Robert Berra
Sermon
The Easter Vigil, 2015
Mark 16:1-8
On this night of holding
vigil—and now of celebration and joy—in which we greet Easter and the news of
the resurrected Jesus Christ, our gospel reading gives us this final
sentence: “ [The women] went out and
fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said
nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
Mark Chapter 16 Verse 8. What a
strange place to end a reading from the Gospel on Easter.
But this brings up an
interesting thing about the Gospel of Mark.
While Mark in our Bibles goes on to Chapter 16 verse 20, which rather
hurriedly mentions a number of resurrection appearances, in most modern translations of the Bible you
will see a footnote that reads “Some of the most ancient authorities bring the
book to a close at the end of verse 8.”
The remaining 12 verses came later in the tradition, probably added
sometime in the second century. In fact,
in the manuscript tradition of the Gospel of Mark there are no fewer than four
possible endings to Mark’s gospel. And the
earliest commentators on the Gospel note in cases where there is something
after verse 8, the additions are not present in the best manuscripts they have
on hand. In other words, Mark 16:9-20
were added to the gospel later on, and Mark may have intentionally ended his
Gospel with the amazed and terrified women fleeing the tomb, not delivering the
message to Peter and the disciples to follow the resurrected Jesus on to
Galilee. The earliest copies of Mark
point to this moment of amazement, terror, and silence as the end of the gospel
account.
It might be odd to think
of a book that calls itself an account of Good News of Jesus Christ ending in a
cliffhanger; but personally, I love it.
With Mark ending his Gospel at verse 8, we do not get a clean, rounded
off, happy ending to the Jesus story. We
instead get terror and confusion. That
is in keeping with the rest of the story Mark tells, in which the people around
Jesus just don’t get what he is up to.
Jesus orders folks to be silent about his identity as the messiah, which
they do not do, and misunderstand the nature of Christ’s work. The disciples
didn’t listen when Jesus told them the way he treads must lead to the
cross. Those same disciples abandon
Jesus at his arrest. Peter does not just
abandon Jesus, but denies him thrice.
The women go to the tomb expecting to find Jesus’s body, meaning that no
one has remembered what Jesus said when he prophesied his resurrection and
return to Galilee.[1] For Mark, the story of the disciples is one
of little faith. Why would Mark do this?
What Mark leaves us with, we
who read this story so many years later, is a challenge.
As Mark has it, the
angelic visitor who meets the women tells them: “you are looking for Jesus of
Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here…go, tell his
disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will
see him, just as he told you.”
Mark’s challenge to us is
this: Will we heed the angel’s
words? Will we follow Jesus to Galilee?
We have seen the stone
rolled away, and the empty place he was laid.
Will we follow Jesus where he has led, even through death and the tomb?
We know that the cross was
not the final word, and God’s love triumphed over death by resurrecting
Jesus. Will we follow Jesus, with the
promise that we will find our life in losing it?[2]
We heard from the angel that
even Peter and the disciples—deserters and deniers—are invited to rejoin
Jesus. Will we follow Jesus, trusting in
his gracious ongoing invitation even when we find our faith wanting and lapsed?
Will we follow Jesus, who
tells us that the greatest task we set ourselves to is to love God with all
that we are, and love our neighbors as ourselves?[3]
Will we follow Jesus, and being
witnesses proclaim in word and deed the good news of the Kingdom of God?[4]
You see, the first verse
of Mark’s Gospel sets out what it is. Mark
says it is ‘the beginning of the good news of
Jesus Christ.’ And Mark makes clear by
his ending that, actually, our story is its continuation. Our answer to his challenge to believe and
follow Christ is part of the ongoing story of Christ’s work in the world. The gospel is not something we can put down,
like a finished book. We are always
writing the next chapter and answering the challenge of discipleship.[5]
We continue this story
tonight, and we begin new chapters of God’s good news as we welcome these two children by baptism into the household of God. Let us
renew our vows to follow Jesus, and make our vows to help these little ones do
the same.
Amen.
