Afraid

In the early centuries of the church, some thought so, and so they apparently looked at other gospels and made a summary of some of the accounts there, and tacked that summary onto the Gospel of Mark, in order to complete it in the same sort of way.

Most scholars, however, think that the Gospel ended in the abrupt, awkward way as we heard it this morning.

What could it mean, this rough close of the Gospel?

It seems like something of a letdown to such a marvelous story.

It leaves us with so many questions:

Where did the women go?

With whom did they speak?

How could they ever get up the nerve to mention the whole strange scene to anyone?

What happened on Monday?

Mark tells of no other appearance of the risen Lord Jesus, no breakfasts on the beach, chats on Facebook, or whatever.

The women didn't know what to say. Words failed them. They felt fear.

It would be tough to write an Easter hymn based on this verse., and yet there is something powerfully true about these words.

Fear, trembling, and silence is what they are feeling.

Oh, yes, that does match us.

We can put on the superficial happy look, until we remember that it was death, real, horrifying, bloody death that got us to this morning.

Just as Peter tried to “manage” things at the scene of the Transfiguration,

so here at the tomb, the women try to” manage” a bad situation;

they will try to do the regular ritual actions for a dead body, in spite of the terrible way he died.

But, their attempt at management is completely undone.

God's messenger gives them the news: “Christ is risen and has gone on the Galilee, where you will see him.”

But they couldn't do even that right away; for a time, they were paralyzed with fear.

This Jesus just won't stay in a neat category.

--Wonder-worker? Yes, but he is more than that.

--Rabbi, sage? Yes, but he is still more.

--Suffering servant as Isaiah foretold? Yes, but more involved that only this.

--Dead? But now he is so much more than that in resurrected life.

No one category is enough to contain him; Jesus slips from our hands and acts in other ways.

Remember when his family tried to quiet Jesus, and he had to inform them that his “family” was much larger than they thought.

And remember when the hometown crowd wanted to stone Jesus for supposed blasphemy?

Jesus was able to stare them down and to walk away from that cliff edge through the crowd, to safety.

Remember how Jesus spoke to the arresting officers, ”Why are you bringing clubs? Day after day I was teaching in the temple, and you made no attempt to arrest me there.”

And they had no answers for him.

Jesus is in a category all his own, and defies management from us.

Our proper reaction is speechlessness and amazement.

If we come wanting proof, it will not be forthcoming.

What we get is the Lord Jesus beckoning to us from far ahead in the future.

We want management, and what we get is a life lived in Christ's name, with a large measure of wonder, mystery, and awe

Afraid? Yes, indeed, we should be afraid, because this is not a life that we control.

Oh, we think that we do, but the Lord sees to it that there are many surprises along the way, some of them quite challenging.

It is because this resurrection means something from outside comes into our lives and disrupts, changes, transforms it.

Our gathering here today is not a community meeting; I'm a pastor and not just a public speaker; what we are receiving is gospel, not noble sentiments; what happens is not that we say “Now I'll need to think about that a bit,” but rather when we are able to find words we say “Wow, this is life on a different basis, with different methods, with far different goals, and it is claiming me, and changing me!”

There have been some who have tried to manage the resurrection-message by making it something less than the complete remaking of life that begins now in this proclamation and is completed in the fullness of heaven.

Rudoph Bultmann, a German theologian, spoke of Jesus rising “Into the faith of his disciples.”

His point of view turns Jesus into a nice memory that we can control, think about once in awhile, and put back on the shelf when we want to get on to other things.

Well, certainly Jesus is in the faith of his disciples, but he is much more than that.

John Knox, Scottish reformer, said that “Jesus rose into the living memory of the church. To know the substance of the church's life is to know the resurrection...in having the church, we have everything.”

More management talk, isn't it?

It is whittling Jesus down to a size that we can understand and control.

A domesticated Jesus is not Lord, he becomes my good buddy, with whom I spend a little time now and again.

A resurrected Lord Jesus, completely independent of my doing and aspirations, that is something quite different, of whom we are properly more than a little afraid.

Let's remember the various definitions for that term “body of Christ.”

1.It is of course Jesus of Nazareth, walking around Israel 2,000 years ago. [John 1:14]

2.And the Body of Christ is the church of all times and places, including this congregation. [Colossians 1:18]

3.Further, the Body of Christ is the bread that we share in Holy Communion. [Matthew 26:26]

4.The Body of Christ is who conversed with the disciples on the mountain in Galilee after this day's events, bringing some to faith but some remaining in doubt. [Matthew 28:16-17]

5.The Body of Christ is that one raised by the Father and seated at his right hand in glory.[Acts 2:32-33]

We want to hold onto all of that, all of those meanings, all at the same time!

Just try to wrap your mind around all of those meanings of “body of Christ” together!

We cannot “manage” this resurrected Body of Christ; any attempt to do so is foolishness; it defies our comprehension and is beyond our abilities.

What will he make of us, this resurrected Lord Jesus?

That is the adventure, the excitement.

We don't know!

But it will be revealed to us a bit at a time, as we need it.

Frightening? Yes, but not terrifying, for it is this same Lord Jesus who sends a messenger to urge us “Be not afraid,”[Mark 16:6] and himself says “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” [Matthew 28:20] Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.