It may seem strange to you, this abrupt ending to Mark s gospel. After the stark

Transcription

1 Mark 16:1-8 Uncertain Hope It may seem strange to you, this abrupt ending to Mark s gospel. After the stark and wrenching story of Jesus on the cross and the quick burial, in chapter 15, Jesus doesn t appear again in the gospel. No resurrection appearances. The author is relentless with those brutal images of our Lord s suffering on Friday, and so, we want more from the Easter story, something to affirm and strengthen our fragile spirits after the terror of those hours on Friday afternoon. On Easter morning, where is Jesus, and his words of comfort for the disciples? But all we are given are the women and a man in white, and that last phrase, For they were afraid. What do we make of that? All in all, we are just a bit skeptical and unsure of the whole thing. We expect proof of resurrection, but it s just an empty tomb, and an unknown young man, and the women running away. Nevertheless, we believe, with Christians everywhere, celebrating and worshipping Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord, who we say was raised to life again. Confessing that, even now, he leads us into the new life of his Kingdom, a life of fellowship with all who gather in his name. We profess his resurrection as the ultimate truth of our faith, and as our hope and joy at the unconquerable power that

2 raised Jesus to life after the horror and agony of Good Friday. It is the foundation of our faith, that he was raised up after that evil day. Our scripture does not have Jesus appearing on that first Easter, because we already know who he is, and what he is. We don t need an appearance to know already he is Christ. We don t need to see him on Sunday as Messiah, Lord, King, Son of God, we read that in the very first verse of the gospel; and we have read about the demons proclaiming him Son of God as he cast them out; we have read of his control over nature as he commanded, Be still! and calmed the stormy winds and angry waves; we have read of his power over death as he raised the daughter of Jairus, even as some laughed at him; we have read how the voice came from heaven telling him, You are my beloved Son, I am pleased with you at his baptism in the Jordan River and again at the transfiguration on the mountaintop. We have read about the meaning of Christ, as Jesus told his disciples three times that he must suffer and die, and on the third day, be raised up. We have read the true confession by the centurion at the foot of the cross after Jesus had breathed his last. Truly this man was the Son of God, he said. We celebrate the resurrection today, we rejoice in it. This is the confession of our faith. But in Mark, for all its grim dread, it is on the cross that Good Friday that Jesus is enthroned as Christ and

3 Son of God, and not by the power of his resurrection on Sunday morning. He is King and Lord, God s Son, and Messiah in rejection and betrayal, in forsakenness and suffering and weakness; and not in spiritual power or knowledge, not by positive mind power, or strength of body or personality. In Mark, any appearance by Jesus on Sunday would only detract from the teaching that Jesus is the suffering and despised Christ, that he is Messiah only because he was perfectly obedient to God s will, to the point of humiliation and death. In 2015, is Mark s resurrection story enough for us? Jesus is not here. But then, when was the last time you saw Jesus? Did you come to believe in him because he appeared to you and spoke to you, or because you believed the words and lives of your parents, growing up; or because you ve seen the kindness of your friends, and have come to know their words and works are true? The words of the young man in the empty tomb are still the best news ever, He is not here. He has risen. Let us believe those words even if we have not seen our Lord. This strange tale of Sunday morning is brief and sudden, and Jesus is never shown to us, the miracle is not proven to us. And so it s up to us to decide what we will believe about him and what we will say about him. There is no seeing is believing here, we are not compelled to believe by preponderance of evidence; so, will we? And

4 if we do believe, what will be the content of our faith? For the writer of this gospel, we must believe in the Suffering, the Crucified, the Abandoned One. That is what Christian faith rests upon for Mark. Now, the title of the sermon today may bother you. For an Easter sermon it is an unlikely title, maybe an unlikable one. But this is a different take on the Sunday story, this account by Mark. The thing leaves us hanging; it ends so quickly. But don t be alarmed, the theology is sound. Whatever is not rock-solid, whatever uncertainty that is in the text is not Jesus, but the disciples who ran away that night in the garden when Judas and the temple guard came to take him, and again, the women who flee this Sunday morning. Whatever is uncertain in the title is not God, it is we ourselves: frail humanity, and fearful believers. He is not here- he is going on ahead of us, the young man states. How will we respond? Will we follow or flee? Will we go after him into the work and ministry of God s Kingdom, or will we run the other way because we are afraid? Many, if not most, scholars think the gospel of Mark was written soon after the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., and so Mark fashioned various parts of the writing, and particularly this passage, so that the first readers would be forced to come to terms with their sense of loss, to confront the

5 present uncertainties in their lives, and to bring into focus God s plan in the midst of devastation and upheaval. It is a lesson for us as well, as we face the uncertainties of a world we sometimes don t understand; our own questions and feelings of hurt and loss and sadness; feelings of unbalance and disruption in our lives, as we see around us so much violence and rage, and suffering and injustice; we may be wondering what God is doing, and unsure where he is leading us. So we need to hold more firmly to the sure, solid things we do have- or maybe it s just this one thing- the Sunday morning thing, and the words of the young man that are real to us even today: the message of Easter morning, that abides as the beating heart of hope within us, He is not here, he is risen. And in his words, we find direction for our uncertain lives as we follow the Risen Lord, He goes on ahead of you, as he said he would. Sometimes we may forget that resurrection from the dead is not a natural event; we are so used to hearing the story, and so closely do we hold onto it as our hope. Even though the disciples had been with Jesus every day, and had seen the raising of the little girl, and had heard legends of prophets raising people long ago, and Jesus himself had told them he would be raised after three days, this was

6 completely unexpected. It should surprise any of us. Dead means dead, after all. But to the early church, this day meant great joy, and a new hope where none was anticipated, and they would speak in loud rejoicing to one another these words, Christos anesti! Christ is risen! It is a shout of joy, repeated down through the ages as the church s confession in the face of hurt and war and persecution, and uncertainty. Let it be our happy cry this day, because if he is truly risen, then we have nothing to fear, and have everything to live for.