Only the Beginning
Mark 16:1-8
April 4, 2021
Emmanuel Baptist Church; Rev. Kathy Donley
Note: A recording of the worship service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://youtu.be/W0hRfT1ZkLg
Once upon a time there was a church that lost the last page of its constitution and bylaws. Now the last page was important, because it had the instructions for how to make changes to the bylaws in the future. They looked everywhere for many years, but that last page was not to be found. So finally, the long-time members, those who thought they remembered what that last page had said, they got together and wrote a new last page. (For those who might not know, that church’s initials were EBC.)
Once upon a time, someone named Mark wrote down the story of Jesus and when people read that story, they knew that a page was missing. The story was epic, apocalyptic even. The kind of story that ends with a great scene of life and death, of victory and defeat, but that page was missing. They knew it was missing because the page they had, in their language stopped in the middle of a sentence like this -- “the women said nothing to anyone; they were afraid for …” In English, it might sound like “They did not say nothing to nobody.”[1]
So, the people looked for the missing last page of that story for many years and when it could not be found, different people in different places wrote what they thought were some better endings. If you look in your Bible, you will see them. But the more I read it, the more I am convinced that Mark ended at verse 8 and he did it on purpose.
Do you remember Easter last year? At that point we had been in pandemic mode for about a month. We had been changing our behavior, staying home if we were not essential workers, being hyper-vigilant about handwashing and sanitizing. We weren’t wearing masks yet, because at that time, all personal protective equipment was reserved for healthcare workers who, in many cases, did not have enough. It was hard to grasp the reality of what was happening. We thought/hoped it would all be over soon. I’ve mentioned before that several of my colleagues thought that they could simply delay Easter services and have a wonderful Easter celebration when we returned to in-person worship in a few weeks. But here we still are a year later.
Maybe we can give the women at the tomb a break. Still traumatized from seeing the violent torturous death of Jesus, they could not cope with the prospect of an empty tomb and the bizarre message they were told to deliver. So, they said nothing to nobody. Not at first anyway. They must have said something at some point or we would not know this story. But on that first Easter, it would have been hard to grasp what was real. So, no I don’t think we’re missing a last page. I think Mark is likely accurately describing the shock, the numbness, the fear, the unreality, the silence of that day.
And then there’s the context in which Mark is writing. It’s about 40 years later. He’s probably writing from a small Christian community in Galilee. The story of Jesus has been carried across the Roman empire, but Christians are still a misunderstood minority. And for the last four years, Jerusalem has been under siege by the Roman army. The siege ended with the temple being burned down and thousands of people slaughtered. Many of those who escaped Jerusalem may have fled to Galilee, to Mark’s own community, traumatized, defeated and in despair.
It feels like failure. Again. It feels like when the disciples fell asleep when Jesus was praying in Gethsemane. Like when Judas betrayed him and Peter denied him and they all ran away. Like when the women, who stayed near the longest, went to the tomb and said nothing to nobody. Mark’s gospel seems to end in failure.
The novelist John Updike once gave a talk in New York City on religious themes in his fiction. During the Q&A afterwards, someone asked, “Mr. Updike, which is your favorite gospel?”
Without hesitation, Updike responded, “Luke! Luke tells the best stories.” And then the thought for a minute and added, “Yes, Luke is my favorite, but I trust most the Gospel of Mark. It was the earliest Gospel and it’s the gospel least prone to wishful thinking.” [2]
Mark does not engage in wishful thinking. He does not sugar-coat the pain and suffering and even failure of those who followed Jesus. But, if he does end this story this way on purpose, then what is his intention?
The women are given a message for the disciples – to go to Galilee where Jesus has gone ahead of them. “Mark means to leaves us to wrestle with whether or not the women overcame their fear in order to proclaim the new beginning in Galilee.”[3] He does not give us a happy, tidy ending in order to compel us to wrestle with our own fears about joining Jesus on mission.
