Rather than focus on the busyness of church, we are called to focus on the business of the empty tomb by embracing the knowledge that Light and Love overcame the darkness, that God is still working, still writing the story of love and grace that transforms us into the people God created us to be.
March 31, 2024
God is Doing Something Amazing! Are You UP For It?
“Look Up”
Mark 16: 1-8
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Mark 16: 1-8
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. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 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. 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.” 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.
Look Up Mark 16: 1-8
You may have noticed that I read this year’s Easter story from Mark’s Gospel which is not our usual Easter story. Sure some of the details are the same. There’s women going to the tomb early in the morning. They find the stone rolled away. They discover the tomb is empty. These are part of the Easter story. They don’t and won’t change. What changes year to year is how much detail we actually get in the telling of the Easter story.
What I mean by this is that all the Gospels have some version of the Easter story. Some with more detail than others, but let’s be honest, we all have our favorite. We like the version which tells us Mary Magdalene comes to the garden alone; sees Jesus but mistakes him for the gardener until he calls her by name, then joyfully she shouts Master!
We are partial to this version of the Easter story because it gives us so many details. It tells us exactly what happened on that first Easter morning, right down to where the linen cloths were lying in the empty tomb. It shares everything with us about that first Easter morning. It leaves nothing out. This version makes us feel like we are there, standing beside Mary Magdalene, wondering and worrying until Jesus calls our names. John’s description fills in all the blanks for us as people of faith about that first Easter morning.
Not Mark’s version though. Compared to John’s descriptive twenty verses, Mark gives us eight. Eight verses to describe Easter morning. All we get from Mark is on the first Easter morning, there were some women. They worried about how they were going to roll the stone away. They got there. The stone was gone. There was a guy all dressed in white. And if this description of the first Easter morning wasn’t bad enough, Mark ends his story with, “The women fled the tomb in fear, and told no one what they saw.” The women fled the tomb in fear and told no one what they saw!
Now as you can imagine, the early church really wasn’t comfortable with Mark’s ending of the Easter story. It decided to add just a few more details, to help explain just exactly how the Good News was spread, to help explain how the people of God came to experience the Risen Christ, But even with these two, awkward endings, the story leaves us wanting more, leaves us wondering what’s next.
Now before we totally give up on Mark’s version of this story and before we totally get angry at the preacher for not giving us the “real” Easter story this morning, let’s think about this for a moment. Let’s give Mark a little credit for not being the worst writer ever. After all, he did write down the first Gospel shared with communities of faith after Jesus’ death. After all, Mark’s version of the Gospel message did influence the other Gospels,
Which brings us to ask… What if Mark’s story really was supposed to end in fear and in silence? What if Mark’s story of Easter morning really was supposed to end in confusion? What if Mark’s story of that first Easter morning really was supposed to end with us wondering what happens next?
Because as a people of faith, this seems to be more in line with our experiences of faith anyway. Along our faith journeys, we have learned that faith is not about having clear cut responses. Rather it is about being present in the confusion and silence. We have also learned that life can be difficult, filled with unexpected turns and ups and downs. As people of faith, we have even learned that faith doesn’t always have all the answers to our questions.
Maybe that’s why Mark ended his Easter story this way. He knew that the resurrection experience wasn’t a one size fits all type of experience, that each of us experience God’s grace and God’s love differently in our lives. Mark also knew that there was no way the resurrection experience would fit and fulfill all our expectations, especially when Jesus never really did these things during his time here on earth. If we remember, during Jesus’ ministry, he was always defying our expectations. He was always surprising us through his words and his actions. In all of Jesus’ ministry, he never did what we thought he should do and be. So, why are we surprised that even in death, Jesus continued to defy our expectations?
For Mark, all that really matters is that there is an empty tomb. Mark knew that Jesus had better things to do than wait around. Mark knew that Jesus had better things to do than wait for his followers to discover that he was actually telling the truth all along. Mark knew that Jesus had better things to do than sit around and answer all our questions of how, when, where, and why which surround the resurrection experience. Mark knew that what really mattered to us and for us as Jesus’ disciples is that Jesus had new life to share with all of God’s creation.
You see, for Mark, for us as Jesus’ disciples, the resurrection is not the ending to the story. It is actually just the beginning. It is up to us to decide just exactly what happens next. Jesus is on the move. He is waiting for us to catch up! Jesus is waiting for us to remove our blinders and see, actually see the Beloved Community in our midst. Jesus is waiting for us to look up from hanging our heads in sorrow and choose hope. Jesus is waiting for us to change the narrative and in doing so, change the world. Through this seemingly simple story, Mark is reminding us as Jesus’ disciples, that it is up to us as people of faith, as disciples of Christ, as ones who have experienced the power of life over darkness, it is up to us to decide how the story will continue.
So the question Mark is challenging us to answer today and all day is this…as Jesus’ followers, Do we really want to sit around, wondering about the why’s and how’s of the resurrection or do we want to leave this place, celebrating, rejoicing, knowing that it happened?
Or let me say it this way…do we really want to focus on the busyness of church or do we want to focus on the business of the empty tomb….embracing the invitation to know that Light and Love overcame the darkness, to know that God is still working, still writing the story of love and grace that transforms us into the people God created us to be, to know that we are called to be up to something good in our community and in our world?
Because if we hear nothing else on this Easter morning, please hear this…The empty tomb is not the conclusion to our story. Rather it is just the beginning. As people of faith, our story, the story of the empty tomb, constantly tells us, calls us, invites us to live our lives as the people God created us to be. It is a story which invites us to tell through our word and our actions, that God is still at work in our world, bringing healing and wholeness to all of God’s people. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
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