Sermons for the Month

The Resurrection of our Lord
DATE: April 20th, 2003
SERVICE: Easter Sunday
TEXT: Mark 16:1-8
“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

I want to extend a warm welcome to all of you on the most important day of the church year. Today we rejoice because Jesus is alive, a phrase I used repeatedly as I read to the preschool children this week. "What is the most important thing about Easter?" I asked numerous times looking for just the right response - that Jesus is alive! Of course, that's not the answer I received more often than not.

That's why I chuckled at a story I read this week about a pastor who, in his children's sermon, said, "Easter is coming. Do you know what we celebrate on Easter?" One of the children said, "Last year I got a chocolate bunny at Easter!" The pastor thought that one of the other children might improve on that, so he asked again. This time one of the children said, "The Easter bunny brings us Easter eggs at Easter."

By this time the pastor was a little discouraged, but he decided to try one more time. The third child said, "At Easter, Jesus died on the cross." Now, that isn't exactly right, but the pastor was encouraged that the answers were moving in the right direction, so he tried once more.

The last child said, "Easter is when Jesus came out of the grave." Relieved that they had finally arrived at the right answer, the pastor started to warp up the children's sermon - but then the child continued, "And if he sees his shadow, we will have six more weeks of winter."

It's good to laugh in the midst of discouragement. Even on this glorious Easter Sunday some of you may be feeling discouraged, but not for the same reasons as that Pastor who struggled through the children's sermon. Life continues to present challenges and we continue to fall short of God's will for us. The resurrection does not make all that go away.

Even in today's Gospel lesson we see that theme. We read from the Gospel of Mark; this is my 15th Easter as a pastor and as far as I can tell I have never used the resurrection story from the Gospel of Mark as the text for my Easter sermon. There is a reason for that. It's because there is a question concerning how the Gospel ends.

Most Bibles list a number of options; there are basically three. They are:

  1. To end the Gospel at verse 8, which is where our Gospel lesson for today ended.
  2. To add another sentence to verse 8.
  3. Or, to add 11 more verses onto verse 8.
Scholars say that since the oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark end with verse 8, that likely is the original ending of the book. And that's the problem. While the longer endings say that the good news of Jesus' resurrection was proclaimed far and wide, verse 8 ends on a rather discouraging note. Did you notice it?

It reads, "So they went our and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

While ending in that way does not make for a rousing Easter sermon about the world-wide proclamation of the resurrection, it is a very real ending. In fact it's consistent with the Gospel of Mark in which the theme of the disciples' failure and Christ's promises comes up over and over again.

The women - Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome have come to the tomb to prepare the body of Jesus for its final entombment. They are worried about the large stone that is at the tomb's entrance and how they will move it. As is often the case in the midst of terrible loss, their focus is on what has to be done here and now. They are, I imagine, single-minded.

The stone has already been moved and in the tomb they do not find the body of Jesus, but a young man dressed in white who tells them that Jesus who was indeed crucified - they hadn't imagined it - has been raised. He's not there. In fact, Jesus has gone ahead of them to Galilee, and this is the message they are to convey to Peter and the disciples.

They are so shaken by this event - the text says terror and amazement had seized them - that they said nothing to anyone. And that's where Mark ends his Gospel. Now, obviously, the news of the resurrection did get out even though Mark does not include the rest of the story in his account. Why doesn't he?

Could it be to stress the point that the ending is not the end? Could it be to convey again that while the followers of Jesus continue to fail, Jesus will not fail those who have failed? In fact, when they flee to their home area -Galilee - Jesus will get there first. He will go before them and meet them even as they scatter in fear and doubt.

Remember, the Gospel of Mark was written many years after the events it describes. Christians were living under the reign of Nero who was one of the greatest persecutors of Christians who ever lived. What they need to hear is that in the midst of suffering, and even when they fall short of living out their faith, Jesus is not only with them, but one step ahead of them. Even if they have failed Jesus, Jesus will not fail them.

They cannot get ahead of Jesus because he goes before them.

So it is for us too. As I said earlier, even though it is Easter, life continues to present challenges and we continue to fall short of God's will for us. Yet, when you leave this place and go home to whatever, the promise of Easter is that Jesus will go before you and meet you wherever you are.

And, because of that, the Easter promise of new life will prevail. Or, I'll put it in preschool language … as I read the Easter story to the children this week one of them noticed a detail in the picture before them. It showed the Risen Lord blessing a disciple, a woman. The wound in Jesus' hand stood out, looking red and sore, and one of the children said, "His hand is hurt." However, the observation was quickly followed by, "It's OK, he's all better now."

That innocent observation reminded me of the hurt and failure endured in an imperfect world that is made "all better" in the promise of a Risen Lord who not only walks with us in this life, but is always one step ahead of us, and promises us a place in the world to come.

Indeed, whether we boldly proclaim the Good News about Jesus, or struggle to do so, it does not change the fact that Jesus is alive. That indeed is the most important thing about Easter!

AMEN