“They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid” Mark 16:8.
That is how Mark ends his gospel. “They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” It wasn't until years later that someone decided Mark needed a longer ending. So they added to the story. A few years later someone decided that ending wasn't long enough so they added another. For whatever reason, the writer chose to end this gospel with, “They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” It's not a bad ending. If anything, from a story point of view, it is excellent. It leaves us with a cliffhanger. It leaves us wondering. It leaves us a little confused. It leaves us in the perfect place on this resurrection Sunday.
I am not a fan of drawn out endings. At the end of the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, I began to clap as Frodo and Sam were rescued by a giant hawk. I started to gather my things and started clapping when my brother said, “It's not over.” “Not over? What do you mean? They won. What else do we need to know?” Turns it, we needed four different endings to know what happens. We learned more than we needed about Frodo, Sam, Gandolf, and the others. The second the ring was destroyed, we were told all we needed to know. They won and Sauron lost and Middle Earth would survive.
We are not comfortable with short endings or abrupt endings. We want to know more. We feel entitled to know more. Mark doesn't give us more. He gives us what we need to know, nothing more, nothing less. These short 8 verses give us exactly what we need to know this Easter morning.
Last week I talked about the way we've viewed this story in the past as a three act play. The first act is Palm Sunday, the second act is Good Friday, and the third act is Easter. I talked about how Christ was introducing a new act and how the story was changing into a five act story in which we have a part to play. Act 1 was creation, the formation of the cosmos. Act 2 was the rise and fall of Israel. Act 3 is the life and death of Christ. Act 4 is the Church. Act 5 is the Eschaton. Today, we hear from the young man in white everything we need to know about Acts 3-5.
The three faithful women come to the tomb early in the morning on the first day of the week, and they find the stone rolled away. They see a young man in a white robe, and he says three things to them. The first thing he says is about the past: “You are looking for the Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him” (Mark 16:6). This is telling the everything they need to know about the past.1 He has been raised. Everything we need to know about the end of Act 3 is this: Jesus was crucified and he was raised from the dead, not as a ghost or a spirit or a metaphor or an idea, but as a body. Act 3 has ended but the past tells us this is not the end of the story.
The second thing the young man tells the women is about the present: “He is going ahead of you to Galilee” (Mark 16:7). This is telling them, and us, everything we need to know about the present. Jesus' resurrection is not a finished thing, a completed historical event with no further implications.2 Jesus is doing something now. He is going ahead. He is on the move. He is leading the action of God. He is setting an example, giving direction, defining purpose, pointing the way. He is starting a new act. Act 4 begins the moment Jesus moves. The Church has started and Jesus is giving us a direction, a purpose, and we are shown the way.
The news of the past tells us that Christ changed everything we took for granted about the disaster of the cross, and the tragedy of our own failures. Now the news about the present tells us that Jesus is effecting that change in our very homes. Everything we need to know about the present is that Jesus is on the move. Our story has not ended. Our part in this story is only beginning. We have been given a purpose, a job to do, a role to play in this epic drama. And everything we need to know about the church right now is that Jesus is on the move and we cannot stand still.
The third thing the young man tells the women is about the future: “There you will see him” (Mark 16:7). The young man tells the women everything they need to know about the future. Jesus' resurrection changes not just the things you thought you knew about reality but the resurrection is going to transform you.3 You will see him. You are going to find yourself in Jesus' presence. This is the destiny of your life. And there isn't any other news. This is the last word. Act 5 is summed up with, “There you will see him.” There are no details given on how that will work; we are told what we need to know, “There you will see him.” So we can presume that it means we will be forever in his presence.
We get stuck in Act 5, the church gets stuck in Act 5. We are so captivated and mesmerized by what it will be like when see him that we forget the job we've been given to do. We are told all we need to know about the future, “There you will see him.” That should be enough; yet, we're afraid because we do not know what that looks like or how that will be. We go and sit under the cross learning all we can about the future and we forget about our mission, our story.
All we need to know about the future is what the young man tells us, “There you will see him.” The resurrection frees us from our fears of the future. We are free to live and participate in this exciting story God is writing for us. We do not need to worry about what it will it be like, look like, smell like, taste like or when it will be like. We are told all we need to know about Act 5: “There you will see him.” Easter Sunday reminds us that Christ has taken care of the future.
You have to admire Mark's resurrection story. He's not telling us everything he knows. Surely the women did tell someone, else how would Mark know about it? We cannot domesticate Mark's resurrection account. We cannot ask him to tell us everything so we can sit on the couch and admire from afar. Mark tells us all we need to know about the past, “Christ was crucified and has risen” and about the future, “There you will see him.”; about the present, Mark is telling us we have a story to tell, a job to do. We have a mission. Jesus is on the move and so are we.
Act 4 has begun. The church's life has begun and we have been given a purpose. We have been given role to play. Like the women, we are afraid and bewildered. Like the faithful women, we wonder if we would have the courage to trust that Christ is truly risen and he has truly gone ahead and that we will see him there. Like the faithful women, we will rise up because the story has just begun.
Let us rise up from the foot of the cross, marvel at the empty tomb, dream of the day we will be there with him, and go forth into the world today proclaiming what we know about the past, the present, and the future. Let us trust that we've been told more than enough.
1Wells, Samuel. “In Three Tenses” Speaking the Truth: Preaching in a Pluralistic Culture, pg 124
2Wells pg 124
3Wells, pg 125
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