Completing the Ending

How does the Easter story end? If you're reading Mark's gospel, it ends very strangely. So much so, in fact, that someone added another ending to it! My Easter sermon might make you think about what the best ending to Easter Sunday is -- and whether you're part of it.

It’s not a very good ending to an Easter Sunday reading, is it? “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8) That’s the original ending of Mark’s gospel. That’s where Mark left it, with fear and trembling and silence. The extra 12 verses that are in our Bibles were added sometime later, by an early Christian who didn’t like Mark’s ending any more than we do! He – or maybe she – didn’t want the story to end so abruptly, in the middle of confusion and bewilderment. That ending probably doesn’t seem right to us, either, because we all know the story of Easter morning! The women who have gone to the tomb should meet the risen Christ. Their encounter should end in joy, not fear and silence! I recently read a story of a scripture reader on Easter morning – a congregational member, like those of us here who read the morning scriptures. She was supposed to read the same text from Mark’s gospel that we just heard; and it was supposed to end the same place that ours did. But that reader was using the large pulpit Bible that many churches use, not just a copy of the morning’s text. She got to the last verse, paused for a moment, looked twice at the bulletin, and continued to read. After she had read several additional verses, the pastor got up, tapped her on the shoulder, and said, “Thank you. This morning’s reading ends at verse 8.” The reader sheepishly muttered, “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought the bulletin had a misprint.” She couldn’t imagine that the Easter story would ever end with fear and silence!

I wonder whether Mark was reflecting his own times when he stopped his gospel so abruptly. He was, after all, writing at a time when the Christian church was being persecuted. And they were being persecuted both by the Jewish community, who believed that Christians were heretics; and by the Romans, who were afraid that Christians would try to overthrow the Empire. That seems ridiculous to us today, but remember that we call Jesus our King. The Romans were always on the lookout for a threat to the Empire; and these Christians certainly seemed to be one! If we lived in a society like that, we might be afraid and bewildered, too. And we would undoubtedly be afraid to proclaim the Easter message for fear that we might end up thrown to wild beasts in the arena! Oh, there were good reasons to be afraid and keep silent when Mark wrote his gospel.

But in the end, Mark’s gospel couldn’t end the way that Mark ended it. Jesus’ resurrection does confuse us! Let’s face it; resurrection is something completely foreign to us. We aren’t experts on bringing life out of death; quite the opposite, in fact. We only know how to bring death out of life! And when we’re faced with the reality of resurrection, we’re befuddled by it because we don’t expect it any more than we expect to see a unicorn trotting down Main Street! Yes, we are confused and bewildered, just like the women at the tomb. But we don’t stay that way; because when we’re faced with the reality of resurrection, we encounter the risen Christ! And that’s what the early Christians added to the ending of Mark’s gospel. They knew very well that any experience of resurrection goes beyond hearing about the resurrection. Oh, hearing is the first step, of course. Just like the women first heard about the resurrection from a young man in white robes who was at the tomb, we first heard about it from our parents, or a Sunday school teacher, or a good friend. But hearing is only the first step! At some point, we meet the risen Christ ourselves. And meeting the risen Christ means being transformed from bewilderment and silence into joy and proclamation!

Listen to the revised ending to Mark’s gospel (verses 9-20).

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Now, the reason that many people believe that this ending wasn’t written by Mark is that the vocabulary and the grammar in this text isn’t like the rest of the gospel at all. It’s as different from the rest of Mark as Hamlet is different from Huckleberry Finn. But it really doesn’t matter who wrote it. You can believe what you like about that. And this text makes some pretty outrageous statements about what Christians will be able to do. None of us here are snake handlers – at least, none that I know of. I don’t think that any of us speak in tongues (although many Christians do). And I certainly hope that nobody adds poison to their green bean casserole at the next carry-in to test the truth of the verse that says, “When they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all.” You might not choose to believe all those claims. But what I hope you do believe is that when we meet the risen Christ, we’re changed. When we met our Lord, we begin a transformation into someone that we never expected to be; and we end up doing things that we never expected to do! We may be bewildered when we leave the empty tomb; but when we meet the risen Christ, our fear disappears, our hearts sing with joy, and we can’t wait to tell everybody that we know about what has just happened to us! Easter just doesn’t end in fear and silence.

On this Easter morning, where are you as we leave the empty tomb? We’ve all heard about the resurrection. We wouldn’t be here this morning if we hadn’t. But maybe you haven’t met the risen Christ yet. Maybe you’re still wondering about the meaning of that empty tomb. If that’s the case, that’s OK. You’re still farther along than the disciples were. At first, they didn’t even believe that the resurrection was real! If I’m describing you, I hope that one day soon – maybe as you’re on your way home, or eating your dinner, or watching TV – maybe even today – that you meet the risen Christ, and experience the transformation that he has to offer! And if you have already met the risen Christ along the road of life, then – alleluia! You know what I’m talking about! We may not understand resurrection with our heads, but we know that it’s real in our hearts, because we’ve experienced it for ourselves! And our lives will never be the same again!

My Easter prayer this morning is that all God’s children might meet the risen Christ, so that someday, the story that was begun so long ago will finally be complete. Amen and alleluia!