Mark Teaches On.... Real Life!

The scene – if you’ll imagine it – is very early on the first day of the week. The sun is just beginning to show its first rays of light. Three women who have been following the Master – they’ve been listening to his teaching and learning from him – they’ve eaten at the same table – he has visited with them and their brother in their home – they arise early and quickly get dressed and begin their journey to the tomb.

As I imagine the scene, I imagine that they walk in silence – in anticipation of what it is they’ll find. They go to the tomb on the chance, the off-chance, really, that what Jesus predicted would happen actually HAS happened.

The desire they feel in deep down in the pit of the stomachs is the desire of everyone whose life Jesus has touched. Could it be? Is it possible? Did it really happen? That Jesus would rise from the grave?

Because if it’s true. Then everything is changed. Jesus had taught about new life and about the power of the spirit over the power of death and despair, but if Jesus has actually risen from the dead, then that was more than just talk. Infinitely more. It could mean the difference between incredible and abundant life and just getting by.

Let’s take a look at the passage of scripture I’m talking about. If you would – turn in your Bibles to Mark, chapter 16, beginning with verse 1.

Mk 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

It’s interesting, isn’t it – that it’s the women who go to the tomb. They take with them spices to anoint Jesus’s body. So theirs is a journey of devotion to the master. To care for his body even in death. Their concern as they walk is the heavy stone that has been laid before the entrance to the tomb. They have no idea how the stone will be moved – who will move it away for them. But their faith that they must attend to their Master is great. And they proceed onward.

Mk 16:4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 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.

Mark doesn’t tell us much about this young man sitting in Jesus’s tomb wearing a white robe. In fact, in Matthew’s gospel, the man is identified as an angel of the Lord who comes down like lightening from the sky, scares the Roman soldiers standing guard away and waits for the arrival of the women. In Luke’s gospel, there are two men in the tomb when the women arrive to announce that Jesus has arisen.

But Mark – thought by scholars to be the first of the gospels – gives us precious little detail. His scene is simple and unadorned, much like the rest of his gospel. Mark is the master of “just the facts.” And the fact is – without all the theatrics and lights and sounds of the other gospels – that Jesus is no longer here. In case you missed that, let me say that again. JESUS IS NO LONGER HERE. He has risen from the dead.

Mk 16:6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”

Jesus had predicted his own resurrection. A week prior as he and his disciples made that fateful journey toward Jerusalem he had told them that he would suffer, die, and then rise again.

Mk 10 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

He knew what awaited him in Jerusalem and still he went. He knew he would suffer a gruesome death… and still he went. He knew his disciples would deny they ever knew him… and still he went. He knew the abandonment he would feel as he was nailed to the cross… and still… he went. For what? What could have compelled Jesus to undergo all that he went through? Sometimes, we anaesthetize the image to help us get our minds around what Jesus experienced. And so, remembering that Jesus was fully divine – that he was God! – we think to ourselves that maybe he didn’t really go through all that pain and suffering. That somehow his divine side helped him to escape the pain. In fact, there were early Christians in the second century who espoused this view – finding it incomprehensible that Jesus could ever actually suffer.

But the author of Hebrews anticipating that line of reasoning makes it very clear – Jesus could ONLY be our high priest today if he was tempted and if he suffered as we suffered.

Heb 2:17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Understanding this… meditating on this… is absolutely critical to having a full appreciation of the significance of this Sunday the church calls Easter. Before the resurrection, before the new life, before the abundant blessing, must first come the submission and surrender and often – if not always – that entails a measure of sacrifice and pain.

Jesus suffered that pain so that – as Hebrews reminds us – he could help those are suffer and are being tempted. Without having gone through those excruciating experiences, Jesus would have been just another far off, far away, unconcerned and disconnected deity like the pagans of that time worshipped. But not Jesus. Even as God, and as our confession of faith says – fully human – Jesus went through the pain of existence as human so that he could minister to us – as the frail and broken and suffering humans we are. We have a God who knows our pain because He has experienced the pain of meaningless physical torture, bewildering abandonment, and deep loneliness. Jesus, the very son of God, experienced what many of us experience every day of our lives.

He had even experienced the fear that the women who approached the tomb that morning felt as their hearts pounded with the question – is it true? And if so, what do we do now?

