Mark 16:1-14

I remember when I was a boy, my dad had a book called Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Dad called it “believe it or don’t.” It was filled with the odd and unusual, and the downright unbelievable. It had things like three headed snakes and the guy who could fit ten golf balls in his mouth. In my social study films, I had seen some of the exotic peoples and lands described by Ripley, so I could believe some of the things I saw in the book. But, as I poured over that old book of wonders, I found some things simply unbelievable.

But, not as unbelievable as Easter. Did that get your attention? The preacher said he doesn’t believe in Easter!

• No that’s not what I said. I said Easter was unbelievable.

• It was unbelievable to those who first heard about it as well. In every one of the gospels we see doubt.

• Here in Mark, we see that Jesus actually rebuked the disciples for their stubborn refusal to believe.

• In Matthew 28:17 some doubted; in Luke 24:11 the disciples call it “an idle tale.”

• In John we see Thomas refuse to believe until he can place his hands in Jesus’ wounds (20:25).

This reluctance to believe the resurrection of Jesus surprises me. I would have thought that the disciples were spring-loaded and hair-triggered to believe such news. They have had the worst three days of their lives….

• Their courage and loyalty have been tested and they have failed.

• Their dearest friend and companion for the last three years has been crucified and is dead.

• Their dreams of a great political kingdom of God have been crushed.

• Now instead of arguing over who will sit at the right and left of Jesus in his glory, they are afraid for their very lives.

• Worst of all, it must have seemed that even God had abandoned them.

Now they refused to believe the one thing that could redeem their situation, that could make sense of it…

• The women return from the tomb saying, “He’s alive, we’ve seen him and we’ve talked to him!”

• I’m thinking I’d be shouting, “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!

But, maybe its just too different from what they expected, or it was too good to be true, or maybe it was just too far-fetched. Sort of like me telling you that aliens have come to earth and they need to get rid of their planet’s bothersome gasoline. Can we find a place for about a billion gallons of it?

Then again, there a probably more people who would believe that aliens want to give us their gasoline than you might think. There is a big difference between the world we live in and the world those disciples.

• We live in a world where anything and everything is possible.

• Reality and virtual reality are blurred. We have seen our wildest fantasies come true in the movies.

• We have become jaded. Nothing surprises us….

And so for many of us, its not so unbelievable—Jesus rose from the grave—he’s alive!

• God pulled off another one of his special effects….

• In a way that is so very believable….

• But that is NOT the kind of Easter that I’m talking about!

God does not want us to believe something that is believable! God wants us to believe the unbelievable!

• Believe that in the resurrection of Jesus there is victory over death!

• Believe … there is power for living!

• Believe …there is peace amidst uncertainty!

• Because He lives we also have peace with God; we also have power for living a victorious life; we also have victory over death itself.

• Because he lives we have power to become children of the living God—born not of human will, but born of God. We are offspring of Almighty God! Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!

• That’s what God wants us to believe. Believe the unbelievable! We call it faith!

Now, today we are a people of faith drawn together by a sacred event—not Easter eggs, not the music, not the long-winded sermon….

• Today we are gathered around a tomb in a garden….

• Regardless of how or why we came, we have been compelled to come…. God has brought us here….

And we are more like those first disciples than we might think.

• We have had our courage and loyalty tested and we have failed….

• We have lost a friend we have loved more than anything….

• We have had our hopes dashed—our kingdom gone….

• We are frightened for our lives as we see death face to face….

• We are abandoned and feel that even God doesn’t care

• We are needing a miracle, because when we leave this place, where we have come dressed in our best, cleaned up and smelling good, we are going to be going back into the world we came from….

• We need something to happen to us that is unbelievable!

Let me tell you something unbelievable!

• Something that will make a difference—today, tomorrow, forever!

• Something that will make the faint-hearted bold—bold enough even to seek forgiveness for failing….

• Something that will fill the void of grief with a joy of life!

• Something that will renew hope for the hopeless—that will give us a kingdom!

• Something that will allow us to face even the end of days with peace, power, and grace!

• Something that will bring God Almighty into our very lives!

Jesus is alive! I have seen him! I have talked with him! He is that real!

• Does it seem like an idle tale?

• Believe the unbelievable! Jesus is alive! Believe and be truly alive yourself!

Easter is not about a historical moment a couple of thousand years ago. Easter is about you and me coming face to face with the risen Lord—even when we don’t expect it! Children of God, are you ready to be alive with Jesus?

Pray with me.

• I believe, oh Lord, help my unbelief.

• Amidst the hurrying and striving to create my own kingdom, forgive my selfishness, my cowardice, my disobedience, so that I may see your Kingdom in the midst of me.

• Where I have been looking for you to come with armies of angles to help me, let me simply feel your touch, place my hands in your wounds, let me cry, “My Lord and my God!”

• Where there is emptiness in my life, help me to open my heart that you may speak your love to me. Fill me with your living water.

• Help me Jesus, to leave this place, this garden encounter with you, refreshed and revived—alive! AMEN