Mark 16:1-8 | Göttinger Predigten im Internet

Easter Sunday | March 31, 2024 | Mark 16:1-8 | Paula Murray |

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” ⁴And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. ⁵And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. ⁶And 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. ⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” ⁸And 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.

Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

For over two thousand years, that joyous cry has burst forth from the mouths of faithful Christians as we celebrate the resurrection of our crucified Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Easter morning. We could instead shout, “He is alive! Alleluia!,” but that is not the celebratory cry, not even in Luke’s Gospel, where the angel asks the women at the tomb, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”. No, throughout the Gospels and the Book of Acts and the various letters Paul and others wrote, the claim of the Church is that Jesus is risen, or has been raised, not that He lives.

Of course, we might think that our belief that Jesus is risen from the dead or raised from the dead does more than merely suggest that He is alive. But if we were only to insist that Jesus lives, it might sound as though we think He somehow avoided death’s cold grasp as He hung on the cross and slowly asphyxiated. Perhaps, some might think, He did not really die on the cross that terrible Friday that was so very good for our salvation. Maybe the guards were bribed to let Him down before He truly died. Maybe some other poor dear was swapped out for our Lord and died in His place. Maybe He only looked like He was dead, and He came to in the tomb.

All these notions and more have been suggested over time as the reason behind the empty tomb that first Easter morning, as there have always been doubters and even haters when it comes to the risen Christ. But no, the words are, “He is risen! Alleluia! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!” Risen, or raised, are the words, because those words tell us that He was dead, truly dead, dead like a door nail dead, even stinky dead, the third day after His death. His crucifixion was no magic trick, His corpse no illusion. His skin was gray, His mouth hung open, His eyes were empty of being, His body heavy and limp. The Incarnate Son of the Father, of one Being with the Father, died, really died.

And then was raised from the dead by the Father. He is risen! Alleluia! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! And so, He was alive, truly alive, after having been truly dead. We do not shout out our alleluias merely as a means by which we remember a truly nice guy, or a very model of the godly life, or a terribly naïve provincial healer and preacher who met a bad end when He ran afoul of cynical and homicidal politicians. Our alleluias honor the very Son of God, Who willingly made of Himself the final sacrifice for sin, that through His sinless suffering for our sins, sin is defeated and through His death, death itself is overcome.

Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! We could leave the sermon at this point, for what needs to be said this day has largely been said. But I want to share a little more with you, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is no mere history. Christ was raised from the dead, and that is personal, for you, and for me. So, first, let me share something about this happy day, Easter. It is simply silly, and silly is permissible on days like this. The second, though, matters much more. So, for the first, a friend texts another.

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6:43 pm, 3/31/2024

Zwingli@radicalreformer.com

How’s the diet going?

Not good. I had eggs.

Omelet?

Hershey

9:55 pm, 3/31/2024

Martin@wittenberg.edu

I thought you would enjoy that. The meme is not mine, and I don’t remember where I got the idea for it. But today is a joyous day, and we can laugh about an aspect of the day’s celebration.

The second and last point for today has to do with what is really at the root of the joy of the day. The New Testament is largely written in the Greek of the first century, and Greek is very unlike English in that it has a form of adjective that, while qualifying a noun like adjectives do, can also indicate verb tense. It is odd to English speakers and I cannot tell you what seminarians called that part of our Greek studies that had to do with participles; it is rude. But I can tell you that many of the verbs in this morning’s Gospel reading about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, while in the past tense, also indicate that the action the verb represents is not yet complete. In other words, an action that took place in the past is in some way incomplete and ongoing. A scriptwriter or a playwright might write like this, so as to draw us into the play and make us feel like we are one of the actors in the play.

We noted at the beginning of this Church year that the Gospel of Mark is very much written like a play, full of action, all of which is designed to show us Who Jesus is, that we might make a declaration of faith in Him Whose acts clearly demonstrate that He is the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. This is especially the case for the story of Jesus’ empty tomb, where we come to the tomb with the ladies, worry with them about rolling the heavy stone from its entrance, see that Jesus’ corpse is not there although a brightly clad angel is, and run, as fast as we can, after the angel’s declaration that Jesus is risen, and has gone before them to Galilee. The question after all this, after we ourselves have become a part of the story of Jesus Christ, is this, will we respond as the women do, and say nothing to the others even though we have God’s command to share the best news of all time, or will we let fear close our mouths on the joyous cry of Easter?

Alleluia! Jesus is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Christ is risen, and because He is risen we need not fear death, or the small death that is our experience when we are fearful. The Good News of Jesus Christ is good news because not only has Christ’s cross won us freedom from sin and death, but because that freedom lets us live life joyously, knowing that Jesus has our lives and our deaths in hand. We may respond with courage and hope to challenges that would otherwise slay us, for we may lean not only on what strength of mind and character we may bring to those challenges, but also on the divine strength, mercy, love, and compassion of our living Lord.

Paula Murray