Sunday, April 4, 2010

Read Mark 16:1-8

How many of you remember film serials – perhaps if not at the theater, then recycled on television? The format was predictable. The hero and heroine would get into a tight situation, with evildoers all around them, closing in remorselessly. No way of escape seemed possible. Death loomed with seeming inevitability. And the announcers’ voice would intone “In the next episode, see if they survive!” You were ready to do anything to see the next installment, to see how the story was resolved.
The Gospel of Mark has that same cliffhanger twist ending. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Humiliation has been transformed into triumph. The white-clad messengers’ voice fills us with hope and joy, “He has risen! He is not here.”
But in the last verse, the last two sentences, everything comes unstuck. What should be the beginning of the spread of the greatest good news of Jesus’ resurrection hangs in the balance. “They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” This ending was so unsatisfactory to some early readers of the text that they wrote other endings and tacked them on. You may have one or two in your Bible.
This Easter day, where does the gospel end – or begin – for you? Are you doing as the messenger said and going and telling of Jesus’ victory over sin, death, hell and evil? Or does fear keep you saying nothing to anyone?
Prayer: Risen Lord Jesus, give us courage to continue the spread of the Good News by telling of your victorious resurrection.

Amen.

Pastor Michael Howes