepted the event. Certainly not the disciples.

What is asked for from us as Christians is not perfect understanding, but that we live our lives faithfully in the face of the resurrection event, that we ponder it, struggle with it, interact with it throughout the living of our lives.”

What does living faithfully mean? Practicing loving. Practicing the challenging disciplines of repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation. Practicing praying, practicing sharing. Reading the Bible, listening for what God is telling you, even if it means you have to change. Enjoying God. Following Jesus.

The great prayer of thanksgiving that we pray later in the service rehearses what living faithfully means. The prayer reminds us what God did for us as God's people; our history as Christians, tied in with the history of the Israelites, the Jews, the middle eastern world. It reminds us what God's new creation is about; and while we are remembering that, we are also thanking God for it. We ask God for help in following Jesus, in doing what he did, even if we are confused. It's a long prayer on Easter, because there is a lot for us to remember. I hope you find it a joy to pray.

And this is the part that pastor says that I most appreciate: “The resurrection is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of another story, of many individual stories and of the story of the church. The message of the resurrection meets us where we are, but then it sends us on a journey – it sends us to Galilee, not knowing exactly what we will see there, but knowing as well that if we go, we have been promised that the risen Christ will meet us there.

The story of the resurrection is not the end, but the beginning of our life in faith, of the church's life in the world.” 3

“If we waited until we were absolutely certain Jesus walked out of that tomb, would we ever have Easter? If we waited until our lives were so perfect no one could ever call us hypocrites, would we ever join a church? If we waited until we knew all the answers, we'd never teach a class. If we waited for all our doubts to fade, we'd never share the good news with another.

Easter has nothing to do with certainty or with answers or perfection. Easter is just a gift. We don't have to think it into being or believe it into being.” 4

The women disciples met the good news of Easter with fear and terror. We don't have to meet it that way – we get to hear it with joy. Even in the story world of Mark, we know that the women found courage to tell someone, because we know their story. We know what they did when they saw the empty tomb.

That's where I am pulled into the story. I want to tell the good news. Christ is alive, and we can dare to find hope in the world, even a world where tragedies happen. Evil and death do not get the last word. God does. And if God has the last word, that means that we can have courage and follow Jesus no matter our doubts or our imperfections. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed.

1 Marcus Borg and N. T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus:Two Visions, p. 120.

2Ibid, p. 130, 134.

3 Oettinger, Elizabeth, “Come in Faith; Discover the Christ.” p. 16

4 “Sharing Christ's Glory,” The Disciple, March 1994, p. 35.