Brian Blount is Professor of New Testament and President at Union Seminary in Virginia. He describes Jesus’ mission as one of invasion. Invasion is different from rescue. In a rescue, the goal is to secure the hostage or prisoner and quickly retreat to a safe location, with minimal engagement with the enemy. In contrast, the objective of an invasion is to meet and engage all the opposing forces until the entire region is an occupied safe zone. The Biblical narrative describes two ages -- a present age is controlled by forces hostile to God, and a future one where God’s will pervade. But when Jesus is baptized, the heavens are torn open and God’s future invades the present. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus. Invaded by the Spirit, Jesus then invades the lives of his disciples, demonstrating God’s power to transform the present age.[4]
Blount says that it is inevitable that Jesus will suffer because he is ushering in God’s reign. The cosmic forces arrayed against God can be expected to put up a fight. Therefore, if Jesus is to succeed in his task, if he is to carry through with his mission on behalf of God’s kingdom, he will necessarily encounter satanic, cosmic resistance.”[5] Ultimately all of that resistance and opposition culminates in Jesus’ death. The crucifixion is the result of the invasion, not the invasion itself.
The crucifixion is the result of the invasion, not the invasion itself. This is important. It goes to the very heart of what we believe. Let me say it again as directly as I can. Jesus is God’s non-violent, invasive strike force of one. His mission is to transform the world into a safe zone, a place where God’s shalom reigns for everyone. For the love of the world, even love of the cosmos, God sent Jesus on this mission. The mission is dangerous because the forces that oppose God are many and powerful. But the goal of the mission is strong love, deep safety, powerful peace for the world. The goal of the mission is not Jesus’ death. However, death is the price that Jesus is willing to pay. The crucifixion is the result of the invasion, not the invasion itself.
The disciples are to go to Galilee where Jesus has gone ahead. Back to Galilee. Where it all began. The place where he first announced the kingdom, taught the crowds, healed the sick and shared meals with Jews and Gentiles alike.
The disciples, including you and me as readers of Mark’s gospel, are called to continue Jesus’ mission of invasion which brings flashes of God’s future into the present. Mark doesn’t sugarcoat it – Jesus’ mission brought him into conflict with the powers of this world and those who take up the cross and follow him will also be in conflict.
My colleague Stan Duncan tells of an experience he had in Guatemala some years ago. He was high up in the mountains, staying with a Wycliffe Bible translator. He noticed a framed photo over his desk. It was a picture of about twenty young children standing together. They all had their hands sticking straight out at their sides. Stan asked him what that was all about.
He took the picture down and said, “See that little black line off to the far right?” Stan could barely make out what appeared to be a stick jutting into the picture from off camera.
The man said “That is the end of a rifle. The children were in front of about a dozen army soldiers. The soldiers were threatening the children as a warning to their parents to stay in line, not to be agitators.”
Stan said, “Why are the children’s arms out like that?’
The man said it was a custom among many of the Indigenous Quiché Indians who were Christians. They believe that when they are in pain or in fear, they can stick out their arms and they will be folded into the form of Jesus on the cross. And for a moment their individual pain, which can be sharp and personal, is taken up into human pain, global pain, cosmic pain, God’s pain. When God suffers with you, you don’t suffer alone and the pain is shared.
Those children and their parents had a profound internal sense of what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus calls his disciples to take up the cross and follow. “The cross represents the pain that comes as a result of life-affirming behavior modelled after the ministry of Jesus.”[6] Life -affirming, invasive behavior that claims God’s power to transform here and now.
Mark’s gospel ends with an invitation to go to Galilee, where Jesus has gone on ahead. To carry on where he left off. At the end Mark sends us back to start again in Galilee. He sends us back to verse 1 which says “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Resurrection is the sign that suffering will someday truly end, but it’s not yet the end. It is only the beginning. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the news that God’s future is still breaking into our present life and time. The beginning of strong love, deep safety, and powerful peace for the world. Thanks be to God, for Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed.
[1] Fred B. Craddock, “And the Witnesses Said Nothing” The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011), p. 136
[2] https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2009/01/30/january-27-2009-john-updike-1932-2009/2078/
[3] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988, 2008), p. 401
[4] Brian Blount, Invasion of the Dead: Preaching Resurrection, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2014) pp 84-86.
[5] Blount, p 91.
[6] Raquel a. St. Clair, Call and Consequences: A Womanist Reading of Mark (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), p.139