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Easter Account from the Gospel of Mark
That first Easter Sunday was filled with emotion. The Disciples were in hiding… filled with grief, shame and fear. The women… the women, Mark tells us, went through a myriad of emotions. For them… the morning began with grief and sadness… but also determination… The Sabbath was over and they were determined to go and properly care for Jesus’ body… to anoint it with the normal spices to demonstrate their respect and love. But they were also unsure… they knew the stone had been rolled in front of the tomb and they did not know who they could get to roll it away for them. They knew they could not do it themselves… so they were worried about the logistics of what they had planned. Then they reached to tomb and confusion strikes… the stone is already rolled away. Who would do that? … Why? Then “As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.” Think about how shocking that must have been. They enter the tomb and instead of Jesus’ body… they find a young stranger sitting there… like he was waiting for them to show up. Who is this guy? What did he do with Jesus’s body? Talk about disconcerting! Then this young man… whom we presume is an angel… a messenger of God proclaims what should have been good news: “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” This message was shocking… and they had to have been dazed and confused. Then Mark tells us that they ran off in fear. Now most Bibles now offer verses 9-20 which is a very quick rundown of how Jesus appears to his followers… however… The earliest manuscripts end here… without the appearance of Jesus. The rest were added later on. Not the Easter ending we are used to. Is it? With the women receiving the news and fleeing in terror. I mean… All the other Gospels tell how they actually encountered Jesus and how the eye witness accounts spread. They tell of the joy that came from those encounters. But not Mark. Mark is different… in Mark’s account, we are left standing at an empty tomb with a proclamation that Christ has risen… we are left with the task of going and telling others the news… without proof… without an eye-witness to the event. All the women are told is that Jesus has risen from the dead and will meet them all in Galilee… in the old familiar places. In other words… Jesus will meet them where they live. No offer of proof… no sign of the Risen Lord… just the stranger’s proclamation. “He has risen! He is not here.” Most people prefer John’s account, because Mark kinda leaves us hanging. We miss the joy Mary feels when she encounters Christ in the garden… her excitement in sharing this great good news. But this morning… Mark’s account seems oddly appropriate… because… let’s face it. That is our reality today. We are left standing on the proclamation of Jesus’ Resurrection. We have heard the news that Jesus rose from the grave… that he defeated death. But let’s face it… death we know… death we have experienced… but resurrection… eternal life… that’s something else… it is hard to grasp. Those women at the tomb… and even Peter and the other Disciples… they knew Jesus personally. They loved him and had heard his words and teachings… they heard him specifically tell them that he would die, but that he would rise again… yet THEY could not grasp the truth of that. How are we supposed to? The answer comes in what we are NOT told. Marks says that the women were so shocked by the news they fled in terror… in fact “They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” That’s it… Mark’s tale is done… EXCEPT that we know that the angel’s words came true. Somehow… somewhere… they encountered the Risen Lord. Their shock and fear subsided and was replaced with resounding joy! How do we know? Easy… we are here! We have come here today… Almost two-thousand years later… believing and feeling the joy of a proclamation we have heard. How many of us have seen Jesus… in the flesh… risen from the dead? Have we seen his hands? Or touched his wounded side? So… why do we believe? How can we believe such a strange story? Because… like those women… like Peter, James, John and the other followers of Christ… we have all heard the proclamation… and we have all encountered the Risen Christ at some point… in some place in our lives. We may not have seen his face, but we have felt his presence… we have experienced his love… or we would not be here. Now… our mission is the same as theirs. As we stand here… hearing again of the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior… as fear dissipates and turns to joy… we too are called to go and proclaim the wonderful Good News… Christ is Risen… Alleluia! Amen!
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Yeon Shin
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