Easter Day - April 5

Expect More
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Mark 16:1-8

I think over the course of the many years I’ve preached Easter sermons it’s pretty rare for me to actually preach on the Gospel reading. I hope I’ve always preached the Gospel Good News of the resurrection, but I don’t generally focus on the specific Gospel passage.

But this Easter I do want to talk about Mark. In the Lenten study class the book we used focused on Mark’s account of Jesus’ last week. I have found it helps me think about the story of Jesus’ resurrection in fresh ways if I separate the Gospel accounts and look at them individually. If I step back from the combined, composite story that I/we have of Easter.

Mark’s Gospel is the earliest written of the four. And the reading we heard this morning (and the place where I stopped) is the end of Mark’s Gospel.

Some of the women came to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body. They found the stone rolled away. "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.”

If you were to check in your Bibles you’ll probably find a break and an asterisk or lots of footnotes and a subheading just after these verses. And added after them are “The shorter ending of Mark” (that’s the extra sentence that is printed in your Scripture inserts today) or “The longer ending of Mark.” Biblical scholars are pretty near unanimous in thinking that both of these longer endings were added by later scribes. Because the story didn’t seem finished. Mark’s account of the resurrection didn’t seem finished.

Mark’s Gospel ends with the empty tomb, the women’s fear and confusion, and the angel’s message. No stories about the risen Christ.

I think the other Gospels and other New Testament passages all taken together can leave us with a false sense of finality about Jesus’ resurrection. It is all wrapped up too neatly. They can leave us thinking that the recorded post resurrection appearances of Jesus were the last.

In today’s epistle reading Paul seems pretty sure that once the risen Jesus appeared to him that was pretty much everything that needed to happen! He was the last! And it’s clearly implied elsewhere in the Scriptures that Jesus did not appear again after his ascension. The activity and appearance of the risen Christ only happened back then.

But Mark leaves the story wide open. It doesn’t feel like the end. Mark leaves us expecting more.

Mark reminds us that the risen Christ does not stand still or stay put. The one place we know he is not is confined in the tomb. The tomb is empty. He is not dead. His activity is not confined to the past. He is going ahead of you, the angel says. You will see him. You should expect to see him. Expect to see more of Jesus. Ahead of you. In your future.

In the post-resurrection appearances described by the other Gospel writers, they tell us that the risen Christ appeared to men and women, to people who were discouraged, doubting, fearful. When he appeared to them he opened up their awareness of God, and taught them the meaning of the Scriptures. He comforted them, prodded them forward in faith. He took Paul and shook him upside down, totally changing his life. As wonderful as those stories are, those names and places don’t really matter. They are in the past. Mark leaves us expecting to encounter the risen Christ in the future.

Expect the risen Christ. Expect to see him on whatever road lies just ahead of you. In the midst of doubt or disappointment, expect to see him. Expect to encounter him when you gather for a meal. Expect to see him when you’re fishing or when you’re trying to figure out what to do next some afternoon. Or when you’re trying to figure out what to do next with your life. Even when you’re pretty sure he’s dead in the tomb, expect to see the risen Christ.

Mark’s Gospel doesn’t really end. Mark leaves us expecting more. Expecting to see the risen Christ. Alleluia!