“What’s Next?” Colchester Federated Church, March 31, 2024, Easter Sunday (Mark 16:1-8)

“Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb.”[1]  Mary Magdalene, Mary (James’ mother), and Salome came to the tomb that held the body of Jesus carrying spices so that the women could ritually clean Jesus’ dead body.  The scene before them is unexpected—the large stone placed in front of the tomb has been rolled away and a young man dressed in a white robe (presumably an angel) is sitting on the right side of an empty tomb.  The angel gives the women instructions, “Don’t be alarmed!  You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has been raised.  He isn’t here.  Look, here’s the place where they laid him.  Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee.  You will see him there, just as he told you.”[2] 

The message is clear, right?  Don’t be alarmed.  You’re looking for Jesus, but he’s been raised and he’s not here.  Look at this empty tomb.  So, go and tell the other disciples (especially Peter) that Jesus is going to Galilee.  You’ll see him there just like he said.  The response is absolute terror and dread.  The women flee from the tomb.  Mark ends his Easter story by sharing that, “They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”[3]

The Easter story as conveyed in the Gospel according to Mark is short and sweet, just 8 verses.  There is no appearance of the Risen Christ.  In fact, some people felt that the ending was so abrupt and unsatisfactory that additional verses got added as early as the Second Century.  This sounds like some conspiracy theory from The Da Vinci Code or something, but it’s true.  Mark’s telling of the Easter story was so short and sweet (and flawed) to some of the earliest Christians that verses 9-20 were added later.  There are even two alternate endings—the “shorter ending” and the “longer ending” of Mark.  Some scribes who were copying the Gospel felt that Mark’s ending was incomplete, especially compared to Matthew, Luke, and John.  Now to be fair, there’s debate if the original ending of the Gospel was lost or if Mark meant to end the story at verse 8 with the words, “They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”  The question we can ask is if Mark’s original open-ended ending was intentional or not.

Though as New Testament scholar Mark Allan Powell shares, “Mark’s Gospel highlights the failures of Jesus’ disciples.”[4]  The disciples are often unperceptive and opposed to Jesus’ thinking.  Time and again, the disciples fail to live up to Jesus’ hopes and expectations of them.  Jesus encourages them to welcome little children in his name.  And what do the disciples do?  Rebuke people for bringing their children to Jesus.  Mark shares these bold claims the disciples make about being willing to die for Jesus.  Though when the hour is at hand—Judas betrays Jesus, Peter denies three times that he even knows Jesus, and the rest of the disciples desert him.  The disciples are human just like us.  And sometimes they make spectacular mistakes.  Just like us. 

For what it’s worth, I think that Mark’s abrupt open-ended conclusion was intentional and brilliant.  For Mark, the empty tomb is enough proof that death did not get the last word in God’s story.  Though if more evidence is needed, there are the reassuring words of the angel that Jesus has gone ahead of the disciples to Galilee, back to where it all began, back to the lakeshore where Jesus called his followers to go out and fish for people in the first place.  In effect, the ending turns the focus to you and to me.  We could even read the ending as a challenge to complacency.  Will we also say nothing to anyone about the Risen Christ, because we too are afraid?  Now it is our turn to decide what happens next.  Fear or faith?  The choice is ours to make.

To give Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome credit—they obviously said something about that empty tomb otherwise Jesus’ movement would have died after his crucifixion.  The women did go and tell the good news.  Because the shorter ending of Mark goes, “They [the women] promptly reported all of the young man’s instructions to those who were with Peter.  Afterward, through the work of his disciples, Jesus sent out, from the east to the west, the sacred and undying message of eternal salvation.  Amen.”[5]  We know that something extraordinary happened on that first Easter otherwise none of us would be here in this sanctuary at Colchester Federated Church.  The miracle of Resurrection and new life and God’s undying and unending love is not something that can be rationally explained as much as spiritually experienced.

The challenge is to let the story change us.  To challenge our own complacency as we hear the message two thousand years later.  There’s a beautiful poem that emphasizes that we (the Christian community who remains after the resurrection of Jesus the Christ) are called to be the hands and feet of Christ.  The ancient poem (sometimes attributed to St. Teresa of Avila) states, “Christ has no body now but yours.  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.  Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.  Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.  Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.  Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”[6] 

What if this is Mark’s point with the abrupt ending?  What if the point is to say—so what’s next, directed at anyone who hears the Easter story?  What if the angel’s instruction to the disciples to go back to Galilee is to go back to the beginning of the Gospel?  Go back to where it all began, return to the beginning in light of the end.  Because what are the first words out of Jesus’ mouth at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark?  “Now is the time!  Here comes God’s kingdom!  Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”[7] 

God’s kingdom is here and now.  That is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on this joyous Easter Sunday.  We are called to help God build a Kingdom where a widow with one coin gives more than the rich in the temple.  A Kingdom where a father runs out to embrace his wayward son who finally comes home.  A Kingdom where a shepherd will leave behind 99 sheep to go out looking for the one that is lost.  A Kingdom where everyone is invited to the banquet until the house can be full.  We are called to help God build a more just and loving world.  So, what’s next?  Come and see.  Because Christ has no body now but yours.  Alleluia!  Happy Easter.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Mark 16:2, CEB.
[2] Mark 16:6-7.
[3] Mark 16:8.
[4] Mark Allan Powell, Fortress Introduction to The Gospels, pg. 44.
[5] Mark 16:9.
[6] Teresa of Avila Quote on Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/66880-christ-has-no-body-now-but-yours-no-hands-no
[7] Mark 1:15.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash