Easter Day, 04/01/2018

Sermon on Mark 16:1-8, by Carl A. Voges

The Passage

“When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they may go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’”

“And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back – it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

“And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” [English Standard Version]

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; he was buried; and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” [1 Corinthians 5.3f.]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

As Lord’s baptized people stream into the liturgies of his Church today, there can be a couple of approaches to the celebrations erupting from the Son’s resurrection. One approach is to work off the good life as defined and driven by this world. The other is to work off the great Life as shaped and sustained by the Son’s crucifixion and resurrection.

The good life is the one that revolves around our lives. It is the one into which we are born. It can soar or it can destruct. It can plunge us into unending despair or it can bring us into highs that appear never-ending. The good life, provided our abilities and opportunities mesh, can promise and provide significant levels of satisfaction.

The great Life is the One that revolves around the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the One into which we are baptized. It plunges into the destruction surrounding us and separates us from that destruction. It cuts into the despair of this world and gives us a Life that honestly has no ending. The great Life, regardless of our abilities and opportunities, does more than satisfy us. It overwhelms us with the Life streaming in from eternity and rushes back into it.

Our awareness of these two approaches and the stark differences between them could cause us, on this Easter Day, to veer off into a mocking of the good life or taking out our frustrations on it. The cities and towns in which we serve flow over with colorful illustrations of such veering. For example, what is going on when so-called churches are trying hard to get the world’s attention on the world’s terms (drive-by dramas and twenty-five thousand eggs to be hunted!)?

Thankfully, today’s Gospel pulls us from the good life approach and draws us into the great Life approach. It does more than satisfy us, it overwhelms us! It points us back to our baptismal roots in the Holy Trinity while re-setting our relationships with the Lord God as well as with one another.

This approach into the great Life got underway a week ago today when the Son made his triumphant, yet humble, procession into Jerusalem. He was cheered by the thousands of Passover pilgrims who anticipated but could not define what would occur in the next few days. The anticipation began its definition this past Thursday when the Lord God transformed the Passover Meal into the Eucharist of his Church. It continued on Friday when the three holy hours sunk us into the Son’s crucifixion. Last evening, in the Easter Vigil, the anticipation of Passion Sunday was fully defined as the Light of the great Life began to pierce the world as the day slipped into darkness.

The realities of the great Life got underway on this day with its participants having no idea of what was about to be unleashed. They were doing the customary and necessary work that attached to a person who has recently died. Even though spices weighing nearly a hundred pounds had been packed around the Son’s body on Friday afternoon, it was still necessary to replenish those spices to offset the body’s decay.

So, early on a Sunday morning, three of Jesus’ friends (Mary, Mary and Salome) set out to take care of that detail. As they make their way, the primary concern is the rolling away of the tomb’s stone. But when they get there, the stone has already been rolled back!

They enter the tomb and see a young man in a white robe seated to the tomb’s right side.

They are struck with alarm, but the man tells them there is no need for alarm. He comments that he knows they are looking for Jesus who was crucified, but states that Jesus is not here. He goes on to say that Jesus has risen, showing them the empty place where his body had been placed. The man tells the three women to go and inform the disciples that Jesus is heading before them to Galilee. It is in that place where everyone will see him, just as he promised earlier.

Mark reports that the women come out and run away from tomb! They are gripped by trembling and astonishment; further, because they are afraid they say nothing to anyone!

Even though Mark’s account of the resurrection startles us with this shocking ending – they said nothing to anyone! – it is obvious that the non-speaking did not last long as the word of Jesus’ resurrection spread to the disciples and then on to many others.

There are two primary things to notice in Mark’s account: first, the empty tomb; second, Galilee as the meeting place for Jesus and the disciples. Then we will notice how the Lord’s great Life pushes into the world’s good life, freeing the people owned by the latter.

First, the announcement of Jesus’ resurrection takes place inside the tomb. His victory is made known in the concluding place for death. As the account of Jesus’ death unfolded in Mark’s Gospel, we saw that Jesus was too weak to carry his own cross. We also heard the desolation of Jesus’ cry from the cross to his Father.