Mk 16:8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

After speaking with the young man clothed in white – which we learn from the other gospels was an angel of the Lord – the women run from the tomb in fear.

Does this strike you as an interesting response to the good news they’ve just received? In some ways “no” and in some ways perhaps “yes.”

NO – because it isn’t everyday that someone is resurrected from the dead. You see, we’ve heard the story every Sunday, we know what happens to Jesus after three days. In some respects, we’ve lost the surpise of it because… well, the story of Jesus’s resurrection has become so familiar to us. But imagine what the women experienced. Not knowing what to expect they proceed to the tomb. They have doubts. Who wouldn’t?

They fear that maybe Jesus was just like every other faith healer promising some approaching age of God. They fear that their hearts – yet again – would be sorely disappointed as they had put their faith and yet another empty promise. Could they believe what the angel in the tomb had told them? Maybe he was lying? Perhaps life wasn’t miraculous, perhaps God really didn’t care about our lives, perhaps the Romans of the days were correct that “might is right” and so the best that these women could hope for would be to go back to their meager homes and existences and live out the rest of their days in quiet fear and submission to forces all outside of their control. Perhaps.

Or maybe their response DOES surprise us. After all, Jesus had told them what was going to happen. Hadn’t he prepared them? He had foretold that he would rise from the dead on the third day. Hadn’t they also been witness to the greatest of Jesus’s miracles! If Jesus had indeed risen from the dead, this would be a cause to celebrate not to cower in fear. It would be reason to be bold and passionate, not to tremble and run away.

And yet they run. And they fear. And they tremble.

I for one can’t blame them because I can’t say with any confidence that I would have behaved differently. Cynical person that I can be at times, I probably would have thought to myself, “well there it is… another failed hope…another broken promise.”

And I would have been wrong.

Or maybe we fear for an entirely different reason. Maybe it is that we do sense deep down the truth of what Mark has told us. You know, many scholars believe that this gospel actually ended with verse 8. In fact, if you look in your Bibles, most of our Bibles has a place or an asterick that tells us that the earliest and best Greek Manuscripts stop at first 8.

So imagine with me that as Mark’s gospel was read in churches during the latter half of the first century that it ended with the phrase,

Mk 16:8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Think about it! Mark has just spent fifteen chapters developing our awareness, indeed our belief, that Jesus is the divine son of God and that he has come to grant us life to the full – eternal life! – in quantity and quality with God. I don’t believe that at the last minute he is going to leave us doubting and fearful. He isn’t hanging us out to dry. So what is Mark doing here? What is Mark up to?

Let’s just assume that Jesus DID rise from the grave. That in opposition to all that we know scientifically and otherwise about what happens to people when they die that against every odd Jesus was resurrected in the body on the third day after his crucifixion. I want you to suspend your disbelief at that prospect for just a moment – to imagine – indeed visualize – in fact, if you can muster it up – to even BELIEVE that Jesus who was tortured and crucified on a Roman cross, at the instigation of Jewish leaders – arose from the dead. Imagine that it is entirely true.

If it’s true, then help me to answer the question that arises in all of our minds… SO WHAT? SO WHAT?

Isn’t that the most frustrating question you can be asked? It’s so belligerent. It demands something of us. It doesn’t let us rest content with some intellectual “rightness” we might possess but it says, “well if what you say is true, then… so what?”

So, let’s ask ourselves the question. “So what?” If Jesus, as he foretold, and after a brutal murder on the cross arose from the dead… does it really mean anything? Does it count for anything? Does anything really change about how we see life or how we act or how we live our lives? So what?

I’m curious as the women left the tomb early that Sunday morning what it was they were fearful of. Could it be that they knew deep in their hearts that what the angel had said to them was true? And really what it was that they were struggling with was an entirely different question. That the question THEY were trying to answer was… “What do I do with this?”

I believe that if scholars are right and Mark ended his gospel with verse 8, then Mark was using a literary technique to provoke the same question in his hearers. In effect, Mark said and says to us today, “Okay, I’ve told you the story… I’ve laid it all out for you. I’ve presented the best case I can that Jesus was who he claimed to be – that he was the divinely appointed son of God. That he performed miracles of healing, that he was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, and that he promised and fulfilled God’s promise of a new kingdom of love. You have all the facts. You have JUST the facts. Now… listen closely… what are YOU going to do with it… if it’s all true.”

