Beyond Belief

I’ve been thinking. And what I’ve been thinking is this: What Easter requires of us is beyond belief. It’s beyond belief. It’s not just a matter of belief.

We reach the end of the gospel of Mark and we are once again in strange territory. We have been reading through the entire book of Mark through these last seven weeks and some of you may remember that the book begins abruptly. Mark doesn’t give us stories of mangers and babies and wise men bringing gifts from afar. Mark starts with Jesus being baptized by his cousin John and striding off into the wilderness to face down Satan. You just immediately launch into the story.

Now we’re at the end of the story and it is just as abrupt. 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? Perhaps 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 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.

That’s a strange ending. And it can’t be the ending. It can’t end this way. It didn’t end this way. If the women had really said nothing to anyone than none of us would be here. They must have told the tale. They must have finally overcome their fear to share what the young man at the tomb told them they must share.

We understand why the women ran away like this. We might have done the same. What has happened is beyond belief. Jesus was dead. Well and truly dead. They had seen him draw his last breath. They had seen him taken down – a lifeless form – removed from a criminal’s cross. They had felt the chill of the tomb. Or was that chill in their souls?

But to believe that he was alive? That he had gone on ahead to Galilee? They had seen Jesus do some amazing things before. When blind men called out to him from the roadside he had given them sight. When paralytics were lowered through ceilings he had lifted them to their feet. When a little girl lay dead with the mourners at the door, what did he do? He raised her up. But to rise himself and to go on as if death had no hold on him? It was beyond belief. And perhaps that’s just the point. Believing is only the beginning. What comes next is acting.

My mind has been drifting back to Thursday night. Do you remember the story of Jesus’ arrest? When all of his disciples began to flee there was one strange figure caught in the confusion. 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.

Now when I started this whole series on Mark I gave you a theory on who that young man might be. Biblical scholars think this may have been Mark himself…the author of the gospel putting himself into the scene the way medieval artists would place themselves in biblical paintings. Or maybe he was Forrest Gump. But the truth is that no one really knows who he is. He’s just there as Jesus is arrested. And like everyone else, he runs away when the going gets tough.

But there’s another young man in the resurrection story – another neoniskos. He appears at the tomb. I’ve always thought of this 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 naked guy 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.

So why does this matter? Because I’m beginning to think that the neoniskos is not just Mark...he’s also a stand-in for us.

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 troubles. We’ve got jobs that are shaky, bills to pay, health concerns, deadlines and relationships and friendships to deal with. Sometimes we’re just like the neoniskos, a young person on the fringes who happens to be there as the story of Jesus unfolds, 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…like Easter morning…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 the young man 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 neoniskos finally says. Christ is risen! And because Christ lives, I live, too.

But Christ doesn’t just want us to believe that. Jesus wants us to live like Easter makes a difference. If the cross is the fulcrum point on which the course of our lives and the course of the universe turns, then can we really continue to act as if it is doesn’t make any difference to how we live in the world? Is Christ’s death meaningless? Was it all for nothing that God went to the cross to save you and me?

Are we just going to keep it to ourselves or will we tell? It’s O.K. now, you know. The young man at the tomb has said to tell the news. No more secrets. Jesus has gone the distance. Now you know the whole story. It’s O.K. to tell the world that Christ is alive and it makes all the difference.

So the question is – will you claim the abundant life that is yours – the life that has been bought at such an incredible price? Will you keep walking behind Jesus into this new life or will you flee in confusion? Thanks be to God.

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.