I.
If you were telling someone the
story of Easter, I doubt that you would tell it the way mark
tells it! Mark might be the easiest to learn because it is
the shortest –only 8 verses, but it is also the most
puzzling of the four gospels.
A.We come to
the Resurrection with great expectations, and Mark leaves us
unsatisfied.
1.In Mark’s
Transfiguration narrative Jesus commands the disciples to
hold their silence “‘until after the Son of Man should have
risen from the dead.’”
a.But we read of
nothing in Mark which disturbs this dead silence.
2.The faithful
women who have followed their master into Jerusalem, to the
cross, to his burial, have risen around 4:00 in the morning
to go out to his tomb to complete the consecration of his
body. Tension is in the air, there is a worried
anticipation, incredible hope that they will not be stopped
at the blockaded tomb.
3.In Mark,
Easter is a sudden start, an abrupt ending!
4.Is it
incomplete, is the text interrupted or corrupted?
5.James Borg and
John Dominic Crossan, in “The Last Week” of Jesus, along
with other scholars, warn us that this depends on what
Easter is for you.
a.“Easter is
utterly central. But what was it? What are the Easter
stories about? On one level, the answer is obvious: God
raised Jesus. Yes. And what does this mean? Is it about the
most spectacular miracle there’s ever been? Is it about the
promise of an afterlife? Is it about God proving that Jesus
was indeed his Son?”
b.“So central is
the factuality of the Easter stories for many
Christians that, if it didn’t happen this way, the
foundation and truth of Christianity disappears. To
underline this claim, a verse from Paul is often quoted:
‘“If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has
been in vain and your faith has been in vain’”
c.And among all
people we are to be pitied most.
B.The earliest
Greek text of the last chapter in Mark has 8 verses.
1.There are three
movements here:
a.the women come
to the tomb,
b.a young man, a
messenger, inside the tomb asks them a question and passes
on a
message
c.The terrorized
women flee; they say nothing to anyone.
2.The important
message from the young man, or angel is,
a.“Why are you
looking for the living in the place of the dead? He is
risen, he is not here.’”
b.At the same
time it is a commission and a promise:
(1)the
commission: “‘go and tell the disciples and Peter that
he is going before you to Galilee...
(2)and the
promise: “‘there you will see him as he told you.’”
2. The Koine Greek text in this
last verse stops with an adverb “f-o-r” ...it stands alone.
Where is the rest of the sentence?
C.How can we
celebrate Easter with no appearance of the Christ to his
followers in Galilee where he began his ministry.
1.There he called
his first disciples as he walked by the Sea and saw Simon
Peter and Andrew casting a net into the sea?
2.Mark is the
only writer who mentions Galilee in his Easter story.
3.How do we find
completion in the earthly story of Jesus? [pause]
4. According to Dr. Lamar Williamson Jr., Professor
Emeritus at the former Presbyterian School of Christian
Education in Richmond, Virginia, the final verse, “falls
like a bomb on our carefully nurtured expectations that the
women will always faithfully do what needs to be done and
that the predictions of Jesus will always find fulfillment
in the story.”
D.So what do
many of us do when we find an incomplete or interrupted
story? ...
1.We fix it. We
make our own ending to fit...
a.Something like,
they lived happily ever after....they rode off into the
sunset together...!
b.We borrow other
endings and make it all one story, from Matthew, or Luke, or
John.
2.The early
church was no different. Did you know that by the end of the
second century A.D., two different endings had been
added to Mark?
a.One ending had
a single verse.
b.The
ending that stuck are the 11
verses we see in most Bibles, verses 9-20, which combine
elements from the other gospels,
c.Why?– because
many believers simply cannot accept Easter without some
proven facts!
d.faith that is a
proven fact is not really faith, is it?
II.One
truth which stands out in the brevity of Mark is
the emptiness of the grave.
A.Here is Larmar
Williamson again, “In this emptiness is expressed the
futility of every effort to possess the Nazarene, the
frustration of every quest of the historical Jesus.”
1.None of the
four Gospels rely on observable facts; the truth is that
no one saw the resurrection. The gospels each rely on
accepting the proclaimed truth, “‘He
is not here; he is risen.’”
a.They do not
tell us how Jesus was raised from the dead, only that he was
raised and he is alive!
b.So do not look
for the living among the dead.
2.I remember the
second day of my bicycle trip around Northern Ireland 20
years ago (September, 1999). I was in Armagh on a
Sunday afternoon, the historic headquarters of the Roman
Catholic Church in “Ulster,” or the North. I had just
arrived in the home of some good Catholic friends, Eugene
and Laila Trainor, having biked 57 miles from the south.
Eugene told me t this particular Sunday evening in September
was one of the most sacred events for him, The Blessing of
the Family Graves, particularly his mother’s plot. They had
spent several days cleaning up around the cemetery site. So
I went with the family to the historic cemetery at Tynan.
To Eugene’s amazement, I even knew part of the liturgy which
is not that different from our communion liturgy. And I
enjoyed being introduced to the priest afterwards.
a.Father
Donald Sweeney used this text from
Mark 16: “why do you seek the living among the dead? He is
not here; he is risen.” (page 2)
b.Father Sweeney
said, “Do not look for your relatives in the cemetery; look
for them in Jesus Christ, who is alive. They are no further
away than God, and God is very near to you.” (page 2)
3.How often do we
try to possess Jesus, to capture him, to imprison him in the
past, or to “prove” him through the relics of the
past. Maybe these are relics from our own church’s
past, the faith of the strong people who built this church
rather than our own courage and strength.
a.That is not
faith–it is superstition, and the real blasphemy!
