The Resurrection of our Lord, April 12, 2009 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Today we come before you, Oh God, with hymns of praise as we celebrate your victory over sin and death, accomplished for us though the death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus the Christ. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to realize the significance of our Lord’s resurrection to our faith and daily lives, and to know his immeasurable gift of forgiving and redeeming love. This we ask in the name of our risen Lord. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson from Mark is, I must admit, not one of my favorite Easter texts. Perhaps that is why for the past 4 times that the original ending of Mark’s Gospel has surfaced to be read on Easter morning, I have chosen the alternate Gospel text from John’s Gospel. After all, don’t we want to come to worship on Easter morning, and hear from the Gospel that at least one of the disciples actually saw the risen Christ? But, having ignored this text for twelve or so years, I believe its time to visit it.
According to Mark, three faithful women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, who were there at the cross to see Jesus die, went and bought spices to anoint his body, which had been hastily buried. We can assume from this detail, that these three women truly loved Jesus, in spite of the fact that he had been executed as a criminal.
Early Sunday morning, these three women set out to the tomb in which Jesus’ body had been lain. They made this journey, not just to give Jesus a proper burial, but to assuage their grief. And as many of us know, grief has a way of causing us not to think too clearly, to ignore the practical situations of life. Thus, in the midst of their journey, it dawns on them that they were not able to roll away the stone that sealed the entrance to the tomb, to gain access to Jesus’ body.
But they kept on with their journey, and when they could see the tomb, they were surprised that the stone had already been moved. And when they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, just sitting there, and they were alarmed. Who among us wouldn’t be frightened to death on encountering such a situation? Even if the man did say, “Don’t be alarmed,” it would take a while for the adrenaline to return to normal levels.
But their shock did not end with the mysterious young man’s admonition to be calm. He also told these grieving women that the body of Jesus that they came to anoint was not there, that he had risen from the dead, and that they should go and tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where Jesus would meet them.
But instead of jumping up and down with joy, instead of singing joyous hymns of praise to God, as we do this morning, Mark tells us that these women left the empty tomb, being seized by terror and amazement, and said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. And with these words, many scholars believe, the original Gospel of Mark ends.
So what are we to make of this text. First, I believe that we can assume that the women who went to the tomb early that first Easter morning, came in grief, but left in fear. Such an experience would be enough to unnerve the calmest among us. When a person whom you had seen die, is buried, and you go to the tomb, you expect that the remains of that person would still be there. We would not expect to see the grave open, and a strange person dressed in a white robe tell us that our departed loved one had risen from the dead. That sort of thing just does not happen.
Of course, eventually, these three women had to have overcome their fear, and begin to share what they had experienced with others, or the Church of Christ would never have been formed. I believe that anytime we experience something out of the ordinary, it takes time for us to process it, but eventually, we need to share it. And what these women experienced that day, had to be a totally unworldly experience.
But it was, according to Mark, not just fear that these women experience, but also terror and amazement. These words, I believe, really grasp the heart of the situation that confronted the women, and us. Think with me for a moment, about the significance of what the young man in the white robe proclaimed to the women. “You are looking for the crucified and dead body of Jesus. He is not here. He has risen from the dead and will meet you and the disciples in Galilee.”
Clearly there would be amazement that God had intervened, and raised his Son from the dead. And in so doing, it would have vindicated Jesus, not only to be his incarnate Son, the promised Messiah, but it would have given credence to all that he said and did. Clearly, the resurrection of Jesus attests to the fact that at the very least, his ministry found favor with God.
And where does this leave the disciples? Could it be that the terror the women felt that day, was the thought of meeting the risen Christ? After all, think of Peter, whom Jesus referred to as the rock of faith, meeting Jesus risen from the tomb, and having to explain to him why he denied even knowing him, three times during Jesus’ passion. That would be a terrifying experience.
Or think of all the other ways that the disciples failed to trust Jesus. All through his ministry, the disciples seemed not to grasp what Jesus was trying to do. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and two of his disciples were plotting to secure the top two positions in Jesus’ kingdom, to sit at his left and at his right. The Pharisees, the Scribes, the Priests, all of the religious leaders of that day, turned their backs to him, even deriding him as a heretic. And all of his disciples, perhaps with the exception of John, deserted him in his hour of trial.
Those women who left the empty tomb that day, according to Mark’s Gospel, left seized with terror and amazement. And when I think about my own life, and the times that I have not been a true witness to my faith in Christ, times that I have deserted him, I can understand the terror, as well as the amazement, that these women experienced.
But this brings me back to the teachings of our Lord, to view them with more seriousness. I think of the parable that we refer to as “The Prodigal Son,” but, as my professor of New Testament in seminary said, it really should be referred to as “The Parable of the Loving Father.” We all know the story. The son begs his father for his share of his inheritance, and then goes off to a distant country and squanders it away in sinful living. But when he returns, his father forgives him and welcomes him home.
That is the message that Jesus proclaimed throughout his ministry. That is the reason that Jesus went to the cross, to take upon himself the sins of the world, to become our paschal lamb, that we might truly know the grace of God’s redeeming love.
Yes, it is a terrifying thought to face the risen Christ, when we will all eventually meet him as one of his disciples. But because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we can not avoid meeting him. Yet, at the same time, as humbling and terrifying as this encounter might seem to us, we can trust in our Lord’s promise of forgiving and redeeming grace. May God’s Spirit so give us the courage and will to live in “fear and love of God” as Luther often phrased his teachings, that we might truly live in the hope of the resurrection. For in Jesus the crucified and risen Son of God, God has atoned for our sins, and offers us life eternal in God’s heavenly kingdom.
But let us not take the grace of God lightly. For I believe this is the message that Mark’s Gospel gives us, describing the women’s reaction in terms of “terror and amazement and fear.” These are certainly terms that our current world seems not to understand, in relationship to God. For I continue to be saddened by the increase in violence that seems to spread across our nation.
And perhaps the decline in Christian values, which stand opposed to this maddening trend in our culture, can be attributed to the attitude that those women at the tomb first experienced – a fear that numbed them into silence. But today, we don’t need to be silent. In fact, I believe that our world is dying to hear this message of Easter, that God raised Jesus from the dead, and in so doing, offers forgiveness and hope to all that come to faith in him.
So, through the power of God’s Spirit, let us come to live our lives as one of Christ’s risen disciples, overcome our fear, and proclaim the message that regardless of how terrified we might be, God will see us through our fears and lead us to a new life in his kingdom.
Amen.
