April 12, 2009 ~ Easter Sunday
Mark 16:1-8
“Easter: An Invitation To Wonder”
Rev. Allen V. Harris

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“Do not be alarmed!” the young man robed in white said. Don’t be alarmed? Easy for him to say!

I don’t blame them one single bit for being afraid: I most certainly would be, too! Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome were expecting the drama to have been over. They probably couldn’t even imagine anything more terrifying, exhausting, unnerving than the crucifixion of their beloved Jesus which they had witnessed just days prior. Plus, they approached their task early in the quiet of the morn that comes just after the dawn, before the city wakes and the noises of life started anew.

They had every reason to be afraid. They were doing what was customary, familiar, what so many women of their day did following the death of a loved one: they brought the spices, oils, and strips of cloth needed to prepare a corpse for interment. Nothing exciting ever happens when you are preparing the dead, just the quiet massaging of a body, the painstaking wrapping, the leaning of your beloved’s lifeless remains from one side, to another, back to the first side, and so on.

But little did these women know that the climax of the story was yet to come. Actually, it was a bit of an “anti-climax” as they arrive to discover the stone to the tomb entrance already rolled away, the body missing, and a strange young man telling them that their beloved Jesus who they had witnessed being crucified a horrible death at the behest of the gluttonous political and religious machines just a couple of days before had now “been raised” and that they would soon see him in Galilee, “just as he told you.”

“Don’t be alarmed,” he had the audacity to say to them? They had every reason to be afraid.

Fear is quite a motivating incentive. But there is fear and there is fear.

The kind of fear most of us think of is the stuff of horror movies and action adventure novels, the kind that sneaks up on you and causes you to jump, rub the raised hair on the back of your neck, or recoil in revulsion. It’s what we mean when we say, “Be afraid… be very afraid.” However, no mention is made, in Mark’s gospel at least, of such a fear that morning just outside of Jerusalem. If this were Matthew’s gospel, we would at least have some dramatics to lend credence to this type of fear, for Matthew writes of a great earthquake, angels descending from heaven looking like lightning, and the guards becoming “like dead men.” Now that’s a frightening scene if there ever was one.

But not in Mark. His, the earliest of the four gospels to be written, is minimalist… The stone was already rolled away. The young man isn’t even described as an angel, though we assume him to be so. His calm demeanor and the absence of special effects lets the air out of a frightening form of fear. No, this is no Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, nor even M. Night Shyamalan. But even so, the women “fled” from the tomb, with trembling and astonishment upon them. And, most painfully, they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. End of story.

If not horror, then what kind of fear was this? What comes to mind is the older, less spectacular but nonetheless deeper and richer form of fear. This fear is what is meant by Proverbs 1:7 when we read there “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” In this sense, fear is reverence: to regard with feelings of respect and reverence; to consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of. (1)

Yes, the women that first Easter morning had every reason in the world to be filled with fear, for this was truly an awesome moment, one Jesus had foretold but clearly one which no disciple had expected. They were filled with awe.

But we must likewise not let our modern sensibilities and our movie magic mindsets allow us to think this kind of fear, known as “awe,” to be reduced to “awwwww.” What the two Marys and Solome felt that morning could never be captured in “oooohhhss” and “aaaaahhhhhs,” like cooing over a cute baby we see on the street, but the awe that can only best be expressed in total silence. “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Speechless awe and wonder. It’s more like the “awe” that comes when witnessing the birth of your first child; watching a loved one face cancer or HIV/AIDS with dignity, courage, and grace; or be told your Lord and Savior, who promised that he would never leave you alone, was risen from the grave. Speechless awe and wonder.

The women had every reason to be afraid, filled with terror and amazement, awe and wonder, for two very good reasons. One had to do with the politics of the confrontation which put Jesus into that tomb in the first place. It is an awesome thing when the small but sure voice of conscience stands up to the powerful systems of injustice in this world and are able to have a final say, especially when their very lives are offered nonviolently and with great compassion. Setting the tone for so many great reformers who would come after, including Mohandas Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Caesar Chavez and others, Jesus spoke truth to power, knowing that standing with the people, especially those who were poor, marginalized, outcast, powerless – at least according to political standards – would be risky, even unto death.

And here, the little mouse who roared, Jesus, thought dead and laid in a tomb, has risen from the dead. What an awesome sight, when justice rules the day, when the weak become strong, the lost are found, the outcast and the foreigner become as family. It reminds me of those amazing words in Isaiah 56:
“For my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God,
who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
besides those already gathered.

But there was another reason the women should have been filled with awe: if what Jesus had said about his resurrection was true, then what he said about their discipleship was true, also. You see, as important as Easter is, it can never be wrenched completely from the crucifixion, nor should it be. You see, the crucifixion of Jesus was less about some cosmic arithmetic equation in which God had to settle a score for all of humanity’s sins, as much as it was a lesson in failed discipleship.

Especially in the gospel of Mark, time and time again Jesus is calling the disciples – meaning US – to work with God-in-him on transforming this world for good. All that he did to serve the least of these, all the healing and the teaching and the laughing and the loving wasn’t meant for him to do alone. It was meant for US to learn how to do it when he was gone.

And then Holy Week, the last week of Jesus life, is a painful exercise in reminding us how little we, Jesus’ disciples, learned while he was on earth. We are the ones who became comfortable with imperial power… We are the ones who let our temple become a marketplace… We are the ones who fell asleep in the garden… We are the ones who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver… We are the ones who denied ever having known him… We are the ones who fled the scene in terror…

So if Holy Week was about failed discipleship, then Easter must be about a second chance at discipleship. Perhaps, just maybe, the women were frightened, in awe, filled with terror and amazement because Jesus, freshly risen from the grave and awaiting them in Galilee, would be giving them another chance to GET IT RIGHT! If fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, these three women knew EXACTLY what was expected of them, and all the others who had been following Jesus, listening to Jesus, watching Jesus, learning from Jesus. Ester is an invitation to a renewed sense of wonder: wonder about new life and resurrection, but also wonder at God’s faith in us as disciples of Christ.

In trying to come up with a personal example, I couldn’t stop thinking about my mother and the year prior to her death in 1995…

Easter awe is about realizing that God-In-Jesus has come back expecting us to be disciples once again! Easter is about Jesus looking deeply into our eyes, knowing full well we have betrayed, denied, run from, and failed him… and believing the very best is yet to come – WILL come – in us nonetheless. Easter’s not just about second chances… It’s about God’s fervent belief in us to be capable of living out our second chances, God’s deepest hopes and dreams, Jesus’ resurrection glory.

“Do not be alarmed,” the young man said. Are you alarmed? Did you come to church today afraid? I expect not. Even as beautiful as the music has been, and as gorgeous as the day is, and as wonderful as the fellowship of this congregation continues to be, I doubt seriously that any of our sense of appreciation comes close to the awe that filled the women on that first morning, seeing the empty tomb and being told that Jesus had risen from the dead and would see them soon.

But let us not leave this place without just a little bit of fear. For this day, and truly every day, as God gives us second chances, and thirds, and fourths, and seventy-seventh chances to turn our lives around, find new life, new hope, new vision… let us not forget that most importantly each new chance in life also comes with an expectation, that we will truly and ever more fully live up to that divine expectation of discipleship. Easter is an invitation to wonder: “Will today be the day I am Christ’s disciple?”

Amen.



(1) WordNet at http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=fear

 

Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2009 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096