Preached by Michael Cheuk
April 12, 2009, Easter Sunday, Year B
Mark 16:1-8
On June 10, 2007, the much awaited finale of the award-winning drama The Sopranos aired on HBO to a frenzy of anticipation and speculation. Fans that had followed this show for eight seasons couldn’t wait to find out the fate of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano. Would Tony and his family live or be killed? Would he be indicted and convicted? Would the family enter into a witness protection program? In the final sequence, as the tension mounted and as the audience braced for tragedy, the showed suddenly blacked out in total silence for eleven seconds, causing millions of viewers to frantically reach for their remotes or to call their cable company. And then the final credits rolled, signifying the end of not only that episode, but the end of the whole Sopranos saga. That “fade to black” ending was the buzz around water coolers and internet blogs for the days that followed. Many people were furious at creator David Chase for cheating them out of a satisfying ending. They were left hanging literally right in the middle of a scene. Some hoped that there were alternate endings filmed. But all were left wondering about the future of this family.
In our Gospel Lesson this morning, Mark the Evangelist also pulled a “fade to black” ending to his Gospel. “What?” you say, “in my Bible, Mark ends in verse 20.” Yes, but in most modern translations, there’s a disclaimer after verse 8. In our NIV pew Bibles, it says, “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.” Most Biblical scholars agree that verses 9-20 were not part of the original text of Mark. In the original Greek language, the story ends literally in the middle of a sentence with a proposition. In school, we’ve all been told by our English teachers that a preposition ain’t a grammatical way to end a sentence with! But if it is indeed the case that Mark intended to end his Gospel in verse 8, then he left us with no resurrection appearances by Jesus, no commission to his disciples and no ascension. What we’re left with is only an empty tomb and frightened women who said nothing to anyone. Is that any way to end a Gospel? Is Mark such a clumsy Evangelist that he would lead us on a journey with Jesus for fifteen chapters only to leave us at a dead end?
Well, very early on that first day of the week, it certainly felt like a dead end to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. These women were disciples of Jesus, and for three years, they had journeyed with him throughout Galilee and other regions witnessing the power of his teaching, his healings, and his miracles. It started out so promising, full of high hopes and dreams as crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of this charismatic, itinerant celebrity. But as Jesus journeyed into Jerusalem, the crowds faded and his twelve male disciples fell away. High hopes were dashed upon the rocks of cruel reality. The dream turned into a nightmare. Jesus was now dead and buried in a tomb sealed with a large stone. So now, these women were going to Jesus’ tomb where they planned to anoint Jesus’ body as a final act of love. Having journeyed with Jesus for three years as his disciples, they never thought it would end like this. But the journey had seemingly come to an end . . . a dead end.
Some of us come this morning because we too feel like we have seemingly come to a dead end. A friend tells you that his marriage is over. A coworker is confronted with a very bad diagnosis. You grieve over the death of loved ones. A relative’s job falls victim to the economy. Your aging parents face big decisions. In the midst of these challenges, we feel like there is a big stone that is lodged between us and our future. We feel we’re at a dead end. Who will roll away the stone for us?
Others of us perhaps feel this way about church-this church, any church-and God. We used to be so active and involved and connected with our church and we felt close to God. But something happened, and it just seems like either the church died or something died inside of us, or both. Now Jesus seems so distant, so silent, like he’s buried in a tomb and a big stone has been rolled into our hearts. We feel we’re at a dead end with our future with God. Who will roll away the stone for us?
Imagine the women’s surprise when they approached Jesus’ tomb and found that the stone had already been rolled away. Imagine their confusion and fear when they saw that Jesus’ body was no longer inside. Instead, a stranger in white greeted them with a proclamation: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” The main proclamation this morning is that Jesus has been raised! Yes, on Good Friday, Jesus suffered and died on our behalf and was placed in a tomb. But on Easter Sunday, you won’t find Jesus in the tomb, for God has raised him up from the dead and He is now out loose in the world! Death’s power is vanquished and nothing can keep Jesus down!
