What were they thinking? Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, I mean. Whatever were they thinking?
If the three women had been at all rational and logical, they would have brought fulcrums and levers to move that stone that blocked the entrance of the tomb. But no - all they carried with them into the cemetery that early morning as the sun first began to peep over the horizon, scattering forth its pink and yellow and orange hues, were sweet spices.
Surely the women knew that tubes of aloe and jars of myrrh were not going to make a whit of difference when it came to shifting the rock that sealed the tomb where Jesus’ body had been hastily laid just before the Sabbath sundown. The stone was an issue – no doubt about it - and the Gospel writer of Mark takes great pains to tell us that it was a very large stone – like a boulder, we can presume.
Surely the female mourners realized that they would have been better served by insisting on a couple of strong backs – Peter maybe or even Andrew – but, no, the disciples who had emerged from hiding after melting into the Good Friday crowds that had screamed their insults and epithets at Jesus – Crucify him! Crucify him! – those rather cowardly and faithless followers were sleeping it off this Easter morning.
And so it was just the three women and their embalming ointments making their way through the dawn dew to the tomb. And why did they bother? Oh, perhaps it was so they could say that at least they had tried – tried to pay their respects, tried to acknowledge that they realized that Jesus had loved right to the very end –even when the whole world had turned against him. Perhaps the women wanted to give Jesus posthumously the dignity that had escaped him when he died in the appalling way he did. Maybe this was just their way to say they had loved him.
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome came prepared to wash the dried blood from his face and hands and feet. They came to comb his hair that had gotten all tangled in the thorny crown he had been forced to wear. They came to anoint his body with sweet spices – aloe and myrrh – ancient embalming fluids. In the end, they had come to offer him a final bit of kindness, something they had been unable to do on Friday with the Sabbath coming on.
They knew that the rock would be problematic, but they came anyway. We have no idea what they were expecting to find. However, the Gospel writer does tell us what they did find and that was the rock rolled aside, revealing a cavernous and dark entrance to the tomb.
Evidently not creeped out by this macabre turn of events, the women ventured inside the cave, only to find in the shadowy dank a young man. The Gospel writer tells us that he was dressed in white and was sitting to the right (Such marvelous little details, undoubtedly to remind us that he (the writer) was not making all this stuff up).
It was only at this point that the three women became alarmed, as our translation says. But “alarmed” hardly does justice to their emotions. The Greek translation is more like “unspeakable fear,” that “bottom falling out of everything,” “end of the world,” “being out of your wits” kind of feeling. It is the same word actually that the Gospel writer uses to describe Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, looking up to the skies for the face of his father only to find the empty blackness of a empty universe. (John Meunier) Kneeling in the garden (Jesus) feels that unspeakable” what we so glibly translate as alarm.
In our vocabulary, the three women were not simply alarmed. They were freaked out, especially after the man in the tomb preached the first Easter sermon in history.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he cautioned. “Don’t be filled with that unspeakable fear, for Jesus has been raised. Now go – go and tell the disciples (including Peter, the Gospel writer makes a point of telling us, including Peter who had so blatantly failed Jesus and had so fallen short of all expectations when he did his three part denial – maybe there really is hope for all of us). Go and tell them the news, every last one of them – and tell them to hightail to Galilee where it all began three years ago.
But the women had harbored that unspeakable fear thing, and so they do not tell a single….And that is the end of the story in this particular Gospel. Though the English translation ends with a complete sentence and a period, some Biblical scholars believe that the original Greek ended in the middle of a sentence.
What was the Gospel writer thinking? Did he forget to save the account to his hard drive? Did someone rip out the last page? Did the dog eat it? Is this any way to end the greatest story ever told? The Good News dies with the women at the tomb? How good is that?
Later writers apparently thought it was an awful way to end the story because a couple of them went so far as to write their own endings and tack them on. You can read them there in the Bible. However, the original Gospel ends in fear, trembling, silence, and maybe, just maybe, in the middle of a sentence.
But you know, I like the idea of an unfinished ending. I agree with those Biblical scholars who maintain that the Gospel writer concluded the story this way – with a non-ending – quite intentionally. He knew what he was doing. After all, a story without an ending can be quite tantalizing.
And maybe that is why so many people come to church on Easter Sunday – even people who do not ordinarily come to church. Maybe deep down inside people gather in sacred places like this one hoping against hope that this year – maybe, just maybe – they will hear the end of the story – and it will be to their liking.
Well, if that is a reason you came here this morning, then, sorry – you will be deeply disappointed because I do not have the end of the story tucked neatly up my sleeve.
In short, resurrection is not that simple. For one thing, the meaning of resurrection is not irrevocably bound to a past event, as some folks believe. That is, resurrection is not something that occurred at a single point in time 2000 years ago and therefore cries out for a logical explanation today. And what is more, resurrection is in no way tied to our own future deaths either (as some people also think) because resurrection was never intended as some sort of heavenly guarantee of life forever – at least not life as we know it.
The meaning of resurrection lies in the present – and that is why I believe that the Gospel writer ended his story mid-sentence. You see, the story has not ended yet. Really! It is as Presbyterian theologian Frederick Buechner said, “What really matters is not so much what happened there (at the tomb). It's what happens now. What happens in your life and my life.” To understand the meaning of resurrection, we need to revisit the sermon of the young man in white in the tomb. “He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him”.
Presbyterian pastor Laura Collins puts it this way: “This is the key to our Easter morning promise. The women did not hear that Jesus was raised to sit at the right hand of God on some throne in some far away heaven. What they heard was much more radical. He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.
Where is Galilee? Galilee is where these disciples came from. It was their home. It was the place where they had families and jobs and ordinary routines. It was not Jerusalem — the Holy City, the center of power — but Galilee, the place of everyday life.”
And so for us gathered here today trying to come to grips with this resurrection business, that means – go back. Leave this sacred space and go back – back to your homes and jobs and families. That is where you will find the Risen Christ. That is where you will discover the potential – if you so choose – to be empowered by him. In short, you and I are the ones the Gospel writer is calling upon to finish the story.
As Laura Collins continues, “This is not the end; God's business is not finished. This is the beginning. This is where your work begins. This is where your life begins…Don't stand at a tomb, paying homage to a dead teacher. Don't set your sights on simply putting ointment on wounds already dealt. Go back to the place where you live your life.”
There you will meet the God who walks among us with love so powerful that it was strong enough even to overcome death. There you will run smack into the Christ who rose above the intolerance, the fear, the violence, and the greed that tried to destroy him. There you will find the Spirit of the One who lives and who will not be stopped by hatred or war or injustice.
Resurrection is the clearest and best sign we have that God is not finished yet. God’s business did not end in a tomb 2000 years ago with a handful of women overcome by unspeakable fear.
All the malice and pettiness and spite we could muster could not hold God back. Even that large stone in front of the tomb could not limit the power of God. Not even death could keep God’s love from making a comeback in the world.
So, on this Easter morning, regardless of why you came to church today, I challenge you to finish the story the Gospel writer began and purposely left unfinished. As United Church of Canada pastor, Richard Fairchild wrote, “We are a people who are called to believe in the power and the love that it shows -- to believe in the power and love of God to bring goodness out of evil; life out of death; and hope out of despair.”
I challenge you to continue this tale of resurrection when you leave this place today and go back to your ordinary lives. I challenge you to fulfill this stirring account of the power of love. After all, the Gospel writer is depending on us – you and me.
by Rev. Nancy Foran
Raymond Village Community Church, Raymond, Maine
www.rvccme.org
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