Springwood Presbyterian Church: Whitsett, NC

Mark’s account of the resurrection is unusual—there is no report of the disciples seeing the Risen Christ.  It is also unusual in that the earliest manuscripts end with verse 8.  The remaining verses were added by someone who must have wanted a more satisfactory ending.  We will end where the original text does, and try to make sense of Mark’s message.

Mark 16:1-8                                                                                                 4-12-09

If Not Here, Then Where?

Early on that first Easter morning, as soon as the sun was high enough to light their path, three women laden with spices and oils made their way to the tomb where they had seen Jesus’ body hastily buried.  Aloud, they asked the practical question: Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb?  They weren’t strong enough to move it. 

Those words could be said—others could not, so, silently, their hearts ruminated on things they couldn’t yet voice:  “He showed us the Father … but now he’s dead.  He loved us … but now he’s dead.  He gave us hope the world could be different … but now he’s dead.   He gave us so much, and all we did was watch from a distance as they murdered him.  All we can do now is give him a good burial—anoint his broken body with sweet spices and our tears.  Then, it’s back to life as it was before he came—to life, such as it is—and to death.”

The stranger who awaited them seemed to read their minds: You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  Yes, they were.  They were seeking a last look—a last touch—a last goodbye—something to hold onto in their despair, for they were confused about the past—bewildered about the present—scared of the future.

No wonder they were terrified—no wonder they didn’t tell anyone else what they saw.  The kind of world they and the other disciples had come to count on died when Jesus died.  Now it was turned upside down.  Were they in danger, too, for being his friends?  What about his body, missing?  He’s raised from death—how could that be?  And what did that mean for their lives now?

Isn’t that why we are here today--looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified?  Bringing our own baggage from the past--unsatisfied with our lives in the present—uncertain about what the future will bring us?  What does his resurrection mean for our lives now?

Mark’s gospel ends with a resurrection, but no body: a mystery of faith that struck the three women mute, and that leaves us, too, unsatisfied, waiting for a conclusion we can live with—one that gives us hope, and reason to follow as Jesus the Christ led.

Despite the women’s failure to deliver the message, somehow the word spread that this Jesus had been raised from death.  Did the women finally come out of their shock and speak?  Did they finally hear in their inner being the words of the young man at the tomb?  Listen to those three messages of hope: one about the past—one about the present—one about the future.

First, about the past: He has been raised.  In his commentary on Mark’s gospel, Lamar Williamson poses a riddle: “When is an ending not the end?”  He answers his own question: “When a dead man rises from the tomb.” (p.283)  Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of him, nor of his work.  Sin and death don’t have the last word.  God has the final word: that word is the Word in Flesh, the Word of life, sent not to condemn the world, but to save it.  Christ’s resurrection proves God’s sovereign, invincible power.  Even more important, it shows us God’s overwhelming love for us.  And that gives new meaning to our lives in the present. 

The second message is about the present: He is not here.  Not here?  Then where?  People make pilgrimages to the tombs of revered leaders—Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr.; to the tombs of poets and artists—Michaelangelo, Henry David Thoreau, Jimmy Hendrix, Elvis; to the sites of tragic deaths—the Murrow Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Ground Zero where the World Trade Center stood—to the graves of those we love, as we went this morning to the church cemetery in our sunrise service.  We go to remember the people memorialized there—to be inspired by their character. 

But Jesus’ tomb was empty.  We can’t go to any place to look for him.  …  And that’s a blessing, for this way, we can expect Jesus’ presence anywhere and everywhere, anytime and at all times.  To see him, all we have to do is to look beyond ourselves to where his work is being carried on.  He is still alive, still active, still working for us, still calling us to work with him.  His ministry continues in the present and on into the future, through us, in whom he invests his power and to whom he entrusts his mission.  This was not the end.  God isn’t finished with us, or with the world.  

And the third message is for the future: He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.  This is both good news and bad news.  The good news is being able to see him again.  The bad news is … going to Galilee.  Galilee, after all, is back home, right back where the disciples started.  Not very exciting.  Not much progress, either, it may have seemed.  Worse, it’s hard, isn’t it? to be a changed, new person to those who know you best.  Jesus calls us to be faithful in a radical new future—but not necessarily in a radical new place.  For most of us, most of the time, the good news of Easter will be lived out at home and at work.  And that may take more courage than going way far away, because as daunting as it can be to talk about your faith in Christ to strangers, try telling it (and acting it) to your oldest, dearest, and most skeptical friends and relations!

Especially when the message of Easter is not only about new life after death—but that it’s also about new life before death—about living as new creations in this very real tangible beautiful troubled and troublesome world in which we live.  Resurrection isn’t an escape from life—it’s an invitation to invest this life with holiness and with zest.  Resurrection makes every new day a new chance at Christ’s way of life.

Tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.  In that short sentence is the promise of a second chance.  The disciples--Peter in particular--failed Jesus grievously, as did the women that resurrection morning who didn’t carry the news back.  But so do we, daily.  We don’t share the good news with people who desperately need it.  We don’t hold tight to Christ, and follow at his heels, trying to live and serve as he did.  Yet time and again, he offers forgiveness and a new start to those who will follow him.  Our failures are never a barrier to him—only to us, if we refuse to take his hand and his forgiveness.

He has gone ahead of us.  Everything we could possibly suffer, he has already suffered.  Whatever difficulties lie ahead of us, he has met long before we do.  He was homeless, friendless at times, betrayed, persecuted, murdered—can it be worse for us?  And God raised him up—and will raise us.

So go—tell the good news in the Galilee of your own home, your own workplace, your own community: trusting that Christ has gone ahead of you, to those places where you live and work and play.  That’s where you’ll find him.  There, with the Risen Christ beside you, turn dead places into living places—dead dreams into living dreams—dead love into living love.  Because of Easter, we can.  Thanks be to God.