Living on the OTHER SIDE of Resurrection | Mark 18:1-8 | Lenten Reflections

Transcript

00:00:00:09 – 00:00:25:46
Michael Gewecke
Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Passenger Talk podcast. As we now come to the final iteration of our Lenten series. In this season, we have been looking at biblical text that Clint and I have named as some of our favorites, and we’ve looked at them to see what we might have to learn from them. And today you might argue that we are maybe slightly ahead of schedule.

00:00:25:46 – 00:00:49:46
Michael Gewecke
If you figure that this is coming out on Maundy Thursday of Holy Week. So we’re a little ahead of where the the Easter story is at this moment in our celebration of it. But this was one of the texts selected, I believe that this was mine. And as we turn to it, we find a really interesting sort of ending note in the gospel of Mark.

00:00:49:46 – 00:01:32:07
Michael Gewecke
Today we’re in Mark chapter 16, and on one hand, it is a classic gospel account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s one of those core stories, the pivotal moment where everything changes and the thing that maybe makes Mark’s telling of it maybe unique or notable, is how we are told by biblical scholars. Looking back at some of the earliest texts, how Christians have at different points in time had different places where they stopped and different sections of an ending that they included in their version of the Bible.

00:01:32:07 – 00:01:53:09
Michael Gewecke
And so today we look at the most universally held that the texts, the part of Mark and its ending that everyone, all of the Christians and churches had. And we see where that ends. And if we give ourselves just a little bit of time to do that, you might be surprised what we’re going to find.

00:01:53:47 – 00:02:34:06
Clint Loveall
So there’s this very interesting puzzle or question. Mark concludes his gospel kind of abruptly, and the earliest copies and fragments of of the gospel of Mark we can find all in there pretty consistently. And then there are others where it’s clear that at some point the ending was added to finding Mark’s original ending kind of unsatisfying. That there were alternatives offered, and they tend to be just a little bit later.

00:02:34:06 – 00:03:00:43
Clint Loveall
And so I think that’s interesting for lots of reasons. If you take that ending to be the quote unquote original ending, it’s interesting to ask why would Mark end it that way? If you don’t take it to be the original ending, then it’s an interesting question. Well, how did it happen? What happened to the original ending? And why don’t we have some evidence of it?

00:03:00:43 – 00:03:31:35
Clint Loveall
And so there are four Bible people for scholars and students. There are lots of interesting questions, I think, from for Bible readers, it’s a really challenging idea. And I am of the school that Mark did this on purpose, and I think it’s sort of a masterfully presented challenge to the reader. But will get there later in the story.

00:03:32:02 – 00:03:57:54
Clint Loveall
Let me read to you that this is eight verses from Chapter 16, and this is what is sometimes called the original ending of Mark. And I should mention, if you have your Bible out or have a Bible, you’ll notice that the chapter continues from there and you typically will get a note, something called the shorter ending of Mark and something called the longer ending of Mark.

00:03:57:54 – 00:04:22:57
Clint Loveall
Now those are added again, those are seen in other copies, but they tend to be later. So what I’m going to read for you is sometimes called the original ending. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Solomon, brought spices that they might go and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

00:04:23:31 – 00:04:44:25
Clint Loveall
They’d been saying to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance? When they looked up, they saw the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, Do not be alarmed.

00:04:45:07 – 00:05:17:00
Clint Loveall
You’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He’s been raised. He is not here. Look, there’s the place they laid him. But go tell the disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. So They went out and fled from the tomb for terror, and amazement had seized them and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

00:05:17:00 – 00:05:44:02
Clint Loveall
Now you can imagine if that’s where a book stopped, you would be confused by the ending, particularly if you knew that that wasn’t the ending. And so, Michael, I think, you know, whether it’s on purpose or not, and that’s an argument scholars can have is is a fascinating place to end. We are in the Easter story. We are in the moment of proclamation, of celebration.

00:05:44:15 – 00:05:55:44
Clint Loveall
And to have this final note be one of uncertainty is a really fascinating and somewhat troubling way for Mark to end the story.

00:05:55:44 – 00:06:22:08
Michael Gewecke
Well, in some ways, I think we, if we’re honest, are going to be surprised here by this language that comes even before we get to verse eight, looking at first six, they’re told do not be alarmed. And when you think of Easter, you don’t think of alarm. You think of joy, celebration, proclamation. You think of this idea, you know, sound the trumpets, get out the flowers.

