Loving God, you remind us today of your gifts of peace and forgiveness and new life through your Son Jesus.  Fill us with your Spirit this day, renewing us in our faith and trust in you; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    So how did you like the ending to today’s gospel?  “And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mk. 16:8).  What kind of an ending is that?  No appearances by Jesus.  No sharing the good news.  No gathering together of the disciples.  Just running away in fear and clamming up.  No wonder there were some monks in those early centuries who thought that Mark needed a better ending!  After all, we have this tendency to want to “fix” things that seem unfinished, don’t we?

    And so, when you read through the gospel of Mark in your Bibles, you will notice lots of footnotes at the end, as well as a shorter ending and a longer ending that were added later on.  We know this because the oldest and most reliable manuscripts of Mark end right where our reading ended today.  So what’s up with that, anyway?  Is Mark just really bad at endings?

    Perhaps - or perhaps Mark ended it this way on purpose.  After all, his beginning doesn’t seem that great, either.  In fact, the beginning isn’t even a complete sentence: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk. 1:1).  Then he launches into John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness.  No shepherds or angels.  No record of Jesus’ ancestry or his birth.  No wise men or star.  Just “the beginning of the good news.”  If nothing else, Mark gets straight to the point!

    And so, why might Mark end his gospel with some faithful women who say nothing because they are afraid?  After all, we know that the story didn’t end there.  If it did, none of us would be here, and none of us would’ve ever heard about Jesus.  However, in Mark there is a pattern that repeats itself over and over again.

    In Mark, the people who should know who Jesus is and what he is all about, don’t.  That would be the disciples.  At the same time, those who do recognize who Jesus is can’t be counted on as reliable witnesses.  In this category, there are the demons who know right away who Jesus is.  Of course, you don’t want demons as your witnesses.  Then there is the Roman centurion at the foot of the cross - the one person who recognizes Jesus as the Son of God at the time of his death (Mk. 15:39).  However, a Roman soldier isn’t likely to go spread the news.  And so, what exactly is Mark getting at?

    For one thing, I think that Mark makes us, and all those who have ever read or heard his gospel, part of the story.  As we read or listen, we become witnesses of all that happens along the way.  We see Jesus as he heals the sick and casts out demons and calms the stormy sea with a word.  We hear Jesus’ predictions all along the way and see each one of them come true.  We see the weakness of the disciples and how they often don’t quite understand what Jesus is saying, and how they abandon Jesus at his time of greatest anguish.  And, even in today’s gospel, we see how what happens is pretty much what Jesus had told his followers beforehand (Mk. 10:34).  Yet, once again, they seem caught by surprise.

    Truthfully, though, most of us know that we probably wouldn’t have done much better.  After all, most of us have our own doubts and fears, and even when we do believe that Jesus is our Saviour and the Son of God, we have a hard time saying anything to anybody about it.  And so, it is relatively easy for us to relate to those first disciples with all of their doubts and fears and questions.  However, can we also relate to what those same disciples became afterwards?

    Yes - they had their doubts and fear and denials and misunderstandings - but they got over it!  Those women didn’t stay afraid and unable to speak about what they had seen.  Peter didn’t stay alone and weeping and in despair over his failure to stand up for Jesus.  The other disciples didn’t just slink away into the background, ashamed of how they had abandoned Jesus at his time of greatest need.  Instead, every single one of them became powerful witnesses of all that Jesus had said and done, and of his resurrection.

    However, this didn’t happen by them simply saying to themselves, “get over it,” and by picking themselves up and moving on.  No.  This wasn’t their doing.  Instead, every single one of them had an encounter with the risen Jesus.  In these encounters, Jesus eats and drinks with them and allows them to see and touch his scars.  He assures them that they are forgiven, and shares God’s peace with them.  He explains to them from the Scriptures the things that they did not understand.  And then, when he finally leaves them to be taken up into heaven, he breathes into them the breath of life – the Spirit of God who will empower them and speak through them and make them into the presence of Christ in this world.

    Of course, it didn’t stop with those first disciples who actually saw and ate with the risen Jesus.  God has continued to pour out the Holy Spirit on all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, empowering them, speaking through them, touching them with the love of Christ.  In fact, God also pours out the Holy Spirit on us - empowering us, speaking and praying through us, and touching us with the love of Christ.  No matter what our doubts and fears and questions have been, God is quite content to forgive us and to work through us in order that others, too, might know the good news of Jesus Christ.

    So what, exactly, is this good news?  If we are to believe Peter (Acts 10:43), forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus is a big part of it!  Paul also points to how Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3).  In even broader terms, we have peace with God through Jesus, just as Jesus also makes peace and reconciliation possible with one another (Acts 10:36).  Not only that, but we will be judged by Jesus (Acts 10:42) - the same one who was willing to suffer and die for us.

    All of this, as Paul emphasizes, is pure grace (1 Cor. 15:10) - an undeserved gift given to us by the Lord of all.  This is, indeed, good news, as God continues to meet us in the midst of our doubts and fears and at the point of our greatest grief and brokenness.  It is there that God meets us with the good news, saying, “do not be alarmed” - “do not be afraid” (Mk. 16:6) - for not even death is a cause for fear any longer.

    And so, in the end, it is actually the whole gospel of Mark that is “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ” - for Jesus not only died, but is risen, and continues to work within us and among us, reconciling us to God and to one another, that we, too, might become part of God’s new creation in Christ.  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Amen.

Resurrection of Our Lord (B)                    Mark 16:1-8
April 8, 2012                                Acts 10:34-43
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church                    1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

 © 2012 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved