Easter
Rev. Sam Pendergrast
“Too Good to Be True”
Mark is the simplest of the gospels. Biblical Scholars tell us that it is the earliest to be written. The ending seems odd and incomplete. If the women really said nothing to anyone, how did the word spread? Yet scholars tell us that is really the way the original work ended. The material after verse eight is thought to have been added later. Whether the author was called away before producing a more complete ending, or whether he intended it to end in this unfinished way, we don’t know. Nevertheless, it is a compelling and realistic ending. In our imagination we can certainly believe that the women fled in fear and amazement and said not a word to anyone. Had we been there that we probably would have been so overwhelmed that we would have done the same. However, they must have told someone eventually, else we would not have the story.
This morning I call your attention to three elements of this simple story.
There is any number of reasons that many of us would not even have started out to go to the tomb. The women spoke of the main one as they walked along: “Who will roll away the stone?” They were doing what women did in such circumstances. They were going to the tomb properly to anoint his body for burial. They had not time on Friday, since he was buried hurriedly, since the Sabbath was about to begin. But the stone was large. How could they move it?
Think of the tomb as a place you would go to seek something new. Think of the stone as one of any number of perfectly good reasons not even to start out. There is any number of stones in our lives. Each of us has reasons not even to start out for the tomb. I’m too busy. My friends would not approve. I tried it before and it didn’t work. I failed. I’m not very disciplined. I am struggling with an addiction. I’m afraid. I don’t know what I would do when I got there. I’m alone. Who will help me?
But the women did go. Maybe they just didn’t know what else to do. Maybe it was the only thing they could think of. Maybe they were simply hoping against hope. For some reason they did go. And what they found amazed them.
Jesus was not there. He was not in the place of death where they and their friends had laid him just two days before. And even more terrifying, an angel was there who told them that he had risen, that he had gone to
I’d be frightened too. Just think about what people often tend to do after a big crisis. They want to go somewhere new, do something different, get a change of scenery. Boy, when I get out of this hospital bed I’m going to take a great vacation, do something I’ve never done before. Or – when I get out of jail I’m going to move to
Home. That’s where they know me. They know how badly I messed up last time. They know all my annoying habits. They saw me grow up. For the disciples to go back home, they would have to face it all again. They had messed up so badly. They didn’t understand him. They betrayed him. They denied him. They ran away in his hour of need. How could they go home? No wonder they were afraid.
But that is where Jesus had gone. That was where the angel said he would meet them.
But think about it. If you had been the disciples, you would have failed to understand the story as you went through it the first time, too. But now, you get to go back to the beginning and start over. Now it all begins to make sense. All the things Jesus did and said start to take on a new shape. Read the story again and your eyes begin to open.
Running away, going somewhere else, would only delay the need to face the past and come to terms with it. This news was not what they had expected. It was too much to take it. It was too good to be true. It took some adjustment.
What they had expected would have made sense. But what they expected had not come to pass. They expected the end of a big adventure and another disappointment as
But that’s what we have. However imperfect our faith, however halting our witness, however many times we remain silent in the face of the miracle of good news, we can always go home. We can always return to the Lord. We can always begin again.
Whenever a baby is born, there is a period of time when words seem out of place. You want simply to sit and gaze at this new person, this miracle, this wonderful, frightening new possibility. There is a time for words later on. But for the moment, all that seems necessary is to dwell in the presence of the mystery. Maybe that is what was going on as they fled from the tomb. It was too much even for words. It was too good to be true.
I hope it is true for you. I hope you will find your voice. I hope you will go home, wherever home may be, and face whatever there is waiting for you. I hope you will trust that God’s redeeming grace and resurrection power is greater than all that might weigh you down, all that might keep you from heading for another empty tomb, all that might have you wondering who will roll away the stone. He is not here. He is risen. He will meet you at home. Go and tell someone. To God be the glory.