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WHEN THE END IS NOT THE END
Mark 16:1-8
A sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church by Carter Lester on
Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012
One thing that Hollywood screenwriters and bestselling novelists know how to do is write a good ending. If it is a sports movie, the winning shot goes in and the alcoholic assistant coach shows signs of turning his life around, as in Hoosiers, or the newly integrated football team overcomes their prejudices and rivalries to claim a state football title, as in Remember the Titans. If the movie or book is a romance, it doesn’t matter if it is the girl who loses the boy, or if it is the boy who loses the girl – either way, at the end, they are going to find each other and have a long kiss. And if it is a multi-volume quest series, then Frodo does get the ring into the fire of Mordor, with Gollum’s help, Harry does defeat Valdemort, with Professor Snape’s help, and in the battle between the rebels and the Capitol in the Hunger Games trilogy – well since not all of you may have finished it and the final movie is not out yet, I will leave out that ending. But you know it is a good one.
In contrast, if you were to show the ending of Mark’s gospel to a New York publisher or Hollywood producer, they would demand a rewrite. Heck, there are a lot of people in the church who are dissatisfied with this ending. Consider it again:
After Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome have bought spices on Saturday evening…
after they have gone out early on Sunday morning to anoint Jesus’ corpse in the tomb…
after they have discovered the large stone blocking the entrance has been rolled away…
after they find the empty tomb and an angel who gives them instruction…after all that, Mark writes: “So the women went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to no one, for they were afraid.” Mark even uses a double negative to convey how little the women do in response to what the angel has said.
What kind of ending is that?
A number of years ago, a seminary student decided to learn the Gospel of Mark by heart and do it as a one-man show. The biggest problem he found was: how do you end it? When it came time to do a live performance he ended it by saying the last line of the gospel and silently exiting. There was no applause. Instead, he remembers, the “discomfort and uncertainty within the audience were obvious.” The audience buzz was all about the nonending.[1]
Parts of the early church were troubled by Mark’s ending. Not one but two different endings were added to Mark – you will see them in the footnotes in most Bible translations. But the scholarly consensus is that these were not a part of the gospel originally because they are not in the earliest manuscripts we have of the Gospel of Mark. Certainly, you can understand why someone did that then – or why some scholars contend today that a part of the ending of the original Mark manuscript must have been torn off.
Why otherwise would Mark end the gospel in this way? What was he thinking?
To make sense of this ending, we don’t have to go on an archaeological dig in Israel to find the missing fragment. Instead, we need to pay attention to what the angel tells the women: “Go, tell his disciples…that [Jesus] is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” The reason that Mark’s gospel does not have a “proper” ending is that … THE GOSPEL HAS NOT ENDED! The gospel does not end at the empty tomb: at the center of our faith is not a missing corpse – as amazing as that is – but something else: the risen Christ. It is the risen Christ who has gone ahead of these women, and it is the risen Christ who has gone ahead of us.
As the Anglican bishop and Biblical commentator, Tom Wright, observes, “Easter is about something that’s happened, not [just] about ideas in people’s heads or even faith in their hearts.”[2]
Something has happened – and it is continuing to happen. Easter, in effect, is the middle of Jesus’ story, the story that begins in Bethlehem, goes through Galilee, then through Jerusalem – where Jesus is crucified – and then raised. But the resurrection is not the end. The story is still continuing – in Galilee. “There you will see him.”
Easter is the middle, not the end. This is the problem for those who come to church only on Christmas and Easter, not that these dates are not important, they are the two most important dates and if those are the only two dates you come, you picked the best two and you are most welcome. The problem with coming only on Christmas and Easter is that we only hear part of the story, the beginning and middle. It is like seeing a great movie and then leaving in the middle, or reading a book that you cannot put down – except that you do put it down just as you are getting to the best parts.
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” What does the angel mean - where is Galilee? For these women, Galilee was a real place, not just a heavenly destination. In the same way, Easter is not just about the doors being opened to heaven, although that is a crucial part of Easter’s good news. Easter is also about a new reality that has dawned on earth – now. The kingdom of heaven has established a beachhead on earth, and Jesus is Lord of earth as well as heaven.
For some people, Easter is the equivalent of being named beneficiary of a great trust fund that kicks in only when we die. But that is not true: we do not have to wait until we die to experience the abundant life that Jesus came to bring us.
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” Where was Galilee for these three women and the disciples? It is where they were from. It is where they worked and lived – before Jesus showed up. And once he did show up, it is where he called them, taught them, and prepared them for what was to happen after Easter.