4.It is
disobedience--ignoring the commission and the call which
lies beyond, unfulfilled.
B.No ending of
yours or mine will ever be able to contain or explain Jesus.
1.That is one
reason I am compelled to do research in books about Jesus
which do not agree with where I am in my faith, which
challenge me to stretch, to grow
a.even in fear
and trembling,
b.even if there
are large boulders in the way, and I wonder who will help me
roll these stones aside.
2.There is no
closure to faith, only openness.
a.Those of you
who seek closure, finality, never-changing truth in your
religion are doomed to failure, to emptiness like the cave
that held Jesus’ body.
b.You will never
discover closure.
c.It is as
hopeless as the quest for the holy grail.
3.In “Shadow
Divers,” author Robert Kurson tells a
fascinating, gripping adventure about a team of deep-water
sub-divers who in 1991 found an unidentified German
U-boat sunk 65 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Over
the next 8 years that team spent tens of thousands of
dollars. Several members sacrificed their lives and their
marriages trying to solve the mystery of the U-boat and
bring this to a conclusion. Inside the twisted metal
wreckage of the submarine, 230 feet below the surface, the
only clue was a knife with the name Horenburg etched
on its handle. Several of the sub divers refused to give up,
John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. Finally they identified
the U-boat as U-869, which was supposed to be have been sunk
in waters off Gibralter. Author Robert Kurson tells how
these men made trips to Germany and England and studied the
lives of the families of the crew of U-Boat 869. The
submarine’s story came alive for them. They learned of
crew-member, Martin Horenburg, the sub’s “Funkmeister.”
Richie Kohler did not find personal closure and peace until
he located Horenburg’s closest living relative, a sister in
Maryland and all her life had adored her baby brother whom
she had never known. Kohler chartered a boat and took the
sister out to the site of the wreckage, and held a memorial
for Martin Horenburg aboard his boat. [pause]
III.
The ball is in our court.
What will we do with Mark’s Easter? Will we be as
tenacious as John Chatterton and Richie Kohler and their
team of divers in discovering the truth of Easter? Is the
truth locked up in the lives of the people whose stories
impact ours, stories of a long faith journey? Or is it
unlocked?
A.Borg
and Crossan suggest we come at Easter as if it is a
parable from the Bible,
(page 3)
1.In a parable
truth does not rest on proving facts, but aclaim
which hits you deep within your soul, that which gives
impetus and energy to everything about you that is alive.
2.The parables of
Jesus were based on actual stories, we do not have the
details, but they are still true and authoritative for us
today.
3.Well, then what
are these parabolic truths?
a)that Jesus was
dead and sealed in a tomb but He is alive today!
b)God has raised
him from the dead and vindicated him as Lord!
B.All
his promises in the Gospels’ collective stories have come
true in his Resurrection, “just
as he told you.”
1.Christ’s
commission and promise in Mark 16 remain before
each of us. Can we be any different from the women?
2.Someone had to
have told the story; the women had to have recovered from
their paralyzing fear and remembered what they were sent to
do,
a)that they told
the disciples, especially Peter, who was singled out because
of his total failure.
3.And finally,
that the kingdom has started, it exists within our midst,
and we are to embrace Jesus’ cross, his passion as our own.
4.The answers to
our Easter quest lie not locked in an empty sepulchre, not
in the past, but in the future, where Jesus already is,
where he is pulling us, tugging on our faith, inviting us to
venture dangerously like a death-defying dive into frigid,
turbulent waters 230 feet deep, 65 miles from the safe
shoreline.
a)Only in this
way will you and I discover what is behind the mystery, the
glory and the eternal claim. of Easter.
5.There is a
story I have loved for years....
Bertel Thorvaldsen
was a famous sculptor who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark,
back in 1770. One of his most famous statues was that of “the
Resurrected Christ,” probably sculpted several years
before he died in 1844. This statue was created for the
Lutheran Cathedral of Our Lady in Copenhagen. A copy of it
stands in a church in Berlin, Germany. One author visited
Berlin immediately after World War II; he went into a church
bombed by the British.
In his own words Gaston Foote
in1955 wrote (“Transformation of the Twelve”) “The nave of
the church was completely ruined. But the chancel and one or
two of the statues at the font were intact. Inoticed one
statue, that of Thorvaldsen’s “Christ,” which had remained
upon its pedastal but with the extended arms broken off. It
seemed pitiful to look into the handsome, pleading face of
Christ, chiseled in marble, and note that he had no arms to
reach out to bless people. Then the thought struck me that
is a more accurate portrayal of Christ than I had imagined.
For the only hands he has to bless the world are our hands.
The only feet he has to go into all the world are our feet.
The only voice he has to speak ... is our voice.” (P, Etc.
August, 1983)
The future of the kingdom
of God largely depends upon ...ordinary people
like us, who will bring
those about us to Christ. God has no other plan.’”
5. Borg and Crossan
conclude
a. To respond to the question, “Do you accept
Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? ... involves a
deep centering in God that includes radical trust... the
same trust that we see in Jesus. It produces
freedom...compassion– ...a passion for compassion, justice,
and non- violence..” as well as “the greatest of the
spiritual gifts...love and courage.”