The Rest is Still Unwritten: Mark 16:1-8 - Easter Sunday

A good book must have a satisfying ending. Otherwise, all the hours you’ve invested in reading it will be wasted.

Last fall, I was reading one of the best books I’d read all year. I was about three-quarters of the way through when I got this sense that the book was repeating himself. 

As I flipped through the pages, I noticed that page 234 was immediately followed by page 155. In fact, the entire last quarter of the book consisted of the last eighty pages I’d already read. 

Since I purchased the book at a book fair, I couldn’t return it, and my emails to the publisher requesting an exchange were never returned. I ended up buying the book a second time, this time as an e-book.

But what if you’re reading a story that has no ending?

The story of Jesus’s resurrection in the Gospel of Mark stands out from the other three Gospels in that it ends abruptly. 

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices to Jesus’s tomb, so that they might anoint him. When they arrive, they saw that the stone in front of the tomb had been rolled back, and a young man dressed in a white robe was sitting inside. He said, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. But 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.”

The women, however, flee the tomb and run away, stricken with terror and amazement, and they don’t say a word to anyone, because they are afraid.

Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash

Officially, the Gospel of Mark does contain post-resurrection stories about Jesus. But your bible likely contains a footnote explaining that the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark do not contain those verses. In other words, they weren’t part of the original. 

I’m not suggesting that those verses are fraudulent. What I am saying is that the Gospel of Mark leaves the story of Jesus’s resurrection wide open. The drama and the tension go unresolved. 

Think about it: did everything for Jesus and his disciples go back to the way it was before the cross? No. Was the world any less dangerous than it had been before? No! If anything, the world was even more dangerous now that it had been when Jesus was in the tomb. To say that Jesus was risen from the dead was blasphemy from the standpoint of the religious leaders, and treason from the standpoint of Rome.

Honestly, who was going to believe the women that Jesus was risen from the dead? Everybody who was there had seen it with their own eyes. Jesus died. 

Is it any more a stretch for us to believe that Jesus is risen from the dead? It may be Easter Sunday, but the arrival of Easter hasn’t erased your problems or made the world a better place.

But resurrection is not a happy ending. It’s a new beginning. Resurrection came to the three women as a promise. “Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” In other words, go forward. Embrace the future. Wherever you go, whatever may happen, Jesus will meet you there. Trust what Jesus has promised you: death and the evil will not have the last word. To believe in resurrection is to adopt a mindset of hope, such that faith, prayer, good works, service, and ministry are never done in vain. 

Has something happened that has devastated you? Are you facing a major surgery or serious illness? Are you facing a future without a loved one who’s died? Remember: where there is death, there is new life. Where there is hardship, there is grace. Where there is pain, there is mercy.

Are you weighed down with shame over what you’ve done or what you’ve failed to do? Remember: in Christ, you are forgiven! You are a new creation. Everything old has passed away, everything is being made new!

We are a congregation that is being made new. We may not be as big or wealthy as we once were, but that doesn’t mean that our resurrection hope is diminished. If anything, we are in a better position to witness resurrection. Let’s be honest: what’s the point of resurrection when you’re content with the status quo? Who shall we invite to be a part of this resurrection hope, but the weary and the broken?

Easter marks the ending of one chapter in the story. “It is finished,” we heard Jesus cry on Good Friday. Now, Jesus is risen from the dead. We aren’t just hearers of good news. We are the good news. The story is still being written. And because we know who is writing it, Jesus Christ, we know that life and love will win in the end. We know that Jesus will turn our cries into alleluias.

Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” ⁴ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ⁶ But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. ⁷ But 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.” ⁸ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.