That is good news indeed, but notice how the messenger makes special mention of Peter. He instructed the women: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” If you remember, before Jesus was crucified, he told his disciples in Mark 14:27-29: “You will all fall away, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” But Jesus also promised, “After I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Peter objected, “Even if all fall away, I will not.” Of course, we find out later that not only did Peter fall away from Jesus, he also denied Jesus three times. But now, after the resurrection, the messenger charged the women to remind the disciples and especially Peter of Jesus’ promise that he was going ahead of them to Galilee.
In that Easter announcement, we hear a definitive word that our crucified and risen Christ will no longer count our past sins and failures against us. Therefore, it is futile to look for the risen Christ in the tomb that represents our past sins and failings. The risen Christ will not be found there. Yes, we live with the consequences of the past, and they shape our identity – there is no denying that. But the good news of Easter is that our past has been redeemed by the crucified and risen Christ. Therefore, in Christ, our past does not have to determine our future.
“He is going ahead of you to Galilee” announces the messenger. Galilee was home for Jesus and his disciples, and it represents God’s future for these women and for everyone who is a follower of the risen Christ. Just as Jesus’ final resting place was not in a tomb, neither is ours. Easter morning moves us out of the tombs of our past toward the Galilee of God’s future, a place where Jesus has promised to meet us. And yes, God’s future is unknown, and as with any journey into the unknown, we may want detailed instructions, miraculous signs, clear evidence and proof. But on this Easter morning, we really don’t have anything more than what those women had on that first Easter morning. Like the two Marys and Salome, as we are called to journey into God’s future, we too are terrified and bewildered, and we are left speechless because we are afraid.
That’s the way Mark ended his Gospel. For some, this feels too open-ended and unsatisfying. But I think the ending is brilliant, and let me tell you why. The first verse of the Gospel of Mark reads: “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” and too often we assume the “beginning” that Mark was talking about referred to his first chapter. But what if the whole book of Mark was merely the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God? If that’s the case, then his abrupt ending was Mark’s way of saying: “This gospel story ain’t over-because now, it’s your story and mine.” The Gospel of Mark “ends” abruptly, because in reality, it is not an ending, only a pause long enough for us to join in the narrative and live out our part of God’s story. Easter is not a dead end; rather, it is the end of death. The journey of Easter is not a dead end; rather is it the beginning of a journey into an eternal future with the risen Christ. In Easter, God has already rolled away the stone that blocks us from our future with God. In Easter, God raises Christ up from the dead so that He can go before us to Galilee. In Easter, God is not only the vanquisher of death, but the Lord of our future.
Even though Mark ended his Gospel by leaving us hanging with the three women fleeing the tomb in terror and in silence, we know that those women eventually overcame their fear and found their voice to tell the disciples of the good news of the risen Christ. Those women and Peter along with the rest of the disciples eventually rose up and lived out their part of God’s saving story. In our New Testament Lesson from the book of Acts this morning, we heard Peter’s bold proclamation and clear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The reality that we are here this morning celebrating Easter is a testimony to the fact that the good news of Christ’s resurrection was proclaimed by the women and by the disciples.
And so, on this Easter morning, the question is not whether “Is Christ risen?” for by faith, we believe in the messenger who announced: “He has risen!” Rather, the question is “Shall we rise?” In response to the reality of the risen Christ, shall we rise to journey into the future that God has for us? Yes, Christ is risen on this first day of the week, but Easter is not complete until we proclaim “we shall rise!” and give witness to our resurrected Savior.
We may come this morning burdened by our grief and our pain, but in the compassionate name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning shattered by a life-threatening diagnosis, but in the healing name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning torn by a broken relationship, but in the reconciling name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning betrayed and abandoned, but in the faithful name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning stressed about life’s demands, but in the strong name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning anxious about making ends meet, but in the generous name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning angry about the injustice of the world, but in the righteous name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning weighed down by our past sin and failings, but in the redeeming name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning with a dying faith and a noncommittal heart, but in the enlivening name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
We may come this morning uncertain about our future, but in the eternal name of the risen Christ, let us proclaim, “we shall rise!”
And on that final day, when God’s trumpet shall sound at Christ’s return, we too shall be awaken from our tombs and join all the saints to proclaim, “we shall rise!“
On this Easter morning, let us rise and go to Galilee to meet the risen Christ and journey into the future that God has for us all! Amen.