However, it is here, in the place of death, where the women find out that Jesus has been raised! Earlier in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom had often been a secret one. Recall how Jesus would tell people not to say anything when his kingdom impacted their lives. Remember, too, how Jesus described the kingdom in the world like a seed – the seed buried in dark soil, the seed enclosed by its outside covering like a tomb, the seed cracked open by the power of a mysterious Life.

Such descriptions show why the egg is a symbol of the Lord’s resurrection – the shell appears to close everything in, snuffing out life, but the Lord’s Life is stirring inside and pushes out through the shell, cracking it in many ways as his Life emerges! On Good Friday we descended into the numbing despair of Jesus’ crucifixion, but this morning we are brought into the tomb to see the full impact and meaning of that death three days ago.

Second, there is the man sending Jesus’ followers to Galilee. This is the place, the area, where the proclamation of the Gospel got underway, where Jesus’ words and deeds began to knock down the powers of sin, Satan and death, and where Jesus’ ministry was carried out.

Jesus, who had been able to hit at Satan in course of that ministry, was hit by Satan on Good Friday and apparently crushed. But now Jesus’ tomb is empty, signaling that Satan is the one destroyed and Jesus, apparently the defeated One, is the One triumphant – permanently! It is this victorious Jesus who is waiting for his followers in Galilee.

Galilee is that world where all people are born, live and die. Galilee is that world where lives are tragically focused on themselves, where the gods are demanding and false, where the affliction generated by those gods is unbearable and unrelenting. Because of the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection though, we, his baptismally marked daughters and sons, stride into such a world with the reality of his stunning and dominating Life!

Such striding is possible because Lord has been over-hauling the lives of his parish communities ever since the Church began to emerge in this world. For hundreds of years we have noticed that such over-hauling always occurs when people are being exposed to the Lord’s Baptism and Scriptures, to the Lord’s Forgiveness and Eucharist. At first, this over-hauling is shocking and mysterious. But later we begin to understand that it is from these four holy places where the Lord God breaks down the life given us by the world and restores us to the Life given us by him at our Baptisms. It is from the holy places where the world’s good life is invaded by the Lord’s great Life, rescuing the people trapped by the former.

Such breaking-down is not easily done. We get thrown into intense, long and unsettling conversations with one another. These conversations deal with the concern, alarm, trembling, astonishment and fear in our lives. These conversations, however, because they are framed and undergirded by the Lord’s holy places, point to the ways in which the Lord breaks down the life given people at birth and re-sets them in the Life splashing out from Baptism.

As the Lord’s great Life pushes into the world’s good life, its mysterious workings show that the good life is not what it appears to be. Behind its attractive coverings there are individuals whose minds have been clouded, whose hearts have been burdened, whose spirits have been flattened – and these are the individuals who now are being confronted and saved by the Lord’s great Life!

It is because of what the Lord God has done in the crucifixion and resurrection of his Son that makes this Day so significant and overwhelming! Understood this way, it is not strange that Jesus’ three friends, at first, said nothing to anyone. We, who know what it is like to be caught in the grasp of sin, Satan, death and then rescued, have had our mouths also shut. The Lord’s rescue of us stuns our expectations so much that, initially, we don’t know what to say! But then our thanksgiving starts to emerge and we begin to point to the Lord God who pushed into our lives so we could be marked as his redeemed daughters and sons!

This is the Lord God who, over the lifespan of his parish communities, has been running his four holy places into such parishes so the lives of their members can continually be over-hauled. This enables all of us to see the stark differences between the world’s good life and the Lord’s great Life, and be turned from the former to the latter!

Thus, when the Lord God works the lives of his people over from the Scriptures and Sacraments, he is freeing those individuals who are absorbed, confused and trapped! In the middle of the world’s good life, the Lord’s great Life is having the final say! In so doing, he is making it possible for his Life to be reflected to all those who are suffering and afflicted.

May the Father, Son and Holy Spirit continually loosen the instinctive grip we have on the world’s good life and strengthen the grip that their great Life would have on us!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts

and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.

Pr. Carl A. Voges
Columbia, South Carolina, USA
E-Mail: carl.voges4@icloud.com

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