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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 16: 1-8
Well, the trial is over. The verdict is in. Christ is
crucified, declared dead by the centurion; Christ’s corpse is taken down and
laid in a tomb; and a large stone is rolled in front of the tomb to close it.
In the manner of all people, Jesus dies. Like the tide, the disciples who have drawn away from Jesus during the trial and crucifixion, now surge back to grieve, to question, to wonder whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. Was there something else that could have been done?
In the end, the disciples were not able to properly prepare Jesus’ body for burial. There were those conversations recalling the woman who poured the ointment of nard over his head, but that did not fulfill the requirements of respect and decency. The women will have to complete those duties after the Passover celebrations and Sabbath.
READING THE BLUEPRINT
When the Sabbath cycle had ended, Mary Magdalene, James’ Mary,
and Salome went to the market for aromatics in order that they might go and anoint
him. So, very early on the first day of the Sabbath cycle, they went to the
tomb when the sun had risen. They were speaking among themselves, “Who will
roll away for us the stone from the door of the tomb?” Looking up, they saw that
the stone was rolled back. It was very large.
Going into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right dressed in white clothes. The women were totally freaked. He said to them, “Do not be so freaked. You are Jesus seeking, the Nazarene who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him? Go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. You will behold him there as he told you.” The women left the tomb and fled, for terror and the implications of the moment weighed on them. They were afraid and said nothing to anyone because…
ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE
Yes, the Gospel of Mark ends with an incomplete sentence.
The concern over this incomplete sentence has challenged believers and
theologians from the beginning. We do not know whether the first hearers of
this Gospel had a better understanding of the intent for this incomplete
sentence, but we know that some later hearers of the Gospel story decided to
fix what they thought was a shortcoming.
Today we see two distinct endings that follow. These endings put a ribbon on the end of Mark, they are clumsy and lead the Church down some roads best not traveled, like snake-handling, drinking poisons, and faith healing. I am not trying to say that snake bites are not survivable nor that poisons have not been consumed without effect. I am not even saying that faith healing does not occur.
What I am saying is, making these acts necessary signs of faith says that we can do something to receive salvation, that these marks of the church demonstrate your faith. This is inconsistent with the rest of Mark’s gospel. Faith is a quality of lifelong-living, not individual acts of proof. Faith is known by one’s care for the neighbor and speaking truth not flamboyant public acts that elevate the reputation of the person doing them. Faith is following where Jesus is leading.
PUTTING UP THE WALLS
It has been about 1950 years since Mark’s gospel was written, and we are still trying to neatly end it. In our English translations, we have made the last sentence of (original) Mark a complete sentence where the sentence had been left incomplete. There continues to be a “Lady and the Tiger” quality about Mark’s ending—"They were afraid because…”.
In a sense, the Church has never adequately addressed Mark’s
incomplete opus. We have not addressed the directions Jesus left for his followers.
And so, we continue to come to our beautiful sanctuaries with the same questions
the women had so many years ago.
· Now that we have Jesus locked away, who will roll the stone away?
·
Who will remove those impediments that continue
to keep us from following where Jesus is leading?
·
Galilee? Where is that? I can find it on the
map, but Jesus didn’t actually leave an address, did he?
·
How can I GPS him? Galilee covers many square
miles.
·
The stone is very large; we find that we kinda
like that stone. It is so precisely placed and has a certain aesthetic rightness
about it. Do we really want to move it?
A couple of years ago, I attended a conference where Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove was the plenary speaker. During our last session, we heard a recorded address from Bishop William Barber asking if we would consider being part of the “Poor Peoples’ Campaign” (PPC). In the midst of the questionnaire he used, was the question, “Are you willing to be arrested?’”
The earlier questions had been concerned with getting information, being willing to support the movement, speaking to others about the goals of the PPC; I was right there. When we were asked to address the accumulated wealth of our nation and how it was accrued through the theft of the land and the theft of the labor of millions of Black Americans, I was a little uncomfortable, but okay. But, arrest? In my privileged, financially secure place, I was saying “No way.”
This is not the first time this has happened to me. Fifty years ago, I was asked to be part of a demonstration at a church where the pastor would not commune Black people. I was not able to stand up at that time either. There have been several other times when I might have said something or done something that would have led to arrest, but I just could never bring myself to that point.
You see, I find the completed sentence of Mark to be reassuring. As long as I can make the terror, amazement, and fear the issue for Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, I am able to distance myself from their silence, judging them without having to judge myself. But when that sentence is incomplete, “They said nothing to anyone. They were afraid because…”, I myself need to finish the sentence.
Let us not be confused. We have equivocated long enough. Today, we are still amazed, terrified, and afraid. We want there to be a body. We want to see the crucified Christ before us. We want to know that he is arisen, but we want to see the body.
As Jesus-seekers, we do not want to hear that Jesus is not here. For if he is not here, then we are still being called to Galilee. We are challenged to complete the sentence. We are commanded to name our fear and recognize our shortcomings.
Still, the truth is clearly before us. He has been raised. See the table of sacrifice where we lay him and claim him weekly?
Go! Tell his disciples that he has gone ahead to Galilee. There you will find him. Complete the sentence; then proclaim, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Travel into the wilderness land of Galilee, into the land of lepers, withered hands, paralytics, tax collectors, widows, orphans, strangers, the blind, the lame, and the poor. There you will see him.
And as you listened to his teachings, listen to the stories of shunning isolation, of economic inequities and policies that are put in place to insure poverty for some and wealth for others. Listen to the stories of the thousands who are hungry, trying to make do with some bread and some fish. Let us listen to the grief of those who would follow but find no good news in the world around them because there is no one to lift them up in the name of Jesus.
Christ’s final conquest is over death, but the first conquest is over fear. It is only when fear is conquered that we are able to proclaim those Easter words that speak of the “beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ.” Are we willing to be arrested for that proclamation?
HANGING THE TRIM
Alleluia! Christ is arisen! You are
arrested in his body! There is no bail. This is the Good News. Alleulia!
The trial is o’er. The verdict is in.
Christ’s on the cross. Some taunt, some grin.
The veil rends within.
Alleluia!
Laid in the tomb, his body dead,
Now has the stone been rolled away;
New life begins on Easter Day.
And at the last,
temple curtain rends within.
Now has our savior conquered sin.
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