April 14, 2009 at 12:47 pm |
Well, where to begin? First, the statement in Mark 1:1, “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” was *not* meant to describe the entire Gospel of Mark, and it is simply unrealistic to understand it as anything other that a simple statement that you are at the beginning of the book (or, rather, scroll) instead of at the end.
Second, the footnote in your NIV pew-Bible is woefully misleading. The number of undamaged Greek manuscripts of Mark that do not contain 16:9-20 is exactly TWO. They are Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, both from the 300’s, and both almost certainly made at Caesarea. They are two of the most important MSS of the NT. In Vaticanus, the copyist intentionally left a prolonged blank space after Mark 16:8, as if he was using a master-copy that did not have verses 9-20 but he wanted to give the eventual owner of the manuscript the option of including them. In Sinaiticus, the original pages from Mark 14:54 to Luke 1:56 are absent; the extent pages which contain that portion of text are not the pages made by the main scribe. These details make a major difference when deciding how much weight to give these two manuscripts in this particular case.
Meanwhile, all other undamaged Greek copies of Mark contain 16:9-20. There is one possible exception: a medieval manuscript, #304, but it appears to be a copy which was rebound after being damaged: its text of Mark ends at 16:8, but it has a commentary that runs along with the text, and the commentary also ends abruptly, although it pertains to the contents of the other Gospels, without being completed. If, nevertheless, we classify manuscript 304 as a witness against Mk. 16:9-20, then the score, numerically, is 3 manuscripts against the passage, and about 1,500 Greek manuscript in favor of it.
That overwhelming numerical score is not as important, though, as the observation that Mark 16:9-20 is attested in all text-types; that is, it appears in all the local texts that can be identified in the first few centuries of the early church: it is attested in Gaul, in Rome, in Africa, in Egypt, in Syria, in Asia. But the attestation for its non-inclusion is comparatively narrow.
The NIV footnote fails to inform you that there is an earlier manuscript besides the two that stop the text of Mark at 16:8. I refer to Papyrus 45. Due to extensive damage, Papyrus 45 has no text from Mark 16 at all, so a more equitable and honest approach would be to say that we do not know how our earliest extant manuscript of Mark ended. Papyrus 45’s text agrees more closely with Codex W than with any other manuscript, though, and Codex W does contain 16:9-20 (with an interpolation between verse 14 and v. 15).
Plus, in this case our earliest manuscripts are not our earliest *evidence.* Here again that footnote gives a false impression. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, writing in 184, quoted Mark 16:19 and explicitly stated that it was from the Gospel of Mark. Tatian used 16:9-20 when he made the Diatessaron in 172, and Justin Martyr almost certainly makes a strong allusion to 16:20 in his First Apology (in 160), emphasizing the Greek word PANTACHOU from 16:20.
In addition, while “Most Biblical scholars agree that verses 9-20 were not part of the original text of Mark,” it is no more reasonable to agree with a majority of scholars, simply because they are a majority, than it would be to agree with the majority of Greek manuscripts, simply because they are a 1,500-to-3 majority (not counting the 1,000+ Greek lectionary MSS that support Mk. 16:9-20). I think you will find, if you investigate the question, that very many scholars have simply echoed Bruce Metzger’s “Textual Commentary” about this subject, frequently distorting his statements in the process.
I wish I had more time to explain the various ways in which, it appears, you have been seriously misinformed. But if you e-mail me, I can send a very detailed research paper to you on the subject, which I hope will be helpful and resolve whatever questions you may have on the subject.
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.
April 14, 2009 at 1:28 pm |
James,
Thanks so much for taking the time to submit such a detailed comment to my sermon. Of course, I welcome your paper on this topic. You can email it to me via my bio on Farmville Baptist’s website: http://www.farmvillebaptist.org/about-us/staff/.
The next time this text is assigned in the Revised Common Lectionary, I might preach the whole chapter, including verses 9-20! And in THAT sermon, I’ll probably not wrestle with the “abrupt ending” to the Gospel of Mark, but with Jesus’ promise of protection from handling snakes and drinking deadly poison!
I’m no textual critic, but I’m open to continue learning about God’s holy scriptures. However, at the end of the day, I hope that we will all agree that the point of the passage and the Good News is still that Christ has been risen!
May the risen Christ bless you and yours!