Don't Take My Word for It [Easter Sunday]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Mark 16:1-8

Don’t Take My Word for It

It is April Fool’s Day and it seems the joke is on us.  Because this can’t be it.  You mean to tell me, this is the ending of Mark’s Gospel, this is the ending of our Easter Sunday Gospel: “and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid?”  That’s it? 

This is the final word of the Good News on the Day of Resurrection and it is no word at all.  The women who were there, at the tomb, who found the stone rolled away and the grave empty, they did not want to talk about it.  They were the very first to witness the resurrection and they kept silent.  We are staking our eternal salvation on this event and the first people to know about it, decided not to say anything to anyone.  Jesus is alive!  Christ is Risen!  That is a pretty big deal.  But sure, let’s keep that on the down low.

It is a little anti-climactic.  The Gospel tells us that terror and amazement seized them and so they said nothing to anyone.  That does not feel like Easter morning.  That is not how this is supposed to go.  We expect shouted Alleluias!  We expect brass blasts loud enough to wake the dead.  We expect to be assaulted by the overwhelming fragrance of incense mixed with the aroma of Easter lilies.  We expect colorful jelly beans to rain down from the sky.  We expect giant bunnies to prance through the fields with baskets of colored eggs.  There is nothing subtle about how we do Easter.  It is a day of celebration.  And we get from Mark’s Gospel, frightened silence.

And we get this bleak scene.  Now we know that in order for Jesus to rise from the dead, he must first be dead.  And for us, Jesus’ death is OK.  Because we know the Easter ending; we already know the tomb is empty.  But it is worth saying that the women in Mark’s Gospel do not know.  They do not know that this, this first Easter morning, is Easter morning.  For them it is just a terrible Sunday.  They are coming to attend to a corpse.  They expect to find a dead body, the dead body of their friend, in a cold tomb.  Their Easter morning begins in sorrow. 

They come to the tomb with anointing spices for the body.  But also they come to the tomb with a dilemma.  The tomb has been sealed with a large stone.  And apparently they could not convince any young, strapping men to accompany them.  This is telling because Mary, one of the women, is said to be the mother of a man named James.  Also Jesus had twelve disciples – all young working class men – and even though obviously no one is asking Judas to help, that still leaves eleven men who also choose not to show up at Jesus’ tomb.  It is first thing on Easter morning and save these three women, Jesus has been utterly abandoned.     

This is where our faith begins.  The Easter miracle that raised Jesus from the dead, that sent the Risen Christ out into the world, is why we are sitting here today.  This is the event that changed everything, that changed the world.  And if today’s Gospel tells us anything it is that things got off to a slow start.  Only three people show up to pay their respects and a total of zero people say anything to anyone about the fact that the tomb is empty and that, rumor has it, the Jesus who died on the cross is alive and on the move.  That is big news – big news that no one, according to Mark’s Gospel, is sharing. 

This movement, the Jesus movement, got off to a slow start.  And yet here you are.  You are here in your nice, new Easter clothes, with a few hundred of your closest friends, singing about an event that happened two-thousand years ago.  No one said anything to anyone and yet somehow you found out.  And when I said to you, “Alleluia. Christ is risen” you yelled back, “The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.”  And so now I think that not only did you find out, but also this Easter miracle matters to you today. 

No one said anything to anyone and yet somehow you found out.  And not only did you acquire the information, something about that first Easter morning changed your life – even though you were not there and the three ladies who were there kept silent.  So how do we get from the silence of the garden to a packed church two-thousand years later?

The Easter story is a good story – an exciting twist ending to the story of Jesus.  I love a good story as much as anyone.  But a good 1^st century story alone doesn’t inspire two-thousand years of Alleluias.  The world needs more than a once upon a time.  The world needs more than an ancient newscast from an empty tomb.  Easter is a great story, but I’m standing here, you’re sitting here, because it is so much more than a story.  Easter is not something to know about; Easter something you experience – in your heart, in your soul, in your bones.  Easter is the power of God at work in our world and in our lives:  sowing seeds of hope in the fields of despair, bringing new life to barren places, calming troubled hearts with peace, giving us the courage to believe that justice will roll down like waters, that good will triumph over evil, that love is stronger than even death. 

See I could tell you the Easter story and you could decide whether or not to believe the validity of what I say.  But those words will not change your life.  And the Risen Christ means to change your life.  Those three women at the end of Mark’s Gospel might have kept silent, but Jesus did not.  And so even though the final word of the Gospel is no word, that was not the final word.  Because God was at work and Jesus was alive and those who would be the first Christians experienced the Easter miracle in a way that was much more powerful than any sermon, any lecture, any story.  Once Easter happened, nothing would ever be the same.  Once Easter happened, it never stopped happening.

It is happening still today.  God is at work.  Jesus is alive.  But don’t just take my word for it.  I could tell you that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is still active in this world, but why take my word for it, when you can feel it deep down in your soul today.  I could tell you that you can find the presence of the Risen Christ in the Bread and Wine of the altar, but why take my word for it, when you can taste and see for yourself that the Lord is good.  I could tell you that there is a peace that passes all human understanding, but why take my word for it when Jesus is ready to calm your troubled heart.  I could tell you that nothing, nothing, can ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, - it is a truth that I cling to when things get tough, a truth that gives me the strength to defiantly shout my Alleluias at the grave - but why take my word for it when God loves you with that same impossibly stubborn forever and ever love.  Easter is a life-changing experience, but don’t just take my word for it.   

I think those women at the tomb just weren’t quite ready.  They had collected some facts; they heard a story from a mysterious, impeccably dressed young man.  But the empty tomb and an implausible story were not enough.  Those things got the mind puzzling but they did touch their hearts.  So they go and Mark just leaves us hanging.  But there has got to be more to it.  See we are here; we know the word got out.  Someone told someone something.  I can believe the women were silent – at first.  That makes sense.  It was hardly a typical day.  So it makes sense that they left the tomb in silence.  But then I think they encountered Jesus, risen indeed, on the road, on the way home.  And I think it was that, their experience of the Risen Christ, that opened their mouths, transformed their lives, and changed the world.

That was the first Easter.  But that was only the beginning.  That Easter is still happening.  The same God that raised Jesus from the dead, who loves us with a love that is stronger than death, is still at work in the world today; the same Risen Christ is alive today and is still encountering people on the road, is still transforming lives.  But don’t take my word for it, when you can experience it for yourself.