Easter Comes to the Neoniskos

Red Bank Landing Ecumenical Easter Sunrise Service

Mark 16:1-8
Now when the Sabbath was over, Mary the Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. Very early in the morning of the first day of the week they went to the tomb as the sun arose. And they said to one another, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?" But when they looked up they saw the stone had already been rolled away, even though it was very large.
They entered the tomb and saw a young man sitting on the right side clothed in a long white robe and they were amazed. But he said to them, "Don't be awe-struck; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the crucified one. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place where they laid him. But you go, tell his disciples and Peter that he goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he said to you."
So they came out and fled from the tomb because confusion and trembling took hold of them. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

We have been through Holy Week. We have walked towards the cross with Jesus. On Thursday we remembered his final meal with his disciples and the way they all deserted him. On Friday we recalled his suffering and death. Then there was the tomb, the silence, the waiting. And as we read through the passion story once more this week a mystery I have pondered before came to my mind. Just who was the young man who ran away without his clothes in the garden?

Do you remember that part of the story? If you blink you’ll miss it. There is a very cryptic verse in the garden scene as Jesus is arrested. It only appears in the gospel of Mark, which is the gospel we read this morning. As Jesus is being taken away, a young man, a neoniskos in Greek, is following him and those who are trying to arrest Jesus also try to capture him, and they grab him by the linen cloth that he is wearing. He manages to wrench himself free and he runs away naked…the first Christian streaker. Biblical scholars have wondered about this young man, too. Some folks say he was an anonymous hanger-on…one of the crowd of disciples who were following. Some say he was Mark himself, putting himself into the scene the way medieval artists would place themselves in biblical paintings. Some say he was Forrest Gump. But it’s safe to say that no one really knows who the young man is. He’s just there as Jesus is arrested. And like everyone else, he runs away when the going gets tough.

But then I read the resurrection story. It’s also very strange in Mark. Listen to it with me and see if you hear what I heard. The Sabbath was over. The women who had waited through that long day after Jesus' death headed toward the tomb to anoint his body. They had bought some spices and they set off early in the morning, just as the sun was rising.

Who knows what they expected to see or why they wanted to go? Maybe it was a final act of love, a desire to see Jesus once more, a hoping against all hope that it hadn't really happened. It seems they hadn't even thought about one of the basic necessities for their trip before they left, because as they approached the tomb they wondered among themselves, "Who is going to move the stone for us?"

So Mary, Mary, and Salome came to face the dead. But when they finally took their eyes from the ground and looked up at the place of the grave, they found that the stone had already been rolled away, even though it was very large.

They entered the tomb only to find that it was occupied by a young man, a neoniskos, in a long white robe. They took him for an angel and they were amazed at the sight. He noticed and he said to them, "Don't be so surprised. You came to this tomb looking for a dead man - Jesus who you followed from Galilee and who you saw crucified and put to death on Friday." The young man knew that they had not come expecting to find life. They came to the tomb because that's where the dead could be found and there was part of them that had died as well.

Then the young man gave them the words that explained the emptiness. "He has been raised, he is not here. You can look but you will not find him. Now, you go and spread the word. Tell the disciples and Peter to go to Galilee where you will see him again as he told you he would."

They were words too wonderful for them to hear. They came out of the tomb and fled, just like a group of pig herders had done when Jesus sent the demons of a possessed man into their pigs so that they ran headlong into the water and died. They went fleeing from this place in fear and trembling because something powerful had struck them. Confusion and terror gripped them as if they had no will of their own. And the first witnesses to the empty tomb said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

I’ve always thought of the young man in the tomb as an angel, too. And if an angel is simply someone who is a messenger for God, then that’s definitely what he was. But neoniskos is only used twice in the whole gospel of Mark—to describe the young man in the garden and this man in another garden. It still doesn’t tell us who the young man is. He’s just there as Jesus was raised. And he tells a story that causes shock and awe in the first witnesses. But something about it sunk in. And they must have finally told. Because somehow we know.

It’s very hard for us to slow down enough to realize how powerful this story of Easter is. I know, I know. We’ve got lives – lives filled with all kinds of things that can distract us from what God wants to do with us. Sometimes we’re just like the neoniskos, a person on the fringes who happens to be there as the story of Jesus unfolds, not as prepared or dressed as we would like to be, wondering what it means for us. And sometimes we feel we don’t have anything more to offer than the young man when he runs off without his clothes. But there are moments, in silence, in awe, in the light of a sunrise peeking over the eastern horizon, when all things seem possible once again, and when I don’t seem outside the story of Jesus at all. At those moments I am in the empty tomb with the best news of all. Death does not have the last word. Death can never have the last word. He is risen as he said and he goes before us into the world, so that we can walk behind in confidence. Christ is risen! That’s what the young man finally says. Christ is risen! And because Christ lives, we can live, too. Thanks be to God.