BEYOND THE FEAR OF EASTER
April 12, 2009
Acts 10: 34-43
Mark 16: 1-8
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
Click below for audio version of sermon.
We have all come this morning for many excellent reasons, I’m sure. Some have come out of the good habit of worship. Others have made a special effort to attend because it’s Easter. Some have really been looking forward to the music of Easter. And, maybe one or two stray souls have come because they look forward to the sermon.
But, I’ve got to tell you, none of this is this preacher’s concern today. My concern isn’t what has caused you to come to Easter’s worship. My concern is the way you’ll leave Easter’s worship.
For, the truth is that there is more than one way to leave the sanctuary today. More than one way to depart from the cemetery. More than one path that leads from the empty tomb.
This reality of multiple ways to leave following Easter’s announcement that Christ is risen is underscored beautifully in the four Gospels of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These first four books of the New Testament agree on most things, but disagree in the most interesting ways.
For example, all the gospels agree about the first events of Easter morning. That is, they all agree that all the disciples had fled except for three women who came early to the tomb to exercise the Jewish custom of dressing the decaying body of Jesus with sweet-smelling spices. They also agree that the women met a young man at the tomb. And this young man, whoever he was, gave the women the news: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth. Well, he’s not here. He has risen. Go, and tell all the other disciples that Jesus is going before you to Galilee.”
Galilee, you see, was the northern most part of Israel was the home of the disciples and Jesus. It was where they had come from.
But, from this point on the gospels tell somewhat differing stories about what happened. For example, Matthew says the women ran back to town with great joy to tell everything that they had seen and heard. The Gospel of Luke says much the same thing except to add that no one believed the women. Why? Because they were women!! The Gospel of John adds an interesting twist to Easter morning. It says Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, but at first she thought he was the gardener.
In these three gospels, the writers then go on to tell what happened next after Jesus’ resurrection. They tell how the good news of the resurrection began to spread from Galilee.
But this is not the case with Mark’s gospel. In contrast to the other gospels, Mark ends his Easter morning abruptly, awkwardly, ambiguously.
That is, after seeing the empty tomb and after hearing the young man tell them Jesus had gone before them to Galilee, Mark then says of the women, “And 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.” And then the Gospel of Mark ends.
Thud. What an anti-climactic ending to such a spectacular story! Where’s the next page? What happened next? Where did the women go? Did they ever work up the nerve to tell anyone what they saw? What happened on Monday?
Why does the gospel of Mark end on a note of fear!
Strange, isn’t it. If we only had Mark’s Gospel it would be a bit hard to write Easter music, wouldn’t it? “And they were scared to death and didn’t say a word,” isn’t exactly the inspiration for an Easter Cantata! So, thank goodness we have the other gospels to provide a nuanced and happier ending.
Personally, however, even though there isn’t a good musical tune that comes to mind with this ending, there is something about Mark’s unspectacular ending that strikes a deep chord within me. And maybe you too if you think about it.
That is, there’s something in Mark’s stark account with its minimalistic ending that very likely does a better job expressing how most people really feel about Easter than do the more refined, self-assured words of Matthew, Luke and John.
For Mark, you see, the miracle of the Resurrection is quite enough. What God did in breaking the rules of the universe in raising Jesus from the dead is more than enough, implying, of course, that a new era in cosmic history had begun.
Which means, of course, that what will happen next is anybody’s guess – then or now. For when you encounter the living God, nothing remains the same, nothing is predictable.
Mark wants to get his readers’ attention. Wants us, with our fears, to immediately plug into the resurrection account. Wants us to ask the question: “What does all this mean for me?”
By leaving us hanging with fear on our breath, Mark is as good as reminding us that there is no one size fits all ending to Easter’s message. Mark is reminding us that the end of Jesus’ story and our story is up to us.
So, what DOES this mean for us?
It means, if we would follow the Risen Christ it will not be to places of deadly certainty. For life is not certain for very long.
It means that if we would follow the Risen Christ it must be to follow him to Galilee. To wherever “Galilee” is for us. And just where is Galilee for us?
Well, it’s where we’ve come from. It’s where we’re returning, even today. It’s where the going gets tough and things get messy and plans get interrupted and jobs are lost and hearts get broken.
Our Galilee is not where we are when we’re dressed in our Easter finery.
Rather, Galilee for you and me is where we live the rest of the time.
Our Galilee includes many delights, of course, thank God. But also many disappointments and, to Mark’s point, times of fear and anxiety.
Our Galilee includes the times we spend at the sickbeds or death beds of people we love or even our own. Our Galilee includes our work places where we encounter all those Catch 22’s and maybe people we can hardly stand.
Our Galilee includes our homes and families. For some places of blessing. For others, places of great conflict and frustration and hurt.
In sum, our Galilee is no more and no less where we wake up and get up and go out and try to live as best we can in the midst of tremendous unknowns and sometimes tremendous fears. Just like the women on Easter morning.
Soon, each of us will return to our own Galilees. There, we will find that just as the disciples would meet the risen Christ in Galilee, it will be in our Galilee that we too will meet the risen Christ. Of course, having all the faith in the world that Christ will meet us in our Galilee doesn’t take away all our fears. Remember Mark’s words about the women on that first Easter? “They were afraid.”
Nonetheless, part of their fear had to do with the fact that the women didn’t know what we know now. They didn’t know that everything they’d been told about the death of their friend wasn’t exactly true. They didn’t know that this Jesus that they were absolutely certain was deader than a door nail -- wasn’t.
But we know. We know what happened.
As they soon enough found out, we know that their friend, our Lord had been brought back from the dead never to die again! We know that on that Easter morning God turned the world and its ways upside down, inside out. That everything had changed.
And, we also know something else they didn’t then though they soon discovered: And that is that there’s an inner strength, courage given to those who follow this Risen Christ. An inner strength, courage to confront life’s worst things as we walk daily with this Christ into all the unknown tomorrows. An inner strength, courage to confront and overcome even our greatest personal fears.
So, what are you, dear Easter worshipper, supposed to do with such a story as this?
Well, please pardon my bluntness, but what you do with such a story as this is your problem, not mine. After all, you’re the one who came here looking for Jesus.
But, he isn’t here. Just missed him. By this time of the morning, he’s already, well, in Galilee, your Galilee. He’s gone before you, as he said he would.
In fact, he’s waiting for you, there!