Pastor Dismer’s sermon for Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009:

"Wake up and follow Jesus, for Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!"

Mark 16:1-8

In Lamar Williamson’s Bible commentary on Mark is this riddle and its answer:

The question: When is an ending not an ending? The answer: When a dead man rises from the tomb – and a gospel ends in the middle of a sentence!

It’s true; the last sentence in the last paragraph of the last chapter of Mark’s gospel ends with a word that belongs in the middle of a sentence. This word is usually always followed by several, even many, more words. But Mark’s last sentence just stops!

Imagine my saying to you: I have a number of reasons for my decision, which include … and then imagine that I just stop. I don’t finish the sentence; the reasons are left unlisted. Do you feel yourself leaning forward? Wanting to say, “Yes, yes … go on … tell me.

Could Mark really have just stopped in the middle of a sentence? Over the centuries some people have thought that probably the rest of Mark’s gospel was lost. At some point, someone added 12 more verses and you will find them in your Bible with a footnote explaining that these verses aren’t in the more ancient manuscripts.

Whatever may have followed, and without dwelling on the added verses, today we will look at what we might learn from the abrupt ending of Mark’s gospel.

Mark’s entire gospel is like one mad dash – one headlong race to get the story told. Mark doesn’t waste time on details. He tells each part of the story briefly, and then rushes on. I get a mental picture of my son, when he was little, hopping around on one foot, telling me something urgent as fast as he could talk, too agitated to stand still.

Mark began his gospel with these words: The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the son of God.

And, Mark ended, almost, with a messenger – an angel – telling the women, who have come to the tomb, what amounts to the gospel in a nutshell:

“You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you.”

Mark could have wrapped it up neatly with that message as the ending. And we could have all listened today and said, Yes, that is a great story, and gone home, satisfied.

But Mark goes just a little further. He begins to tell us the women’s reactions. They are trembling and bewildered and they flee. Our English version makes a complete sentence out of it, but Mark doesn’t. He begins to tell something more, not about Jesus – but his followers! and then just stops, in mid-sentence.

Why? Scholars don’t know. Nevertheless, this ending gives us much to think about.

I know the feeling of running out of words. I know the impulse to stop, because I’ve really said all there is to say, or all that I can say. Or because there is too much more to say! Or because words suddenly fail me.

Maybe Mark was thinking: I set out to tell the gospel of Jesus. I’ve just told his story; I’ve just written the words: He is risen. What more could I possible add? And yet … the last words are not about Jesus but his followers!

What is most startling for me about Mark’s ending is that throughout his gospel Mark reports that Jesus told his disciples something would happen, and then it did happen:

• he told them they would find a colt, and an upper room where they could eat
• he told them Judas would betray him, and Peter would deny him, three times.
• he told them he would be arrested in Jerusalem, and put to death
• he told them that he would be raised in three days.

And here, the messenger is telling the women that Jesus has risen and is going ahead of them, into Galilee, and they should follow, because they will see him, just as he told them.

But we don’t know if the disciples went to Galilee and saw Jesus, not according to Mark anyway. The message is left hanging. The very sentence left unfinished. Mark’s gospel, for better or worse, leaves the ending up to the reader!

Jesus called his disciples to follow him, and here at the end of the gospel Jesus is saying “I am going ahead of you. If you are going to see me, you will have to follow!”

Did they?

Because we have all of the New Testament to read, we know they did. But the choice was theirs to make, Mark made that clear.

It is especially interesting to speculate on the messenger’s words: tell the disciples and Peter. Why was Peter singled out? Was it because he had denied Jesus three times?

What a thrilling, gracious invitation this must have been, especially to Peter, but really to all the disciples. Mark tells us over and over again that they followed Jesus, but they really didn’t “get” what he was trying to teach them. Yet, once again, one more time, they are invited to follow.

We can take heart from this text. We have all stumbled, failed, turned aside, even fled– we who have four gospels to read have also, like the first disciples, missed the call, misunderstood the commission.

Today the message is for us:

He is going ahead of you into Galilee. Will you follow and meet him there?

We’ve all heard the night time prayer, “now I lay me down to sleep.” There was a little girl saying her prayers one night: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should wake before I die …” “oops,” she thought. That’s not right.

I think maybe it is. I think it is the Easter gospel message the angel gave the women, to share with the disciples and Peter:

Wake up before you die and see Jesus, going ahead of you into the rest of your life.

You were daydreaming, you were sleep-walking – you had Jesus before your very eyes, you had his words in your ears, and you were asleep at the switch.

You missed the point. You betrayed him, you denied him, you slept when he asked you to pray. Now it is time to wake up, and follow. You are being given a second chance.

The story is not over. Mark has written all that he had to say. He presented the gospel message as clearly as he could. Now the readers – the hearers – of this incomplete sentence must choose. Christ is risen! He is going ahead of you. Will you follow and meet him?

The disciples woke up. They finally “got it.” They knew the Son of God, and they preached, they healed, they shared the gospel message faithfully for the rest of their lives - some even to a martyr’s death.

If I should wake before I die, on this Easter morning – how will I live the rest of my life? I have heard the thrilling news and the summons: He is risen. He is going before you into Galilee. The rest of my life is in question: Will I follow? Mark’s gospel is unfinished. What comes next is, and always has been, up to Jesus’ disciples. Today it is up to us.

Christ is risen! And we respond: He is risen indeed. Amen.