Mark 16:1-8 – Jesus has Risen! What’s Next?
/Lectionary Readings for April 4, 2021 Easter Sunday
Acts 10:34-43 v36 This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 v24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Paul recalls the Resurrection of Christ
John 20:1-18 The Resurrection of Jesus
Mark 16:1-8 The Resurrection of Jesus
Peace through Leadership Quotes
“People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.” ~ Joel Osteen
“Easter is very important to me, it’s a second chance.” ~ Reba McEntire
People certainly responded when Jesus gave them hope for their future. Nearly all of His miracles are stories of people getting second chances. This is the Good News of Easter, the Good News of God’s resurrecting spirit. We always have an ultimate future that is unimaginably better than our present. And no matter what we have or have NOT done in our past, God never leaves our side and always offers us new possibilities going forward.
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday. We walked next to Jesus as He rode a donkey into Jerusalem. Since then, SO much has happened.
A day after entering Jerusalem, Jesus cleared the sacred temple of the corrupt money changers and vendors selling animals for sacrifices. He later used parables and questions to teach the crowds about what it means to love and respect God, themselves, and others. Chapter 12 includes the Great Commandments: “ ‘And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “ (12:30-31)
Jesus went on to warn His disciples about the cost of staying true to their faith in Him: rejection, abuse, and imprisonment. He told them to stay alert for the end times – something many Christians still look for today. While at lunch, a woman approached Jesus and poured expensive perfume over Jesus’ head; Jesus immediately explained that she had anointed His body for burial (Mark 14:1-9). That night, Jesus celebrated the traditional Passover dinner with His disciples – an event we’ll recall through Holy Communion later in today’s service.
After dinner, Jesus went to a garden and prayed, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Mark 14:32-36). Shortly afterward, Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested. At this point, all of His disciples abandoned Him. The Jewish High Priests declared Jesus a blasphemous heretic and worthy of death. That same night Peter denied Jesus three times and was immediately ashamed for doing so.
The next morning, Friday, the religious leaders turned Jesus over to the Romans accusing him of being a traitor and other crimes – they threw the book at Him. Bowing to public outcry for His crucifixion, Jesus is brutally tortured and executed on the cross. Once dead, he is hastily wrapped in a cloth and buried in a tomb before sunset – the beginning of the Sabbath, a day of total rest.
Yesterday, Saturday, the disciples were awash in grief, anger, and... every other emotion you can imagine after seeing all this happen to your close friend.
Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we read today’s Scripture.
Read Mark 16:1-8.
Jesus is risen! Great! But if I were one of these three women, my immediate question would be, “What does risen mean?” They were likely terrified in the moment – which is completely understandable – but once they overcame their initial shock at 1) seeing an angel and 2) not seeing a dead body, history (and the other gospels) show that they clearly told a lot of people. That’s how they responded once they could catch their breath.
This ending is so abrupt that it leaves many people asking for more. But as best we can tell, the original author (whom we call Mark) was quite content to let the story end right here as a way of forcing us to actively wrestle with the situation – the predicament – and ask ourselves, “Jesus has risen. That’s unexpected. What do I do now? What’s next?”
The most ancient manuscripts of Mark consistently end with verse 16:8. Later manuscripts add what is often called the Shorter Ending of Mark.
Then they [the women] briefly reported all this to Peter and his companions. Afterward Jesus himself sent them out from east to west with the sacred and unfailing message of salvation that gives eternal life. Amen.
For those who want a “happily ever after” ending, there you go!
Both endings share a common element: Jesus is moving forward, focused on what’s ahead, what’s... next. After His resurrection, he did NOT seek revenge on his executioners. Nor did he scold anyone for abandoning Him as He was being tortured and executed. Rather, the angel’s instructions to the women were essentially, “Tell the boys – including Peter – we’ll all meet back in Galilee, where we first met Jesus and where our ministry together started.” It’s time for a homecoming and a relaunch. Today’s techy people would say, “It’s time for Jesus 2.0”
Last week I thought about the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem. This week I’ve been thinking about the stone. It’s a powerful visual image that I wanted to work into one of today’s prayers. But I was stumped. My attempt at a prayer started with... Lord, as we work to better sense Your presence around us and Your leading in our lives, roll away any stones that may be preventing us from _____.
For the life of me, I could not finish that sentence. What did the stone prevent? Jesus was already risen. And the Christian tradition is remarkably consistent in believing that Jesus was really dead, thus it’s not like Jesus needed to roll the stone away so he could escape. The stone did not prevent God from doing anything.
As the women walked to the tomb, they wondered how they would move the stone enough to get inside the tomb so they could properly anoint Jesus’ body with spices and oils. But it was already moved when they arrived. The stone did not prevent the women from doing anything.
But they were proactively concerned about it. Just yesterday I was telling my wife how I’d spent time thinking of a solution to a problem that does not yet exist. Yes, it’s good to plan ahead and be prepared for potential problems, but as my last boss and mentor once told me, “Charles, you have to separate what’s possible from what’s probable. A 1,000 things are possible. Focus your energy on the few that are probable.” Wise words.
The Good News of Easter is that the rolled stone and the empty tomb tells us that God is at work in our lives doing what we cannot do. God is actively working for us and with us to create new possibilities beyond our imaginations. Rather than worry about possible problems, we can look to our future with joy and hope.
Like the women in today’s story, the original ending of Mark’s Gospel confronts us with an open tomb and open questions:
Discovering what we did not anticipate, what do we do now?
How do we respond to our startling encounters with the miraculous? Do we walk away in disbelief, unable to accept the unexplainable OR do we celebrate our mysterious encounter with the Divine?
Can we find time in our schedules to give ourselves space to process God’s activity in our lives?
Will we keep quiet for fear of being called crazy OR will we share our stories with others saying, “Let me tell you what God is doing in my life! Let me tell you how God has blessed me!”
We’ve spent the past 12 weeks hearing one story after another of Jesus curing people of a variety of conditions, including death itself. ALL of those people were excited to tell their miraculous stories to anyone who would listen. They were NOT bragging. They were celebrating, and they wanted everyone to celebrate with them.
After the women in today’s story (and the disciples later on) processed their initial shock, they too celebrated and invited others to celebrate with them. That’s the path they chose to take, and over the next few decades, their path of sharing attracted thousands of people who chose to live in relationship with God through the person and ministry of Jesus. That’s how they responded to today’s empty tomb.
But today, how will we – individually and as a church – respond to the empty tomb, to the risen Jesus? As we strive to follow God’s lead and expand the Kingdom of God within ourselves and throughout our communities, we must ask, what’s next?
Amen? Amen!