Resurrection Peace 3-31-24

Resurrection Peace

1 Cor 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8

1 Cor 15:1-11

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

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.

Prayer – Almighty God, we give you thanks that on this grand day, the most special day of each year, you resurrected Jesus from the dead. You defeated death and established your reign over all things such that we never have to be afraid again. Give us the courage and grace to celebrate your resurrection victory that we might see your love made manifest in our world and that we might give ourselves fully to living out the truth of resurrection peace and never be afraid again – amen.

          The Sabbath is now complete, three of Jesus’ women disciples approach his tomb with the intention of anointing his body. Although they were followers of Jesus from the earliest of times and had probably heard his predictions of death and resurrection, the purchase of spices to anoint him suggests they were expecting to find a corpse, a stinking, decaying remnant of the man they loved and followed, in the tomb. They had set off early and only on the way do they wonder who will roll away the stone from the tomb. Arriving at the tomb, they see that the stone had already been rolled away. They enter the tomb unafraid, ready to their job of placing sweet smelling spices on Jesus’ dead body. They have come to do the women’s work; the dead don’t scare them. With this final act of devotion, they will close the curtain on a once promising but now tragic story.

But when they enter the tomb and see a young man in a white robe sitting on the right-hand side, they were alarmed, afraid, scared that Jesus’ body had been taken away just as his life had been taken from them. Perhaps the curtain was not deemed to be closed. Noticing the discomfort and fear of the women, the messenger leads with a pastoral assurance. “Do not be afraid.” He goes on to tell them that Jesus who they were there looking for had been raised and that he was going ahead of them to Galilee, where they, along with the disciples, would find him.

As I see it, this is too much for any human to take in, at least in that moment. The messenger, perhaps an angel from God, has handed them a message containing the risen weight of the world. So, it doesn’t surprise me that they take off like a bat out of you know where and don’t mention a word to anyone because who in their right mind would believe a word they said – I mean they were women after all who had little to no voice or authority at that time in 1st century Palestine.

And I guess what surprises me is that this silence concludes the gospel of Mark. Conversely, I am not surprised that some ancient scribes, clearly dissatisfied with Mark’s concluding silence, later added on an amalgam of Easter stories featuring a risen Christ, the so-called shorter and longer endings of Mark 16. We can hear in our hearts and minds these scribes asking, who in their right mind would write a Gospel that ended with fearful silence? Evidently Mark.

Mark’s ending doesn’t allow us to move too quickly from the violence of betrayal, false accusation, denial, abandonment and death to a neat and joyous ending. A good end doesn’t negate a traumatic journey. The tragedy makes sense; the glory defies comprehension. We understand death; we may struggle to believe in resurrection. How do you and I respond to the impossible? Sometimes with fear and sometimes with amazement, just as it was for these women.

Neither the absence of a resurrection appearance nor the fear and silence of the women nullifies Mark’s description of his work as ‘good news.’ Emerson Powery states that for Mark, ‘hope is not defined by a resurrection or a physical appearance, but by an empty tomb and a promised re-gathering.” Here lies the good news; not only is the tomb empty, but Jesus has gone ahead of them to Galilee, just as Jesus had told them he would. There is no need to doubt Jesus’ words, as Mark has gone to great pains to prove Jesus’ trustworthiness. Whether by accident or by intent, Mark has shared the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and left it to us to find our own resurrection peace.

I don’t think Mark wants us to imagine Peter and the others never hearing the good news of Easter when God raised Jesus up just as Jesus predicted. After all, Jesus had already promised them precisely what the angel describes to the women, a post-resurrection get together in Galilee. Also, I think that Mark’s first Christian hearers had some knowledge of disciples spreading the Easter message and the risen Jesus appearing to them.

That said, Mark has clearly thrown up a narrative roadblock. By concluding with fearful silence, he forces us to contemplate how the story can move from empty tomb to disciple rendezvous. Why throw up this roadblock you may wonder? According to a common interpretation, Mark’s ending functions rhetorically as an invitation of sorts, an opening into which we are invited to step in to the story. It invites Mark’s hearers, both past and present, to finish the story that the disciples in the narrative – not just the women but also the men who abandoned, betrayed and denied Jesus – failed to finish themselves.

This interpretation dovetails with Mark’s emphasis on faithful discipleship. For even though the Markan disciples can prove to be notoriously thickheaded, their mistakes nonetheless contribute to our understanding of faithful discipleship, that is hard and we don’t always understand, and then it is still hard, and then at the end of the day, Jesus trusts us, just as Jesus trusted them, to extend his mission of healing and wholeness.

This may not sound like the typical Easter sermon, but if the divine, life-giving power by which Jesus heals broken humans and communities is the same divine, life-giving power that raises Jesus from the dead, then it would seem that disciples, to the extent that they participate in Jesus’ healing mission, do in fact participate in a kind of ministry that brings resurrection peace. This is simply to acknowledge that God brings life in various ways, and that God can work through us to bring life and wholeness to the broken and downtrodden. Maybe we are not ‘miracle workers’ in the normal sense of the phrase. But if life itself is a miracle, then who are we to say that the God of miraculous life is not at work among us and through us? Christian discipleship is about living and believing and sharing resurrection peace.

Another reminder of resurrection peace is when we run away from the empty tomb scared and filled with wonder. When the disciples fell short, Jesus is and was there to pick them up and empower them again. When they struggled and struggle to understand a parable, Jesus explains it. When they are slow to anticipate their role in the feeding of a hungry crowd, Jesus walks them through it. When they show self-aggrandizing priorities contrary to the sacrificial nature of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus shows them and us the way. And when the way of Jesus leads to disciple abandonment, Jesus emerges from an empty tomb and summons them and us for reconciliation and mission.

This last point is crucial to remember. Jesus’ resurrection saved and saves us, binds us together instead of allowing us to disintegrate. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus promises to meet us ahead, just as he promised his friends 2000 years ago. And the Markan Jesus always, always is faithful just as the Markan Jesus is always a step ahead of our fearful flights. Always waiting for us in Galilee. Always holding us together. Always guiding us back to himself and to our collective call to follow.

So, when we go to the tomb with the women on Easter morning, we don’t have to be afraid of what we find. It isn’t about Jesus having died for your sins or mine; it isn’t about someone taking off with his body; it isn’t about being scared by the messenger or scared to spread the good news that he had indeed been raised from the dead. When we get to that empty tomb it may leave us in a paradox. And even so, it invites us to break the silence with a loud voice shouting out to ourselves, to the world, Jesus is risen and we don’t have anything to fear, ever again. Jesus is risen, and we don’t have anything, anything in life or in death, in anything that has happened to us in the past or in the future, anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is founded and grounded and shown to us by Jesus Christ our Lord. Friends hear the amazing and great news of this Easter morning – do not be afraid – for resurrection peace is ours now and forever – thanks be to God – amen.