Mark 16:1-8
Afraid of Resurrection?
Some items to visualize: Resurrection flowers such as lilies, tulips, daffodils; pictures or different artists’ representations of the empty tomb with the stone rolled back. Pastor Jeanne and Bernie sent Yvonne and me a Resurrection celebration card with the depiction of the empty tomb and the stone rolled back on the front [cover]. (Thank you, Pastor Jeanne and Bernie.)
The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
We come to this Resurrection Sabbath with gladness and joy, hope and expectancy. We come to this Sabbath day with just about every positive emotion of which we are capable. We have flowers and great hymns this Sabbath morning. Perhaps we have dressed up in new clothes – an ancient custom, and we had a special breakfast planned and we have dined royally. We are looking forward to time with family and perhaps a few friends. Okay, there are no presents as at Christmas, but I believe that the weather is a whole lot better. It is Resurrection Sabbath – a day bright and joyful, exultant and celebratory.
Everything is going so well today, until we read Mark’s account of that first Resurrection day. It is about as sparse a Resurrection story as there is. There are three women getting up early or perhaps they did not even sleep or go to bed – just stayed up all night, heading off to the cemetery to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. Their biggest concern is that they are going to have serious trouble rolling away the enormous stone blocking the entrance to the tomb. When they arrive, a young fellow garbed in a white robe, sitting there as if he had been expecting them, meets them. What is their reaction? They are alarmed. Not expectant, not hoping against hope, not daring to believe that what Jesus had said might be true. Alarmed.
The young man speaks simply and directly, telling them almost matter-of-factly that Jesus has been raised and is heading off to Galilee where he will rendezvous with the disciples. The women are to tell them what has happened. And what is their reaction? They “fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid” (vs. 8). This is the end of the story. In Mark’s gospel, that first Resurrection ends not with joy and thanksgiving and celebration, but with terror and amazement and silence.
That just doesn’t seem right, does it? Most of us have watched thousands of hours of television where the most complex human problems get nicely wrapped up in 30 or 60 minutes. We are accustomed to tidy endings; we expect them. We do not expect the most astonishing story ever told to end with terrified women running in fear. This is like a movie without a conclusion; it just stops. We wonder if some pages have been torn out of the book.
Beloved in Christ, these women are afraid that everything Jesus said is true. Let me say it again: Beloved in Christ, these women are afraid that everything Jesus said is true. If the only things we can count on are death and taxes, well death just got taken off the list. And that is frightening, because it means that now anything can happen. Up until Resurrection day, life – no matter how bad or good, no matter how meaningful, no matter how blessed or cursed – always ended up in the cemetery. On that we could rely. Death was the great equalizer. One could be rich, famous, accomplished, talented, powerful, envied, and still all roads would lead to the graveyard. At the very least, it was something we could count on. We knew where our bodies were, where to go to grieve and pay our respects. For all our grousing, maybe we liked it that way. At least it was predictable. Maybe we would even like it if Jesus had stayed put. We could remember him fondly. We could sigh about how the good die young. We could mourn the folly of this world, always bent on slaying the good. We could lay flowers at his tomb.
After all, Jesus had some wild ideas. He actually believed peace was possible among people and nations. Jesus actually believed people could be healed and transformed by love. Jesus thought children really mattered and were not merely amusing at their best and annoying most other times. Jesus believed in helping people who would never be able to help him. Jesus thought compassion was a better path than competition. Jesus believed in loving enemies. Jesus did not think possessions were the measure of a life worth living. Jesus believed suffering was not the sign of God’s absence, but a time for deepening relationship with God. Jesus even believed that death was not the final word on human existence. I mean, really. Let us remember him, let us pay homage to him, and let us remember his birthday. Maybe, we may say: business as usual is not so bad. Let us take care of our religious duties towards him and then head back home.
Only Jesus is not there. As usual Jesus has gone ahead of us, calling us yet again to follow. Jesus is calling us to follow him into the living future he is creating, in Galilee and unto the ends of the earth. After Resurrection, everything Jesus taught and did is vindicated. Jesus’ way has been affirmed and exalted by God as the way. Jesus’ way is the way of life God desires, delights in, participates in, and sustains. While that is frightening, it is also what finally overcomes the fear of those three women. At first, the news is overwhelming and disorienting. But in time, it becomes the very essence of life. The resurrection is our confirmation and our calling to continue in the way of Jesus. Yes, we may look back fondly to the very origin of our faith – when did we accept Jesus? We can look for the very reason we are gathered as the church, but we are to go forth, expectant of a future where death has no dominion.
Those three women, the two Marys and Salome, are the ones who had the faithfulness to go do what needed to be done. They were worried about who would roll the stone away. And what they learned is what we learn: God rolls the stones away from our lives. It is God who opens new possibilities where we see only problems and dead ends. It is God who will enable and empower us to live as fully as we are created to live. We can surrender our grip on business as usual as well as all our fears and despair, because there is more to life than death.
Resurrection means we no longer have to be afraid to have God roll back the stones we have carefully placed over certain parts of our lives. Resurrection means we no longer have to be afraid to love as creatively and faithfully as did Jesus. Resurrection means that, though terrible things happen in life, God is always alive and at work to bring new life out of our hurt, loss and grief. Resurrection means we have been set free from the dominion of death. We have been set free to love God, to love one another, to love life, to love the earth, to love even our enemies. Resurrection means God’s love triumphs over death, even though it scares us to think so.
The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Hallelujah! [Chorus: Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord! {2x} Praise ye the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!] Amen!
PRAYER:
By the power of your great love, O God, you have raised Jesus from death to new life. We ask to be joined in his resurrection that we may be freed from all that binds us. Roll away the stones covering our lives that we might serve you with joy. By your Spirit, grant that we may follow the Risen Christ into the future you are ever creating. Make us excited to live by the kingdom you have begun and are bringing to our world in Christ Jesus, in whose glorious name we pray. Amen.
