“Understanding Experiencing Easter”

Mark 16:1-8

Sunday, April 1, 2018 - Easter

First Congregational United Church of Christ of Manhattan, KS

Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

Have you heard the one that starts like this? “Bitterness, Rebellion, and Peace walk into an empty tomb…..”

You can find it in chapter 16 of the Gospel of Mark. I’ll warn you up front, though, the punchline is unsatisfying.

Early in the morning, when the sun was lighting their path, three women went to the tomb where Jesus’s body had been placed. Their names were Mary, Mary, and Salome. Mary was such a common name in the ancient near east that it becomes a bit difficult to know which Marys these were. We are told that one of them was Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’s closest friends and followers. The other was Mary, mother of James, which could have been Jesus’s mother (also mother to James) or another disciple who also had a son named James. It’s hard to know.

What we do know is that there were two Marys in Mark’s version of the Easter story. Mary, like it’s Hebrew counterpart Miriam, means “bitter.” It also means “rebellion.”

Apt names for the women who followed Jesus to the bitter end, witnessing what some would call a failed rebellion. A ragtag band of oppressed Jews who tried to subvert the whole Roman Empire and lost their spiritual leader in the process. It’s easy to imagine there was a lot of bitterness, anger, and anguish in the days following Jesus’s execution.

The third woman who was present that morning with the two Marys is Salome. All we know about her is that she was also present as Jesus was lynched in broad daylight and that her name means “peace.”

So we have two parts Bitter Rebellion and one part Peace coming to care for the body of their slain teacher and friend.

Jesus was his name. His name means Deliverer.

In Mark’s Gospel, the gruesome scene at the cross is linked to Easter morning by the appearance of Joseph of Arimathea. He is the one who receives the body of The Deliverer from the government, wraps it in a linen cloth, places it in a fresh tomb, and seals it up tight. You may already be thinking of a few other Josephs in the Bible - the one who was Jesus’s father and that impertinent Dreamer from the Book of Genesis.

Joseph’s name means “God can do it again.”

God can do it again.

What an odd name for the man who has to shut the door on hope - literally sealing up the tomb with a heavy stone. The story of Jesus, the Deliverer, is over. The tomb is closed. All that’s left is for the women - Bitterness, Rebellion, and Peace - to come and anoint the body for burial.

As they arrive, they talk amongst themselves. There’s something they haven’t considered until just now as they are arriving at the tomb. “Who will move the heavy stone for us?” they wonder.

Imagine their surprise when the stone has already been moved. Who moved it? How? And why? Bitterness, Rebellion, and Peace walk into the darkness of the the tomb and are greeted by a stranger. We aren’t told his name. Just that he’s a young man, dressed in a white robe. Then, as now, young people were often the guardians of Wisdom.

The author of Mark’s Gospel tells us they were alarmed but the young man offers words of comfort. “Don’t worry,” the youth says, “You’re looking for The Deliverer, but he isn’t here. He has been raised. This is where his body was but it’s no longer here. Go and tell your other friends that The Deliverer is already on his way to Galilee and will meet you there. Just like he told you.” Bitterness, Rebellion, and Peace flee the tomb, terrified and amazed. And they tell no one what they saw because they were afraid.

The Gospel of Mark is the only version of the Easter story with no Jesus. He’s not here. He’s risen. He’s gone on ahead of us. We don’t ever see The Deliverer in Mark’s Gospel. We only hear the testimony of the young man with no name.

None of it makes any sense. The stone is moved - but how? The young man - who is he? Jesus has been raised - what does that even mean? The end of the story doesn’t provide answers - it just raises more questions.

I’ve always wondered - if the women didn’t tell anyone what they saw then where did this story come from? How do we even know it happened?

None of it makes any sense. Dead folks are supposed to stay dead. Tombs are supposed to stay shut. And disciples are supposed to believe and joyfully tell the Good News of the Resurrected Christ.

One of the things I appreciate about Mark’s version of the Easter story is that it is so confounding. It doesn’t make sense. It’s a reminder to me that Resurrection is nonsensical. Centuries of theologians have tried to understand what happened after Jesus died but, at the end of the day, I have the feeling Resurrection isn’t meant to be understood or explained. It’s meant to be experienced.

Mark’s version of the empty tomb is an invitation to experience Easter. When Jesus’s friends fail to tell the story we are left wondering what we might have done in their shoes. Faced with the impossible, do we quietly shake our heads and rub our eyes, pinky swearing we’ll never tell anyone what we saw this morning? Or do we go out into the streets loudly proclaiming this tall tale, risking our reputations in the process? Maybe we only speak of it in whispers, “I can’t really be certain, but what I think happened was….”

In a world where death seems to be all around us - where violent images stalk us from the television in the doctor’s waiting room, where it seems there is a never-ending flow of Bad News - in a world where it sometimes feels like we’re on a seesaw between Bitterness and Peace….what stories do we tell ourselves to make it through each day? How do we choose compassion and joy while struggling for justice? Where do we find Good News? How do we experience Resurrection when we can’t understand it?

This Easter it occurs to me that Resurrection isn’t something that happened once in the past. It’s not something we simply remember each year. Instead, Resurrection an ongoing force - a continual unfolding.

This sense that God isn’t finished yet - that Hope still lives and breathes and walks among us….This experience of new life and impossible dreams and Eternal Love….This Resurrection is something that we receive as a gift and something that we, as the Church, are invited to relentlessly share with the rest of the world with joyful abandon.

Remember the promise in Joseph’s name? “God can do it again.”

God can do it again. And again. And again. Resurrection without end. Amen and Amen.