Mark 16:1-8
Easter Sunday April 12th 2009
"Resurrected"
A story is told about a Private Christian School teacher asking her class the week before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter and what did it mean? She knew many of the children were in this school because of its high academic standards and not necessarily because they came from Christian families.
So one little girl spoke up and said, “Easter is when the whole family gets together and you eat turkey and sing about the pilgrims and all that.”
“No, that’s not it,” said the teacher.
“I know” said a second student, “It’s when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs.”
“No, that’s not it,” said the teacher.
Well a third student said, “Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb and left for three days.”
“Ah! thank God somebody knows” thought the teacher.
But then the student went on, “Then everybody gathers at the tomb and waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow it means he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter.”
Yes, what happened on Easter and what does it mean? How are we to understand it? And how are we to live it in our lives?
Today we are here to celebrate that Jesus was resurrected from the dead by God! Now as you read NRSV you hear the angel say, “He has been raised (by God)”
Jesus didn’t just get up himself like we all decided to get up this morning. Jesus was raised to life by God. That too is the hope we all hold that God will raise us up when we die. We are powerless to raise ourselves. It is God through his grace and love that will raise us from the dead as he did Jesus.
Now we today stand in the same place as the women did on that first Easter sunrise so long ago. We stand in front of an empty tomb and its meaning is given to us by someone else. In the Marys case it was an angel. In our case it is the scriptures enlightened by the Spirit of God. And an understanding of the empty tomb is not immediately apparent. Our understanding comes from God, the Spirit of God.
And if we wait in the same type of silence that the Marys did and hear the voice of God speaking to us, we will experience the same thing and that is fear. Fear in the presence and power of our God who can and does change our whole lives forever.
The empty tomb in and of itself tells us nothing except that Jesus’ body was gone. The angel’s words define the scene that our eyes see and our minds try to understand.
Now our assertion as Christians is that God indeed raised Jesus from the dead. In fact, if Jesus had not been raised from the dead then probably no one today would have ever heard about him for outside the Bible he would only exist as a single line in the ancient historian Josephus’ history book.
Every Easter I review some of the convincing proofs of Jesus’ resurrection but before I do that I have another story for you. This is like our first story. Can you guess who this person is?
“History records that he was a great man. Yet he had humble beginnings. He grew up in a small village, an ordinary boy who did nothing to draw attention to himself.
Like most boys his age, he attended school. He also worked in the family business and did his best to grow up strong and healthy. Deep inside, however, he knew he had a special purpose, a destiny to fulfill.
As he grew older people began to notice that there was something special about this young man. He had talent and charisma. He was gifted like no other. It wasn’t long before he started attracting crowds. 1000s came to see and listen to him.
He chose a small band of loyal companions who traveled with him everywhere he went. Many of them had given up their jobs just to be with their idol and take care of his needs.
As his fame spread, some grew jealous of him. Others thought he was leading people astray, and they plotted against him. But his popularity only increased. He touched the lives of young and old alike and brought joy and laughter to the weak and downhearted. Many hailed him as king.
Toward the end of his short life, he suffered quite a bit. Some who had followed him fell away and turned to worshiping others.
He died alone. Those closest to him were left discouraged and confused. They never expected his life to end that way.
Soon after his death, there were rumors that he didn’t die. His followers spread the news around. “He Lives!” they said. “He is not dead!” Some claimed they actually saw him. Even today, many believe he is still alive.
By now, you’ve probably guessed who this great man was.
His name was Elvis Presley.” Youth Specialties Hot Illustrations
In some senses this illustration is dated because we have pretty much ceased to hear about “Elvis sightings”. And some of the younger people might even say, “Who is Elvis”. But this makes my point even better.
Elvis as a cultural icon is slipping out of memory but not Jesus. There was no church built around Elvis. To my knowledge no great hospitals or universities were built in his name and changing of hearts and lives have not been done in Elvis name; but it has been in Jesus’ name.
Now let us look at some convincing proofs of the resurrection. These are classic proofs updated by “best selling author Lee Strobel’s” work and other sources. Evidence cited comes from all the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.
“First when Jesus was placed in the tomb it was sealed with a ‘Roman seal’. To break that seal without authorization meant an investigation, apprehension and automatic death for whoever broke it, so obviously the Roman soldiers didn’t break it. And the disciples? Well they were hiding in fear.
Second, there was a huge stone that was moved out of the way. It weighed between 3000 and 4000 pounds. (It was round and rolled into a groove that was easy to roll into but took massive effort to roll out.)
Third, there was the empty tomb itself. The disciples immediately proclaimed the resurrection right away IN Jerusalem where (Jesus crucifixion) happened. They would have been completely laughed out of town if the tomb wasn’t empty.
Fourth, was the absence of the Roman soldiers who had been guarding the tomb. This was a death penalty offense that would get you burned alive (for dereliction of duty) in other words why would they disappear from the scene if they could simply produce the body and get off the hook?
Fifth, the resurrected Jesus stayed in town for 40 days. He appeared to more than 500 people in all kinds of different places, times and circumstances.” From Dare2Share Soul Food
But for me the most compelling proofs begin with Jesus’ 12 disciples. All suffered for and all but one died for their assertion that Jesus was raised from the dead. I have never heard of any Elvis fan doing that.