00:06:22:35 – 00:06:59:13
Michael Gewecke
He’s risen. He’s risen indeed. And here it’s as if it’s known from the very start that this is going to be an alarming moment. This is going to be a deeply soulful shaking encounter, because in this moment, Jesus Christ is going to decide everything that everyone up to that point, for all history, every human has experienced death. And here this person is the first, the sun, the first fruits, the one who shows God’s intention to defeat even death itself.

00:06:59:13 – 00:07:20:20
Michael Gewecke
And so this idea for six don’t be alarmed. I think this itself sets us up as a reader to let us know that there is alarm that’s about to happen. But then we get that in full force in verse eight as they flee the tomb for terror, awe and amazement. I love that phrasing, terror and amazement, both of those things together.

00:07:20:51 – 00:08:06:19
Michael Gewecke
And then they don’t say anything because they’re afraid. And you know that that’s a part we’ll get to here at the end of the conversation. The idea that that terror and amazement drives them to silence. But just for a moment to take seriously what that first encounter would be like to encounter an empty tomb, and then consider, if you would, the hope of that as this letter is given to the first generation of Christians who are undergoing persecution and struggle and seeking to hold on to their faith, the the unrooted ness that happens in a moment where suddenly you realize God has done something beyond the natural order, that that death is not the end.

00:08:06:30 – 00:08:25:31
Michael Gewecke
That is a moment that is, of course, one to celebrate. But I think any one of us who’s being honest with ourself would also admit would be unnerving and challenging and fear producing, because you now stand before a force that has never before been seen and that would be that would be difficult.

00:08:26:15 – 00:08:59:38
Clint Loveall
One of the things that I just particularly admire and respect about this ending, Michael, is that so often I think it’s difficult for us to really get Easter. We’ve grown up with the idea of many of us from the earliest time we were in church. We we know this story. We know resurrection. We know the empty tomb. We know the angel and the proclamation.

00:08:59:38 – 00:09:32:49
Clint Loveall
We we know the glory of Easter. And I think it makes it difficult for us who have heard that so many times to get in touch with the bizarre story, the fear, the uncertainty. And as we walk with these characters, there’s these women into this, the cemetery, into the grave. You know, they are on a mission to tend to death.

00:09:32:49 – 00:09:59:31
Clint Loveall
They have the spices, the tools of death with them. They they’ve come in confusion. They haven’t even thought about how they’re going to get in the tomb. They’re shocked. They’re in grief. They they’re in a sense of disbelief. They don’t really this sort of walking through these things that have to be done. And then they they get this message, don’t be alarmed.

00:09:59:31 – 00:10:25:57
Clint Loveall
Jesus isn’t dead. And you have this amazing moment of conflict between a story of death and a story of life. And they now have to try to make sense of that. They now have to try and figure out what what are they going to do with that? Which version are they going to believe? And and that is both a terrifying and amazing moment.

00:10:26:20 – 00:10:59:52
Clint Loveall
I think we sometimes do. Okay. I think there are times we come very close to the amazement of Easter, but I think rarely do we get the terror of it that the the sort of shattering reality of it. This is world changing in a way that I think is difficult. When Easter has always been lilies in brass quartets, when when that’s all you know of it, it’s it’s hard to put yourself in the sandals of these women.

00:10:59:52 – 00:11:10:49
Clint Loveall
I mean, this just and this story, I think, maybe in its own way, is particularly helpful in assisting us to do that.

00:11:11:29 – 00:11:45:12
Michael Gewecke
You know, the church has thrived for thousands of years, and it’s thrived in different cultures and times and places. And the richness of that is that we can see how this story has been planted and grown and all those places. I think one of the difficulties of that is for us to recognize and to see this story from some of the earliest eyes, some of the earliest believers who receive this, who lived their faith in a way that that fear was not tangential to their experience.

00:11:45:25 – 00:12:09:48
Michael Gewecke
There wasn’t just Christians who had a few bad things happen to them that to be Christian was to risk, was to risk your livelihood, was to risk your family relationship was, in some cases to risk your entire career, your vocation, your ability to make and earn a living. So the Christian community wasn’t like a nice fellowship group that you enjoyed getting together in.

