WILL YOU ENCOUNTER THE RISEN CHRIST?

Gordon E. Ellis
Easter Sunday
April 16, 2006

WILL YOU ENCOUNTER THE RISEN CHRIST ?

Howard Thurman served as Dean of the Chapel at Boston University until his retirement. And in one of his books, he tells of a CRISIS that took place in his youngest daughter’s LIFE. Everyone in the family had made their SUMMER plans. But just before Howard and his wife were ready to leave for a summer of speaking engagements, they received WORD that a companion, who lived with their aged grandmother in another town, had DIED. SO, SOMEONE had to go and STAY with Grandma during the SUMMER. Well, the family met and talked it over. HOWARD’S commitments could NOT be postponed, so it was decided that their daughters would take TURNS caring for their grandmother until their parents returned from their various conferences and engagements. Well, as SOON as this decision was REACHED, their youngest daughter rushed from the table and ran up the stairs, WEEPING. Howard Thurman FOLLOWED her up the stairs, KNOCKED on her door and found her stretched across the bed, CRYING. And THESE are the WORDS that he SAID to her: I didn’t come up here to urge you to stop CRYING. I came to explain to you why I think you ARE crying. I DON’T think you’re crying because you DON’T want to go AWAY for the rest of the summer and miss the fun with your friends. You’re CRYING because, for the FIRST time in your life, your family is asking you to carry YOUR end of the stick as a FAMILY member. Something inside you KNOWS that, WHEN you get on that train tomorrow, ONE part of your life will be BEHIND you forever. You’ll never AGAIN be quite as carefree and unaccountable as you were before. (Thurman, Howard: Disciplines of the Spirit. (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 54-55)

You know: we ALL want to remain as CHILDREN. We ALL yearn for the days when we were FREE from responsibility. And perhaps THAT’S why most of us don’t LIKE the ending of Mark’s gospel very much. UNLIKE Luke, Matthew and John, who PAD the new responsibilities of the disciples with comforting APPEARANCES of the RESURRECTED Christ, MARK’S ending REMINDS us very STARKLY that, while Christ is RISEN, things are DIFFERENT now. The WOMEN, who until NOW have been MODELS of obedience, are suddenly CALLED to take definitive action. They’ve been called to GO forth and SPREAD the Good News. BUT, fearful of the ANGEL, fearful of the MESSAGE and fearful of the RESPONSIBILITY, the women FAIL! They DON’T dance off down the yellow brick ROAD to Galilee! Instead, terror and amazement SEIZE them! Now, the word, terror, is translated from the Greek word ekstasis, FROM which we get OUR word, ecstasy. And it’s NOT a VOLUNTARY reaction. These women are OVERCOME by the experience of BEING in the presence of GOD. And THAT’S how Mark’s gospel ENDS! These CLOSEST witnesses to the Risen Christ are PARALYZED! And we’re LEFT with the question, WHAT are they going to DO? And Mark doesn’t TELL us!

Well, IF you find yourself wanting to FIX that ending, you’re not ALONE. At least 3 different ADD-ON endings have been written for Mark’s Gospel. But they’re ALL cosmetic and unconvincing, a little like tacking on the line, And they lived HAPPILY ever after.¹ Yes, we WANT to straighten OUT Mark’s picture. We WANT to RESOLVE that bizarre, hanging seventh chord ON which the story ends. EVERYBODY wants to FINISH it. But, I think that THAT’S the GENIUS of Mark’s gospel. EASTER, BEFORE it is anything ELSE, and BEFORE we DOMESTICATE it with bunnies, chicks and pastels, is the face-to-face REALIZATION that WE are NOT God. THIS is an encounter with the OTHER! THIS is an encounter with the ETERNAL! THIS is an encounter with the TRANSCENDENT! And TREMBLING and astonishment are APPROPRIATE when it comes to encounters with GOD. Yes, Easter means that there IS a God, and it ISN’T us! And THAT is the number one MESSAGE of the EASTER story in MARK’S gospel!

BUT, there is ANOTHER message here as well, and it’s the message that the story is not COMPLETE until the women FULFILL their mission by TELLING the disciples and GOING on to Galilee to MEET Jesus. SO, the STORY is not yet COMPLETE. Jesus has endured the TREACHERY of His closest followers and the FICKLENESS of the crowds. Jesus has LOST the only ELECTION He was ever IN -- to Barabbas! Jesus has been the TARGET of the self-serving religious leaders, the cold-blooded pragmatism of Pontius Pilate, and the leering RACISM of the Roman soldiers. Jesus has known physical suffering, emotional abandonment, and EVEN the desolate feeling of being ABANDONED by GOD. Jesus has DIED, forgiving His tormentors, and even PRAYING for them. Jesus has DIED caring for His MOTHER at the foot of the cross! AND, Jesus has DIED for His insistence that LOVE is for our enemies even MORE than for our friends; that forgiveness is the WAY and the WILL of GOD; and that mercy and justice, rather than ritual and personal purity, best describe what God WANTS from US. AND Jesus has DIED because HE lived a life that EMBODIED these CONTROVERSIAL beliefs. BUT, the STORY is NOT yet COMPLETE, BECAUSE the women at the TOMB have been sent OUT to TELL the disciples and GO on to GALILEE. And we have NO way of knowing whether, in fact, they ever DO it. ALL we KNOW from MARK is that they run off in TERROR!

Now, WHY would He want to go to GALILEE? Well, FIRST of all, Galilee was the site of Jesus’ greatest teaching, preaching and healing. It was the place where Jesus had originally CALLED His disciples, and gathered them together. It was the HEART of His mission activity. HOWEVER, Galilee was NOT some SPECIAL, or particularly SACRED place. INSTEAD, the WORK and the MISSION of Jesus were in His OWN backyard; among His OWN people; and amidst His people’s common, everyday encounters with life and living. And I think that THAT’S the SYMBOLISM of sending His followers BACK to Galilee. In other words, He’s saying to them, AND to US: MEET me in the ordinary, everyday places and people and events of your life. LOOK for me THERE, because THAT’S where you will FIND me! And friends, THAT’S the TRUTH! That IS where we MEET and encounter the Risen Christ. Christians have affirmed this TRUTH ever since the BEGINNING of Christian history. We MEET and encounter the Risen Christ in our GALILEES, in the ORDINARY, everyday places, people and events of our lives.

BUT, Mark’s story is NOT complete, because Mark does not TELL us whether the women ever DO it. And maybe that’s the POINT! AS with OTHER places in the Gospel of Mark, maybe WE have to fill in the blanks OURSELVES. The message to the WOMEN in the TOMB is ALSO a message to US, and THEIR mission is OUR mission. So, WILL we leave the tomb? WILL we tell others? And WILL we go to Galilee to MEET Him, AS He has instructed us to DO? OR, WILL we choose NOT to? Friends, it’s ENTIRELY up to US, just as it was entirely UP to the WOMEN.

Well, I HOPE and PRAY that we WILL, for the Risen Christ IS, indeed, WAITING in our Galilees to MEET us, WAITING in our Galilees to ENCOUNTER us, and WAITING in our Galilees to COMMISSION us to do HIS work and accomplish HIS mission. And THAT, more than anything ELSE, is WHAT will bring us LIFE in ALL its fullness. But as ALWAYS with God, the choice is OURS! SO, WHAT will YOU decide, my friends? WHAT will YOU decide? Amen.

¹ For those who are interested, these variations appear in different forms in different translations. But the scholarly consensus is that the Gospel Mark wrote ends with verse 8. Obviously, that is the view I share.