he came to take us

to recreate us

The holy gospel according to St. Mark the 16th chapter!

The Gospel that began with a trumpet blast, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;” ends in a whisper. “And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

…This is the infamous conclusion to Mark’s Gospel.

Closing out the ‘good news of Jesus Christ,’ not with a glorious resurrection appearance that dispels all fear and doubt forever; but with an entirely absent messiah and three women running away, afraid with buttoned lips…

This is not how you want the Gospel to end.

So unsatisfactory is this conclusion that some scribes felt the need to add an ending onto this one years later! 

And, most of our Bibles include their appendage, too! 

Go ahead, check it out! Bust out your Bible! Mark 16, verse 8.

If they’re anything like mine, the only clue you would have that there’s been some meddling, is a couple of headings and a lengthy footnote at the bottom of the page!

Even those who admit the “shorter” and “longer ending of Mark,” aren’t original, still feel a need to posit some theory as to why the Gospel would end like this!

Surely, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way! Perhaps Mark was prevented from writing the conclusion. Or, maybe he did, but the it’s been lost to us.

Which is a great theory. Something straight out of a Nicolas Cage move. But, the fact is much less dramatic; this is the ending. And what’s more, it’s how it’s supposed to end it, too…

The evidence is compelling and I won’t bore you with all the details, I’ll just let Mark speak for himself. The way he’s almost going out of his way to make us notice just how disagreeable of a conclusion this is!

Because honestly, the ending is even more unsettling than an abrupt conclusion. Our translation tidies up the language.

Here’s a reading that’s a little closer to what the original Greek actually says: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement has seized them! And they said nothing to no one(?!), they were afraid, for…” 

And then it just ends!

The last sentence has a double-negative, “ And they said nothing to no one.” And, it ends with a proposition, “for!”

You’ve been told it’s bad grammar to end a sentence with a proposition; and the Gospel itself ends the whole shoot and matchstick with one!

Further more, for all intents and purposes, it’s a hanging proposition! A proposition with no object! “They were afraid, for…”

For, what?!?

We don’t know. It just ends!

…Only, I suspect you do know, don’t you?

In fact, you didn’t need my whole rigamarole about the ending of the Gospel, either. 

Honestly, the only folks who could be alarmed by Mark’s ending are scholars reading behind the comfort of their office walls. Because those of us who are all too familiar with the way life really goes, know just how true the Gospel rings. Don’t we?

This ending may not be proper, but’s it’s truthful. Life is rarely tied up in neat little conclusions. Is it?

I mean, that’s life in the world of COVID-19. Isn’t it?

In fact, if there ever was a year to have this Gospel for our Easter scripture, this is the year.

Which is exactly the point!

The resurrection is not some bow tied unto life as we know it. No, the resurrection is Jesus redemption of life as we know it! Jesus redemption of all that is broken, incomplete and imperfect in this life as we know it!

And boy, do we know it. Don’t we? 

We have plenty for God to work with that incomplete, imperfect and broken  this Easter. Don’t we?

Take away all this novel coronavirus stuff, and it’s not all that novel of a problem. Is it? We always come stumbling into Easter with more fears and questions than conclusions.

We tells ourselves that what makes for a good Easter is having everything go just the way we planned. But, aside from that fact that never happens, it’s also all wrong!

What makes for a good Easter is the Good Shepherd! The Good Shepherd who searches us out, and rescues us in this broken, incomplete and imperfect world!

Jesus has not come to tie a ribbon on life as we know it. No, he’s come to redeem it! To snatch it from the jaws of Sin and Death! To defang that old foe! To bring our lives into the power of God and melt everything else away like dross! To not let go of us for a second. To hold onto us even in death. And then, to bring us up back with him! Alive to new life in him!

No, wait! That’s not strong enough!

Jesus has come to do this for YOU! To snatch you from the jaws of Sin and Death! To defang that ol’ so and so! To bring your life into the power of God and let everything else melt away like dross! To not let go of you for a single second! To hold onto you, even as you die!

And then, when you have as much power over your life as a corpse can have, he will wrench you through death, to new life with and in him!

Like every other character in the Gospel, we have an uncomfortable sort of comfort with that’s broken, incomplete and imperfect in this world of ours. Don’t we? 

We may not bring spices to anoint it, but we have our own little methods we try and ordain it. But Jesus will have no truck with that! 

Today he shows up to blow the doors off of all that! To empty the tombs of disappointment we’ve tried to inhabit!

It’s alarming, I know. But Jesus said this is what he’s come to do!

And here’s the thing you should know this Easter, Jesus isn’t going to sit around waiting, either! 

He’s not going to while away the hours while you try and make your dead-ends more hospitable! No, Jesus has come to empty them out!

Maybe you’re reading this sermon and waiting for the day we can go out and worship together again. When we can celebrate Easter for real. But Jesus isn’t! He’s out! He’s on the loose! He’s beyond the reach of all that is imperfect, incomplete and broken, and he’s writing new beginnings out of their hanging prepositions! 

And, you CAN'T keep him at arm’s length, either! He’s not going to wait for you get everything fixed up, or at even just tidied up! No, he’s writing his new Easter beginning out of all that is incomplete, broken and imperfect in your life! Right now!

Jesus isn’t waiting for us to get your act together! He didn’t wait around that first Easter, and he’s not going to on this one, either!

Take all that’s broken, incomplete and imperfect, and just leave it in Jesus’ tomb! He’s not using it anymore. There’s plenty of room! 

Those things, and we all have them, that you feel you need to complete, repair or perfect, there’s no time left for any of that! That tomb, and it is a tomb, is already empty! The stone’s been moved! There’s nothing left to do anymore! Jesus has blown that whole scheme wide open! It’s done for!

…And that’s ending a sentence with a preposition, I know. But these imperfect, incomplete and broken endings are the ones Jesus loves! The kind he takes he’s dying for!

And then, on the third day, the kind he rises from! 

It’s what Jesus uses to introduce his Gospel to you and me! To us and our lives!

The empty Easter tomb is where Jesus places all that’s incomplete, imperfect and broken, and just buries it there! Leaves it there, forever! Dies to it, once and for all!

And then, three days later, writes a new ending out of it from his Word alone!

The incomplete, imperfect and broken ending of the Gospel of Mark is just perfect for Jesus! And so is your’s!

These endings, they’re not the end. No, they’re the beginning of the good news, your life in Jesus Christ the Son of God!

…But, and here’s the deal, he’s not here anymore! He’s already redeemed your present life, and now he’s gone ahead of you! Into the rest of your life! To bring his eternal, ever new beginning to bear, just as he told you!

It’s alarming I know, but look; the stone that would seal your fate has been rolled away! The tomb’s empty! Jesus is risen and we shall arise! So let us sing praises with a new song!