00:12:10:03 – 00:12:39:54
Michael Gewecke
It had no sense of country club. It was a de facto necessary organization to support one another in the face of what might be being disowned and pull it out and and finding yourself thrown upon hardship. But I think we see something of that amazing terror power of the gospel in this text. When they go out, they flee the tomb for terror in amazement had sees them and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

00:12:39:54 – 00:13:17:25
Michael Gewecke
Yet how did the gospel spread if they said it to no one? I think that’s one of the generative questions of this text for me is I think it plays into and shows us in vivid color the the Heart center of these women. They were terrified in a maze driven to silence. And yet what could hold their tongue because they clearly went out and shared the good news so that you, the person who received this text and us who now receive it thousands of years later, the story’s been told every generation since.

00:13:17:25 – 00:13:39:16
Michael Gewecke
And I think that’s the amazing sort of flourish that’s happening here is yes, it may be difficult. Yes, the faith confronts us. It transforms everything we thought we knew, but we can’t keep our mouths shut about it. That’s the whole point, that at the end of the day, even if we are terrified and amazed we are, this word has to be shared.

00:13:39:28 – 00:13:59:38
Clint Loveall
Yeah, let’s get to the power of that ending. But to get there, let me contrast this and I don’t know if it’s helpful, but this last line, they said nothing to anyone in in the Greek. That’s rough. It says something like they said nothing to no one. It doesn’t work quite as well in English. It’s not proper grammar.

00:13:59:56 – 00:14:18:01
Clint Loveall
But they said nothing to no one, for they were afraid. And if you if you have a Bible that has a shorter ending, let me just read to you. Somebody came across this ending and thought, well, you know, there’s a little more to it. So they tried to fill in the gap and this is what they ended up with.

00:14:18:30 – 00:14:43:28
Clint Loveall
And all that had been commanded them. They told briefly to those around Peter and afterwards Jesus himself went out with them through them from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. Now, if you know Mark at all and you run into a phrase like the sacred, imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation, you think that doesn’t sound like Mark.

00:14:43:28 – 00:15:08:20
Clint Loveall
And you can see why someone got there, because as you’ve just said, Michael, the idea of silence in the face of Easter is troubling. But here’s what I think Mark has in mind, at least if not in mind. Here’s what I think this ending does, and I think that’s why it’s so powerful. We read this and the last word is they said nothing to no one.

00:15:08:54 – 00:15:37:39
Clint Loveall
They were afraid. And we think, well, how could they say nothing? It’s Easter, Of course they said something. We know the story. We know they had to go tell them. Did they tell the story? And we learned then, if we’re listening, that that becomes a question for the reader. What do you do with the story? What do you do with the proclamation?

00:15:38:09 – 00:16:01:22
Clint Loveall
When the terror and amazement of Easter grab you? What do you do? What do we do when the stories of life and death run into each other and we have to choose one? What do we do with this truth that we know? We know he’s risen. We know it as a reader. We know it as a person of faith.

00:16:01:22 – 00:16:25:57
Clint Loveall
We know it as a participant in the story. The women didn’t tell anyone. And we think, Well, why didn’t they? Or of course they did. But then we learn that the real question is not what they did with it, but what do we do with it? And I think ultimately that that is that is the incredible impact that this ending has for us.

00:16:26:24 – 00:17:01:28
Clint Loveall
Is it as we sit with it for a moment, we realize that Mark isn’t simply talking about the reaction of the women. He’s really asking the reader to think about our own reception of it and will we share it? We know they did, even though they were initially inclined not to. But what do we do with it? And I think that is that is in some ways the primary question of Easter.

00:17:02:07 – 00:17:28:06
Michael Gewecke
You know, every gospel has a way of telling the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection, and that’s always a reflection of who they’re writing to and what part of the story to emphasize. I think the reason why we turn to this section of Mark at the end of this series is because what we find here is a beautifully uncut diamond.