Where is Galilee for us? You cannot find it on a map, or rather, you can find it in many places on a map. Galilee is where Jesus’ disciples live today. It is where we work, where we live and love, where we accept God’s call to be disciples and serve. It is there – or rather I should say, it is here – that God promises that we will run into the risen Christ.
Which brings us to the second reason why Mark ends the gospel the way he does. He wants to put the ball in our court – leave it up to us to make a decision and act. If Mark had given us a good Hollywood ending, if Mark had shown us how Jesus appeared to the women and other disciples after the tomb and how they lived happily ever after, we might think that the story does not really have a lot to do with us. Such a rewritten gospel might be like a favorite book or movie that we come back to over and over, but then put back in the cabinet until we are ready to look at it again. It is a great story or movie – but it does not really involve us or cause us to live our lives any differently.
But that is exactly what Mark does not want. He is not interested in just telling a good story. He wants to prod us into action, into discipleship. Not only is the Easter story not over, but we are in it. We are not just the beneficiaries of Easter’s blessings. We are also to be its agents. Not only is Easter the middle of God’s story with us, but we are in the middle of the Easter story.
So if that is Mark is up to, what do you think?
There are two objections that will pop up in many of our minds at this point. The first one is – Who me? Surely, God does not intend for us to be major players in the ongoing Easter story. That should be reserved for the disciples who actually saw and heard Jesus, or to later apostles and saints who are far worthier than we are to play that role.
That objection is a good one. We are not worthy! But neither were the women or the 12 disciples. The story of the cross is the story of the disciples’ betrayal, denial, and abandonment. And these women – they are told to go and tell the disciples. But all they can do is run away with terror and amazement and “tell nothing to no one.”
But Jesus promises to show up to see them and the rest of the disciples anyway. That is the way it is with us. We are not worthy to be God’s agents – except by the grace and power of God. Our lack of worthiness does not excuse us to be spectators. Instead, God’ grace qualifies us all to be a players in God’s ongoing Easter story.
The second objection is more compelling. If the Easter story is ongoing, if the risen Christ is going to show up in our Galilees – in Pottstown and Boyertown, in Great Valley and in Philadelphia, where is he? Look around – it’s not heaven out there. Is life here on earth really any different because of Easter?
In short, Yes. But the victory is partial – not total. As some have pointed out, it is like World War II after D-Day. It is clear who is going to prevail, but the fighting is not over. The enemy is still strong. Jesus Christ’s presence and power is rarely obvious. His presence can be obscured by the forces of sin and evil which still have a hold on us and the rest of humankind. His power is often hidden. But his presence and power are real.
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” This I have seen. This I can testify to. That Christ is alive, and does show up in our Galilees. I don’t just know this from the Biblical stories but also from the ongoing stories that can be seen all around us if we have the eyes of faith. These stories are not the stories of extraordinary saints who only live in faraway places or lived in long ago times. They are the stories of flawed and broken Christians living in places like where we live, who by the grace of God are caught up in the middle of God’s ongoing Easter story.
I have seen the risen Christ in a hospital room where the doctors marveled at a recovery they could not predict – and I have seen the risen Christ at a graveside where those there could rejoice that the struggles of their beloved friend and family member were now over and that she knew peace and joy.
I have seen the risen Christ in a Philadelphia courtroom, where a motley crew of 28 church members showed up to support an illegal immigrant’s successful quest for asylum, and I have seen the risen Christ in another court proceeding where a child was rescued from a life of abuse and neglect and placed in a family offering both the boundaries and grace of Christ-like love.
I have heard the risen Christ in the testimony of an ex-convict now involved in prison ministry, and in the statement of faith of a confirmand who less than a year before had lost his uncle to a senseless and random murder.
I have seen the risen Christ in the courage and humor of one battling cancer, and I have seen the risen Christ in the commitment of a caring tutor who showed the student assigned to him that there was at least one older male who cared about him. I have seen the risen Christ in one who went to deliver relief to the poor in a war-torn land and was killed in doing so. And I have seen the risen Christ in one who walked away from a life where he seemingly had everything, including wealth and prominence, to start a ministry to make lives better for those who had next to nothing.
To be sure, there will be some days we will despair because we cannot see him, and we will feel that the Easter story must have ended when we weren’t looking. And there will be some days when we run off in terror and amazement saying “nothing to no one” because we feel overwhelmed by the mystery of God’s ways. But be patient. Keep reading. Keep praying. Keep worshipping. Keep paying attention.
Because the story is not over. And he will show up.
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
This is what he always has done. It is what he always will do.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.
[1] Donald H. Juel, The Gospel of Mark (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 172.
[2] Tom Wright, The Scriptures, the Cross and the Power of God (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 80.