Mark
16:1-8
Don’t you think
it’s funny that Easter falls on April Fools’ Day this year? Is God trying to tell us something? April Fools’ is all about playing practical
jokes - like giving someone an oreo cookie and watching them discover that the
creamy sugary filling has been replaced by awful tasting toothpaste. Or setting someone up to find a winning
lottery ticket and then telling them that it’s actually a fake. Or giving an excited child a bunch of small,
foil-covered, Easter eggs that are really grapes instead of chocolate. The laugh comes when expectations are turned
on its head - and surprise! - what is expected is not what turns out to be
really true.
Expecting one
thing only to be surprised by another is at the heart of the Easter story this
morning. We read from the gospel of Mark
that very early in the morning three of Jesus faithful followers, Mary
Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, go to the tomb where Jesus’
body has been laid after dying on the cross.
We know they are devastated. Not
only do they grieve the loss of someone they loved, but their whole has been
destroyed. Jesus was supposed to be
God’s long awaited Messiah, but his death shattered that possibility. Nonetheless, in a small attempt to make one
thing right in a world that had gone hopelessly wrong the women go to the tomb
so that they might properly anoint Jesus’ dead body.
But in the wake
of their shock and grief it’s clear that they haven’t thought this whole thing
through. There’s one big problem which
dawns on them as they walk to the tomb.
They ask one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the
entrance to the tomb?” But upon their
arrival Mark’s gospel tells us that when the women looked up they saw that the
stone had already been rolled away. Now
in the original Greek this phrase, “looked up,” can also mean looked
again. And perhaps by using this
particular word the gospel is suggesting that at first the women came upon the
tomb and saw what they expected to see, the stone blocking the entrance, but
then they looked again, or did a double take, and realized that, no, the stone
had actually been rolled away.
This was just the
beginning of expecting one thing only to be surprised by another. So upon seeing that truly the stone had been
rolled away the women enter the tomb.
And what do they expect upon entering?
To see Jesus’ body, his dead body.
But no, they are surprised again, this time by a young man dressed in
white who proceeds to give them very unexpected news, “[Jesus] has been raised;
he is not here...go, tell his disciples...that he is going ahead of you to
Galilee; there you will see him.”
That’s a lot to
take in and we hear in this gospel account that in the moment it was nearly
impossible for these women to do so. But
for us who have had considerably more time to get used to the idea, let us
ponder these words. There’s really two
parts to the Easter message this morning, the first being that Jesus is risen! He is no longer dead but alive! And as great as that news is it’s really no
surprise, is it? Isn’t it what we
expected to hear today? But what about
the second part? The part about seeing
Jesus in Galilee. You know, Galilee was
the hometown of most of Jesus’ followers.
They are being sent back to the known and the familiar, the routine and
the ordinary with the promise that that is where they will see the resurrected
Christ. Because it is in the everyday
world that Jesus’ resurrection life intersects with and transforms lives - not
only back then, but now.
Our everyday,
ordinary, imperfect lives hold the miracle of resurrection. Is that what you expect? Sometimes it’s hard for us to see. So often we look at lives our through the
lens of our preconceived ideas and we see what we expect to see. If we have already decided that something or
someone is bad, or hopeless, or unchangeable - guess what, that is what we are
going to see. It’s just like the women
who expected to see the stone blocking their way to the tomb, it was only when
they looked again that they discovered that contrary to expectations the stone
had already been rolled away. Because
Jesus is risen, because He is alive we are being called this morning to let go
of expectations and judgements that can narrow our vision, and to look again
and see Jesus, see resurrection, see Love in all its blazing glory.
Consider your own
life and look again…. Have you ever felt unwanted or unacceptable or unloved
and then someone reaches out to you?
That is resurrection. Have you
ever had a new insight into your life or a new way of seeing the world or new
understanding of another person? That’s
resurrection too. Perhaps you can recall
a time when you offered or received forgiveness and a relationship was
restored. That’s resurrection - that’s
new life. Our stories of seeing Jesus,
of knowing God’s love, of experiencing resurrection are as unique and
individual as each and every one of us.
Still it is also true that not every one of our stories has a happy or
resurrection type ending to it, at least one that’s obvious to our eyes no
matter how many times we try to look again and see. But even then there is good news. Resurrection means that the worst thing is
never the last thing in in anyone’s story, in anyone’s life.[1] Our God of power and love resurrects not only
Jesus’ life, but each one of our lives and completes the story.
So on this April
Fools’ Day is God trying to tell us something?
Indeed, I believe God is.
Resurrection is the ultimate practical joke. It may seem that death and darkness will have
its way in this world, but the laugh comes when expectations are turned on its
head, and we are surprised as we look again and see that that expectation is
not what turns out to be true. It is on
this Easter day that we get to join with God in having the best and last laugh
as we celebrate the greatest punchline that the world has ever known Alleluia! Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia!
[1] “Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing” is a
quote attributed to Frederick Buechner.
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