What are you going to do with it… if it’s all true.

The question itself causes my heart to tremble and to fear. Because there’s a natural, a sinful nature inside of me that wants desperately to believe that something happened to Jesus’s body that day – that it was stolen, hidden, or otherwise desposed of BECAUSE to believe that he was resurrected can only mean one thing… are you listening? It can only mean ONE thing if I BELIEVE – deep down in my heart BELIEVE – that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Are you ready? Because this belief has serious implications. This belief should cause your heart – like mine – to quake with fear and trembling. Here is is… this is the ONE thing it has to mean if you believe in the resurrection.

MY LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN.

I may walk in the same shoes, wear the same clothes, live in the same house, eat the same food, and even work at the same job… but really… those things are just external to who I really am. What counts, the real me, the me that dreams, that has a vision, that experiences joy, that experiences pain and sorrow, that feels loss and abandonment – that me… the real me… will NEVER be the same again.

I can’t go back. I can’t go back to the life prior to the resurrection. Acknowledging that God can raise his son from the dead means that the world I live in isn’t a random and meaningless place where my life is tossed about by forces outside of my control. Sensing the truth of the resurrection means that the universe is a place where a sovereign deity dwells, not far off and far away, but up close and intimate – right here and DEEPLY, DEEPLY concerned about my life.

It means that when I pray, I’m not just uttering words into thin air – but am engaged in a conversation with the creator of all there is! And moreover, that’s not just some doctrine that someone dreamed up to give us comfort in times of sorrow – but in light of the miracle of the resurrection – it stands as an eternal truth… God cares!!! God cares!!!! Praise God, He cares!!!

My friends, this is core to what we profess to be true as followers, as Disciples of Jesus Christ. This is it. This is the meat of the gospel. This is our deep and abiding truth.

People simply aren’t raised from the dead unless God wills it to happen. And if God is that involved in our lives, then my life must in some way reflect that partnership. Let me say that again, because it is so incredibly important. If God is so involved in human history, indeed our own individual lives, so that he mercifully resurrects his own murdered son from the dead, then the way I live my life can’t help but acknowledge, and praise, and worship the God who cares to be with me in my pain and in my suffering.

I long to know this God. I hunger and thirst to have a relationship with THIS God – who hungers and thirsts to know me in this intimate and life-giving way. I want to know deeply the love of Jesus and experience it deeply in my own life. I’ve messed up. There have been times that I have been proud and boastful, that I have lied and cheated others, where I have had angry and hurtful thoughts. If left on my own, there’s no way I could ever experience any kind of life. Never. It’s just not possible… on my own. Left alone, I’m too selfish and short-sighted wanting… on my own… to take care of me first.

Jesus’s apostles suffered from my form of myopia. They wanted to be first, they wanted the guarantee that if they followed Jesus, then there would be a special place for them in front of everyone else… for all of their trouble they wanted a reward. Jesus, divinely human person he was saw right through their short-sighted desire. He knew what they really wanted which was to be close to God – to know the goodness of God, and to taste and see that God was most excellent. But before they could do so, they had to overcome their sinful nature and unlearn all that the world had taught them.

Mk 10:41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I thirst for eternal life. I’m bold and I’m confident that through the power of the resurrection of Jesus that life with God is not only a possibility – but it is real, it is tangible – I can taste that life, I can see that life, I can feel deep in my soul that life of love and redemption.

Like the women at the tomb who run in fear, though, I know myself and wonder at times… can I ever be what Jesus taught me to be? Can I ever have the life that Jesus died that I might have?

Not by my own power. I have to tell you, honestly. But through the power of God, which overcame death, conquered death, and arose on that early Easter Sunday morning in victory over death – death no longer has any power over me. Despair no longer has any power over me. Fear no longer has any power over me. Sin no longer has any power over me. Because I’m a new person. A new creation in Christ. One of Jesus’s greatest followers / servants, the apostle Paul observed…

Eph 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Praise God that He loves me enough to continue that work which He began in me before I was ever born.

Phil 1:3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.