And second the existence of the Christian Church itself, which is the ongoing living Body of Christ. God took a small group of fearful discouraged people and changed them into bold proclaimers of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and through them changed the course of history.
To me, though, the best proof of Jesus’ resurrection is not that he was raised and appeared to people so long ago, but that he appears to people around the world today. No, he doesn’t appear in the same manner but people experience Jesus and He changes their lives forever.
We have heard many stories of Jesus taking the most broken lives and healing them. The cliché is that that is where Jesus does most of his work. This is pushed so much in some church circles that one teenager quit going to their youth group because they thought they had to become a rebellious, drug and alcohol addict before they could come to Jesus and they didn’t want to do that.
No much beyond that we need to hear stories of people who have life completely together and Jesus changes them for the better.
People like Shane Claiborne who describes his conversion experience like this: Jesus wrecked my life. “I had it all together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus and he wrecked my life. The more I read the gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued and hoped for upside down. I am still recovering from my conversion. I know it’s hard to imagine, but in high school, I was elected prom king. I was in the in-crowd, popular, ready to make lots of money and buy lots of stuff, on the upward track to success. I had planned to go to med school.” Shane Claiborne wrote the book "Irresistible Revolution" and now lives in a new 21st century, what we would call a monastic order. He is like an old friend of mine Nate Holt, who went from being one of the most successful personal injury lawyers in Phoenix to a preacher and pastor.
Is it any wonder the women reacted in fear when they grasped that the empty tomb meant Jesus had risen and understood because of that they would never be the same?
Now most scholars believe that the gospel of Mark ended with verse 8, “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”
Obviously, eventually they said something to someone otherwise we would not have their account, but the gospel ends literally on a note of fear, “they were afraid” and so begs for an ending. Other authors filled that in with verses 9-20, and I believe that is what the writer Mark intended. But not just with words but with the very lives of the readers.
The Gospel of Mark begins in this way “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark’s gospel is the beginning it’s up to you and me and future readers to finish the gospel. Some apparently did in writing the other verses using real events from the other gospel appearances of Jesus, but the author of Mark issued a challenge in the seemingly unfinished ending. He challenged you and me to finish it.
“Jesus is not just an historical figure in the Bible. Jesus is a living presence. We begin with the fact of the empty tomb and the acts and teachings of Jesus, but we must move on to meeting him personally in our lives today.
The Christian life and faith is not just a matter of knowing about Jesus but of “knowing” Jesus. We know of the President but do any of us personally “know” him? Barclay p.
It is when we first know Jesus and understand that he has a claim on our lives that fear is present. In that moment we fear because we have experienced the presence of God in our lives and that experience is overwhelming on many levels one of which is that if we take it seriously it will change us forever.
But when we know Jesus, truly know Jesus we realize our fears are unfounded and we can then share with others the joy of the resurrection, the awe and amazement that the power that was present in the resurrection is also present in our lives. Shane Claiborne goes on to say that Jesus may have wrecked his life but Jesus rebuilt it in His image.
We recognize that the empty tomb is the beginning of the gospel in our lives and that “perfect love will one day cast out all fear” as we follow Jesus in our life and tell others of the forgiveness, love and purpose that He has given us.
The call to “go and tell” and our realization of the meaning of that call is at times overwhelming.
A story is told about “a college student who was struggling in many areas of his life. He spent a great deal of his time feeling angry and frustrated. When he could stand it no longer, he went to the chapel on campus. He paced up and down the aisles. He yelled, he cried, and he raged at God.
He cried out, “God you created the world… what could you possibly have been thinking? Look at the problems people face. Look at the pain, suffering, and hunger. Look at the neglect, the waste, the abuse. Everywhere I look, I see messed-up people, hurting people, lonely people!
Finally, exhausted, he sat in the front pew and looked hopelessly at the cross. He said, “God it’s all such a mess! This world you created is nothing but a terrible mess! Why even I could make a world better than this one!”
And then the young man heard a voice in the silence of the chapel that said,
“And that is exactly what I want you to do.” (to make a better world.)
The abrupt end to our Mark passage is just that a beginning. A call to change the world with the story that Jesus is risen.
This abrupt end cries out for you and me and every Christian who reads it to provide the ending to the story to make a better ending, a better world. And we never do this alone for the Spirit of God goes with us and before us. And we do this together as a body, the body of Christ, the Church.
It is the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead. Just like the women in our passage our faith can be resurrected and we can be used by God to change this world into a better place.
We may flee in silence and fear at times when the call of God comes; we may rage at God for the way things are; but if we pause to listen and then obey we will meet and know Jesus and our fear will fade to faith and the joy of this day will be unsurpassed.
We will realize that we are the beginning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ for this day and this age and when we do, we like that small band of discouraged fearful disciples so long will once again change the course of history in this world.
There is more than the cross, the tears, the suffering, the death, the empty tomb, the fear and pain. There is faith. There is purpose for your life now and forever more!
Christ is risen! Christ is alive! Christ is present here today!
Amen and amen!
