The Unexpected
Mark 16:1-8
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
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Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ has risen indeed! And that is good news, isn't it? It's a little difficult to tell as Mark's gospel ends with the women fleeing in fear from the sight of the empty tomb. This befuddling good news may be what we need to hear this Easter Sunday as we begin to emerge from tombs of our own design. Last year, 2020, demonstrated what those tombs were: ongoing systemic inequities among classes, races, health care, education, etc. And at the same time, the majority of people made sacrifices for the sake of public health, while others choose to put their desires above others selfishly. As we continue to climb out of our tombs and encounter the empty tomb of Jesus, the impact of such a sight might seem overwhelming and even scare us. Yet, the glue that holds it all together is Jesus. Jesus is what binds us to the disciples, the women, and men, who would continue Jesus' healing ministry and what binds us together. In the midst of fear and mounds of injustice and suffering, there is undoubtedly good news to be found!
"Okay," I hear you say, "but that doesn't make this any less confusing. How could the women run away in fear?" And I get that, I hear you, but for the past two millennia, Christians have looked at this passage with 20/20 hindsight. We know what happened; however, at that moment, the women who visited Jesus' tomb could not have been more surprised. They had heard from the religious teachers of their time the promise of a general resurrection at the end of the age, except that it was a far-off future event, and now right before their very eyes was the empty tomb. Even if we anticipated the same kind of restoration, wouldn't it still be disorienting for us to step inside the empty tomb where the climax of the gospel took place? Would we not also be confused and even frightened at the sight of a resurrection we weren't expecting? Even in our celebration of the resurrection, Jesus disrupts our anticipation of what should be and shows us what can and will be when we place our trust in Jesus that draws us to God’s restoration and healing.
In Mark's telling of the Easter story, the disciples needed this shock and awe moment. Throughout Mark's narrative, the disciples, like us, are depicted on occasion as being stubborn, egocentric, unattentive, and doubtful. If you don't believe me, all you need to do is check our reading from Mark, who tells us that the disciples are missing and that it was the women disciples who went out to visit the tomb of Jesus. The disciples who ate with Jesus in the upper room were probably too scared to visit the tomb, and they didn't even dare to go. What keeps us from running to the empty tomb and embracing the Easter hope, the Easter ministry of new life and restoration that Jesus entrusted to us? Even though our reading does not say what happened after the women fled, we know what happens next. The disciples' faltering and our fears of the unknown cannot overcome the promises of Jesus. Jesus is always waiting, even if we run away afraid. One step ahead of our fearful flight, Jesus stays faithful as the eternal bonding force that holds together heaven and earth, faithfulness that calls us to find healing and be healing for others.
We're invited to participate in the silence-shattering proclamation that the promise of Jesus' resurrection was not a one-time promise of reconciliation and healing but an ever-evolving promise that dwells with us today. Though our first instinct is to flee, Jesus challenges us to redirect that instinct to the life-affirming and life-giving ministry of healing people. You might think you don't have the power to do miraculous acts such as the ones Jesus did. However, isn't life in and of itself a miracle? And if life is a miracle, who are we to say that Christ, our living Lord, is not working through our daily living? We are Easter people, a resurrection people. And our discipleship will always involve an element of Easter ministry. That is the type of good trouble, silence-shattering, that Jesus wants us to carry on. None of this, though, is possible without the sustaining and empowering presence of Jesus. It's a presence that draws our attention to places in our soul that require the silence-shattering proclamation of Easter so that we might bring that proclamation and share its blessing with others.