Easter 2012 - He Is Risen! And the Story Continues!

Easter Sunday, 2012

16When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” ⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶But 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. ⁷But 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.” ⁸So 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.

                He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!  Today makes the day of new life for all people, for our God was dead, and laid in the tomb, and now he lives again!  For nothing is able to hold back God and His power is above all things, even the bonds of Sin and Death.

            One would think that with all this energy and joy, that the story of His resurrection would be more marvelous.  Instead we have Mary and Mary and Salome coming to the empty tomb, meeting a young man dressed in white, who in the story of Mark is most likely not an angel but rather that naked guy in Gethsemane that we heard about in the Passion readings last week, and after being told that Jesus is raised, the women run away.  No body is seen, no mystical beings, no nothing, just some scared women and a guy hanging out in a tomb.  And the women shouldn’t have even been there, since they had been told repeatedly that Jesus was going to be raised and to meet him in Galilee, but no instead they decide to go and prepare his already buried body for burial.  They are even wondering how they will even get to see the body, since there is a huge stone blocking the doorway, so it doesn’t make much sense that they are going without some help, but still they are doing what they think is best and are trying to show love to Jesus, for which should be applauded.  And then they run away from the tomb, telling nothing to anyone. 

            Of course, there have been efforts to change the ending to Mark throughout time, since it can be a bit unsettling.  When you go home, take a look at your Bibles and you will see that there are various endings to the book of Mark and today’s reading is the short ending, the one that is the most reliable.  But even in ancient days they were bewildered with this ending, especially since if the women didn’t tell anyone about what happened, how did it get written about?  Also, they didn’t like how it ended.  Our English Translation cleans it up a bit with “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”  That’s pretty clear and understandable.  But in the Greek it’s “They said nothing to anyone, they were afraid for……”  That’s it, there is no reason given for their fear.  One could imagine they were afraid of zombies, as if Jesus was going to appear around the corner mumbling about brains, but they had been there when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter and they had heard him say numerous times that He was going to raise again after three days, so it should have been no surprise and certainly no fears of a zombie Jesus.  But yet they were afraid, because they had seen the amazing power of God.  It is one thing when Jesus goes around healing the sick and raising the dead, because one can see the power of God moving through someone else.  It is quite another when a person is raised or a miracle happens purely power the power of God, without anyone in between.  It can be even scarier when God tries to act through us as well, and that is what He is doing with the women who came to the tomb.

            God is acting through them to share his message of love and compassion, God is using them to be His mouthpiece, and they become afraid.  They are not alone.  Moses famously refused to do the talking when God asked him too, even after God promised to fill his mouth with words, to the point that Moses’ brother Aaron had to be the one to talk to Pharaoh and to the people, because Moses was afraid.  It can be scary to do the work of God, because often times God asks us to do things that we don’t feel have the strength to do or that might put at odds with our friends and our friends and out society.  Following Christ is not easy, in fact it can be downright frightening, but still we are called to follow and we pray for the strength required to do all that God asks of us. We pray for the strength to open our hearts to the needy, instead of closing them off due to our love of money and wealthy.  We pray for the strength to speak of God’s wonderful mercy and compassion, instead of closing it off out of fear of rejection and mockery.  We pray for the strength to serve others, instead of focusing on our own self indulgences.  We pray for the strength to forgive our enemies and to forget our grudges, instead of being filled with spite and burdened with ill will.  And we pray for the strength to accept God’s forgiveness freely, instead of trying to earn it and declaring ourselves worthy.

            And God gives it to us, He gives it all to us freely out of love for us, for God desires to care for all of His children and to empower all of us to do His will, in ways that we may have never imagined before.  Just as the women who went and saw the tomb were empowered, past their fears, to go and tell people about the wonder that God had done, in raising our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the dead, as they must have since we have the story, so are we empowered to proclaim to people how God has been active in our lives, how God has calmed our fears, given us strength, and lent us comfort.  We Lutherans are notoriously bad at sharing our faith and our relationship with God with other people.  We are much like the women, running as far as we can from our responsibility to share God’s love and mercy with others, instead focusing on our fears first.  What if people don’t want to hear what I have to say?  What if people make fun of me and call me a “Jesus Freak?”  We have a tendency to act ashamed of our faith, as if God is some bad word to utter in public.  But it’s not, and there are people hungering to hear not only He is Risen, but that We shall be Risen as well!  That is one of the greatest comforts that God gives.  We have already died to Sin in our baptisms, so when we die we are not permanently gone, but instead we are cared for by our loving God and that when he comes again we shall also be raised and be a part of the resurrection that Christ has experienced. 

            You see, the story did not end that Easter morning with the resurrection of Christ and the women running away.  It has continued all these years, through the centuries into today. We are all part of the story told to us in the scriptures.  The Spirit still moves within us, Christ is still here in the body and blood of our communion, and each of our faces is imprinted with the very image of God.  Christ still lives in each and every one of us, each of us an extension of the Gospel, the good news of the salvation given to us by God.  So this day we declare with a loud voice that He is Risen Indeed, we do so knowing that we are the body of Christ, we are the continuation of the story and we are joined in the resurrection, looking forward to the day when all of God’s creation will be restored and all may declare Jesus Christ our Risen Lord and King, who wipes away every tear and comforts every heart. 

Amen.