00:17:29:13 – 00:18:18:55
Michael Gewecke
Later, Christians thought, you know, there are aspects to this diamond we can cut here a little bit and we can show more of the story. We can end this in a way that brings it to a far more tight resolution. And yet I think what makes this text so deep, I think what makes it so beyond even words in some ways is it communicates directly to our own experience of the faith, because if you haven’t yet, there will be a moment of your life where you stand before terror and amazement that that that combination of both smallness and greatness, the reality that you stand before, the one who has conquered death, which is the only

00:18:18:55 – 00:18:52:24
Michael Gewecke
thing that doesn’t have a rival, and that that hope, that faith, that that dare to believe this thing that even these women who were exercising their eyes and their ears and they were there and they were experiencing it in that moment, they they still had to wrestle with the belief of what was said to them. And I think that if we can hear that clenched, then that is both a gracious offering to us to recognize that we’re not the first to struggle with fear, terror and amazement.

00:18:52:42 – 00:19:20:58
Michael Gewecke
And we’re also in good hands that the very women who would later become the the seeds of this good news for all time that the spirit who lived in them is also the spirit that lives in us. And so if you’re in that difficult, dark moment and maybe it’s not difficult, maybe it’s dark, but if you’re in the time in which faith is hard, then rest in the confidence of the resurrected one that he, by the power of the spirit, goes with you.

00:19:21:09 – 00:19:35:47
Michael Gewecke
And if on the other hand, you find yourself full of faith and on the mountaintop, then I think this text is a call to ask yourself, how are you responding to the revelation of the gospel? Has it been in silence or have you given voice to that good news?

00:19:36:16 – 00:20:17:51
Clint Loveall
Yeah. Does fear get the last word? I think that’s Mark delivers us to that question. Does does fear and silence rule post the Easter and we know that it doesn’t. And again, I think that’s one of the the masterful strokes of this ending. Easter is in some ways always an unfinished story. What do we do with it? In a couple of days after the release of this podcast, the people of First Presbyterian Church and churches throughout the world will celebrate Easter and then they will dot, dot, dot that.

00:20:17:51 – 00:20:39:52
Clint Loveall
That’s an unfinished story. They will what? What will they do? Will they go out in fear? Will they go out in amazement? Will they share the gospel where they live, the Gospel? These are the open ended questions that Mark lets us stew in at the end of his story here at the end of this narrative. And I think it’s really good.

00:20:39:52 – 00:21:03:36
Clint Loveall
I’ve always thought, yes, it’s nice to know the conclusion, but to have the uncomfortable middle, to have the open ended ending is feels true to the way faith works and life works. And I think Mark does a really just beautiful job of bringing us along to that place.

00:21:04:58 – 00:21:17:43
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for giving us time to be part of this conversation. We certainly hope that that question might live in you and that your response to that question might define not just this day, but every day that comes after it.

00:21:17:51 – 00:21:40:46
Clint Loveall
Yeah, just a quick word. Depending on when you’re listening to this service on Thursday night here at the church, seven Friday night here at seven and then Easter services at 850 and 11. And if you are in the area and would like to join us, I’m sure hope you will love to see you as we celebrate Holy Week and Easter Sunday together.

00:21:41:18 – 00:21:42:46
Michael Gewecke
Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you then.

00:21:43:13 – 00:22:04:37
Clint Loveall
Hey, we want to thank you for listening to this broadcast. We’re grateful for the support and the connections, the relationships we get to make through some of these offerings. We hope that they’ve been helpful. We know that there are lots of choices that you have lots of things you can listen to. We want to make you aware of some of what we’re doing, and we greatly appreciate you being a part of it.

00:22:04:53 – 00:22:23:45
Michael Gewecke
Absolutely. We want to just thank you for being one of our audio podcast listeners. It’s amazing to have you with us in the midst of our conversations. Of course, I hope you know that you can find the whole archive of all of these conversations at Pastor Taco. We would love for you to join us there. You can find options for subscribing by email.

00:22:24:00 – 00:22:57:23
Michael Gewecke
You can easily share things there with other people who you think might appreciate recordings like this. And of course, we just want to welcome you. If you’re ever interested in joining us for the video podcast, you can do that on YouTube. It is YouTube.com slash AFP Spirit Lake. There you can comment and engage with us or if you would prefer to do that without going to YouTube, you can actually just click the link in the description of this podcast where you will be able to send us form and information and reach out to us.

00:22:57:36 – 00:23:14:33
Michael Gewecke
We’d love to hear from you and engage in conversation with you. Thanks again for taking time to be with us. We look forward to our next conversation and can’t wait to see you then.