Easter Sunday 2021 Mark 16
The Gospel of Mark. You’ve been watching the first season on Netflix (or whatever). You are hooked. You’ve loved the characters. Jesus is so compelling, a mixture of tough and strong, and yet beautifully soft and compassionate. The male disciples, sure, they make mistakes, but they learn and you can see how they grow. The women, they are always there, just not centre stage all the time. And then, in the last 3 episodes we come to the horrible events in Jerusalem. All the scheming and manipulating by the religious leaders; the agony as Jesus prays at night in the garden; the abuse and torture, the inhuman, callous treatment of Jesus on the cross; the unexpected darkness; the dreadful cry of abandonment from the cross; the hasty burial in the tomb. Episode 10 finishes at the very end, in the early dawn. The faithful women rush to the tomb to complete the burial rites. The tomb is open, but not violated. The unknown young man announces that Jesus is raised from the dead, they are to tell the disciples and go with them to Galilee. And the closing moments…….They run away, distressed, confused, upset. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
That is how the Gospel of Mark ends up. Later Christians tried to soften it, by adding ‘better’ endings. But that is how Mark originally finished. Now if the season finishes on that note…..you know they are planning season 2. But before we get to season 2, let’s look at why Mark ends this way.
On Good Friday, after we had finished hearing the Passion from St John, we sang these words.
‘Take our fear away for the risks each day in the place where we must stand.’
The original hearers of Mark’s Gospel were Christians in Rome, at the time of Nero. When the city burned for a week, Nero used Jewish people as the scapegoat, and the Jewish people scapegoated the Christians in their midst, because they did not want to be kicked out of Rome yet again. The Roman soldiers came round, seeking Christians, and neighbours betrayed neighbours. Christians themselves had to make that horrible choice: do I deny my faith in Jesus, and save my life, or do I say, ‘No, I believe,’ knowing that it will most likely end with a revolting death in the arena.
For those Christians in Rome there was fear in believing the resurrection of Jesus. Could they literally entrust themselves, knowing that Jesus had new life for them? Not easy. We make choices for life in all sorts of little ways each day of our lives. Maybe the women at the tomb were like me, and freeze in the face of having to make big decisions when there is a lot of pressure. But this is just a moment. We don’t get it right, each time. Sometimes there is no one right way. A wrong choice is finally the opportunity to make a better choice next time, even though there might be lots of stuff to work through. I believe we have a God who works with us, as we are, and there is a beautiful divine patience.
Easter means that there is always new life. There is always a way through. Our poor choices have repercussions, but Easter also means new life coming out of what was dead.
All the disciples, women and men, are directed back to Galilee, back to where Jesus’s ministry started. It’s like they had to revisit what had happened earlier, but see it in a new light. Perhaps that is part of Easter work for us, going back to some of the old or unsorted stuff in our lives, but being taken back with the risen Jesus guiding us.
One thing for sure: the disciples wound never be the same again. They weren’t going back to their old ways of living, their old professions, their old lifestyles. The resurrection is so big and the risen Jesus so full of life, that the old no longer works. Forgiveness, joy, wonder, hope and courage are powerful things.
Easter is seeing things in a new light. Death has been defeated. Sin never has the final word. Easter means allowing ourselves to be loved and held by the one who lives for ever, and loves for ever. Breathe it in.
