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. This is our text.
Does it seem to you like something is missing? In our text that we just read, the verse that I just read is the place where the text ends. We have the women. We have the empty tomb. We have a young man sitting on the stone that had been rolled away. We have a report that he has risen. All of those things are good. They are supposed to be there. But doesn't it seem like a piece of the story isn't there? Doesn't it seem like there is something that is supposed to be there that we don't quite get to? Where is Jesus? Where is the joy? Where is the realization that Jesus is alive? Look how the text ends – “the women went out and fled because they were afraid”. We have a tendency to read this with our 20/20 hindsight glasses on. We know the rest of the story so it doesn't phase us so much when the reading ends with women who run away too scared to talk. But there is another piece of information to consider here. IF you were to open up your bible to chapter 16 of the Gospel of Mark you would notice that after verse 8, that is after the place where our pericope ends there is a little note. IT says something like this: “Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9-20.” In other words, some of the manuscripts, in fact the most reliable manuscripts end right here. Women fleeing in fear from the tomb. Afraid. No sight of Jesus. No witness to any words that he said. Only fear. As we consider these verses from Mark it really begs the question. Why end an account of the resurrection in such a way. Why choose an Easter text that ends with fear. Isn't Easter about victory and life? Isn't it about leaving behind the fear and living in everlasting Joy? Where is that victory? Where is the rejoicing? Where is the comfort? Where is Jesus? But when we go back and take a closer look at our text, there is an important point that comes through. A point that offers to us hope and even victory and comfort as we consider the words of the angel. God's messenger spoke these words to the women on that morning: "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him!'" It is in the words of God's messenger that we have comfort for our lives even today. Those words give to us hope. They give to us joy. They give to us a cause for celebration. Our Joy this Easter morning is found exclusively in the truth that Jesus died for our sins and that he rose from the dead. Our victory over sin and death, the reason that we are here to celebrate, the reason that our songs are joyful is because we are guaranteed by the promise of God himself that Jesus death and resurrection was for us. His death was our death and now his life is our life. We can sing our Hallelujah loudly and clearly. These Hallelujahs are proclaimed in faith. But faith can be difficult. Faith can be a challenge. The book of Hebrews defines faith as “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith means that we believe what God says in spite of the fact that we don’t always have the physical evidence or proof to back it up. In fact, there are times that faith even seems to contradict our experience. Faith says one thing, while our experience or even our feelings tell us another. So we sing our Hallelujahs, but it would certainly be a lot nicer if we could sing our Hallelujah from experience - from what we have seen with our eyes or what we have touched with our hands or even what we have felt in our hearts. In would be nice if we always had that direct experience of God and of the resurrection. We would like to think that these experiences are better, that faith that reveals itself in our experience is the what it is all about. We want the neatly packaged life with the happy ending. We want the feeling of fulfillment or of joy or of happiness in our worship and in our daily living. We want our lives to be like a Hallmark Hall of Fame special where there are a few bumps along the way but in the end everyone winds up happy. The reality is that life, more often than not, leaves us feeling like the women at the end of our text - trembling and feeling bewildered. Fleeing in fear. We deal with the realities of sickness and death, tragedy and hardship. These things - these everyday-life issues can leave us feeling hopeless and insecure. These realities can prove to be challenges to our faith. The women at the tomb on that first Easter morning faced challenges to their faith. They were disciples of Jesus. They followed him. They loved him. They believed him to be the Messiah. They knew that he was the one who had been promised to come. They were willing to forsake everything and stake their lives on the truth of who they believed this man to be. But then he died. How could he be the messiah if he is dead? How could he be the savior of his people if he is not even around to save them? How could he fulfill all that they hoped he would fulfill if he was lying lifeless in a tomb? Talk about a challenge to your faith. What you thought was a sure thing, what you were absolutely certain was a sign of God working for his people among you was suddenly pulled out from under your feet. The object of your faith was gone and you were left with what appeared to be nothing. Would you not also be afraid? Distressed? Anxious? Of course you would. Of course you are. We all feel that way. We all experience challenges to our faith almost daily. We experience events that we do not understand. We face temptations that we feel we can not over come. We experience doubts. We also experience struggle with sin. We become drawn into sin. We disobey the commandments. We curse, we swear. We covet. We bear false witness. We lust. We steal. We deny the regular preaching of his word. These challenges that we face, and especially our struggle against sin and Satan, can often lead us to doubt. We become afraid. We worry. We wonder if God is who he said that he would be. We wonder if our faith is founded in the truth. We cry out like the father of the demon possessed boy from Mark chapter 9, "I believe! Help me with my unbelief." But that is what makes our text so very important for us. As the gospel of Mark ends with the angst and anxiety of those women we remember that the power of the gospel is not in the response of those who have experienced it or even in the experience itself, rather the power of the gospel rests firmly in the truth of what has happened. Jesus died. In an event that challenged the faith of his disciples, he was arrested and he was crucified and he died and he was buried in a tomb. But he is not dead today. Today he is alive because 3 days after his crucifixion he was raised from the dead. He was given life because his death was a sufficient sacrifice for our sin. On this day. This Easter day, we have gathered for a celebration, for a heavenly festival. We are here to remember the resurrection of our Lord. We are here in faith, that is, we are here because we are certain that regardless of what anyone might say or think, Jesus, our Lord, who died on the cross is alive. He has Risen. He is victorious over death and the grave. His death means for us that we too will live. We are here this morning because that truth has come to us personally. God has given to each of us the gift of faith. Faith that trusts. Faith that believes. Faith that knows that Jesus died and rose again and that the resurrection was for us for our life so that we might live forever. In faith we hold on to that truth and we live in that victory no matter what the world around us seems to suggest. That truth remains whether our lives have a feel good ending or whether our lives end in tragedy. God himself died for us. He defeated sin and the grave. We will live forever. There is nothing that can change that. Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome were on their way that morning to embalm the dead body of their beloved messiah. They were expecting to put to rest their hopes and dreams that this one was who they hoped he would be. They did not know. They did not understand that he had to die. That death was part of the plan. That through death he would gain victory for them. When they arrived they did not see him. They did not know what to think. All they saw was the vision of an angel proclaiming that he had risen. They were terrified. And so do we experience terror. Terror when we realize our dreams do not come out the way that we had hoped. Terror when we do not understand what God is doing and the way that he is doing it. Terror when we come to the realization that our lives are beyond our own control. But that doesn't change the truth. The truth of the gospel The truth of the resurrection. The truth that we know even as we are looking on at the story of our own lives, the victory is there! The hope is there! It is all tied to the promise. Just as God sent his messenger to speak His truth to those women, so does he speak that same truth to us. "Don't be alarmed." Don't be afraid. Don't worry. Here at the grave, at the place where you were expecting to have your defeat confirmed I have won. In my victory I have given to you victory. You may not see it. Your experiences may even seem to tell you otherwise. But I am calling you to believe it. Believe in me. Live in me and in my truth. And in the truth of my Gospel. And in the truth of what I have done for you, you will have hope. Guaranteed.
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