How do you make the Easter story new again? Haven’t we heard it all before? These are the questions I ask myself, to which I reply: I don’t. We don’t. And that is the point. It is the same story we tell again and again because it IS the same story again and again. What changes is us as Jesus’ disciples. Every time we encounter this story, it remains the same, the promise remains the same, yet we are changed. We are transformed. We are made new.
April 20, 2025
Again & Again: A Lenten Refrain
“The Sun Rises”
Mark 16: 1-8
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Mark 16: 1-8
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that 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; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his 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.
The Sun Rises Mark 16: 1-8
You may have noticed that I read this year’s Easter story from Mark’s Gospel which may not be our preferred Easter story. Sure, some of the details are the same. There’s women going to the tomb early in the morning. They find the stone rolled away. They discover the tomb is empty. This are part of the Easter story. They don’t and won’t change. What changes year to year is how much detail we actually get in the telling of the Easter story.
What I mean by this is that all the Gospels have some version of the Easter story. Some with more detail than others, but let’s be honest, we all have our favorite. We like the version which tells us Mary Magdalene comes to the garden alone; sees Jesus but mistakes him for the gardener until he calls her by name, then joyfully she shouts Master!
We are partial to this version of the Easter story because it gives us so many details. It tells us exactly what happened on that first Easter morning, right down to where the linen cloths were lying in the empty tomb. It shares everything with us about that first Easter morning. It leaves nothing out. This version makes us feel like we are there, standing beside Mary Magdalene, wondering and worrying until Jesus calls our names. John’s description fills in all the blanks for us as people of faith about that first Easter morning.
Not Mark’s version though. Compared to John’s descriptive twenty verses, Mark gives us eight. Eight verses to describe Easter morning. All we get from Mark is on the first Easter morning, there were some women. They worried about how they were going to roll the stone away. They got there. The stone was gone. There was a guy all dressed in white. And if this description of the first Easter morning wasn’t bad enough, Mark ends his story with, “The women fled the tomb in fear, and told no one what they saw.” The women fled the tomb in fear and told no one what they saw!
Now as you can imagine, the early church really wasn’t comfortable with Mark’s ending of the Easter story. It decided to add just a few more details, to help explain just exactly how the Good News was spread, to help explain how the people of God came to experience the Risen Christ, but even with these two, awkward verses, the story leaves us wanting more, leaves us wondering what’s next.
Now before we totally give up on Mark’s version of this story and before we totally get angry at the preacher for not giving us the “real” Easter story this morning, let’s think about this for a moment. Let’s give Mark a little credit for not being the worst writer ever. After all, he did write down the first Gospel shared with communities of faith after Jesus’ death. After all, Mark’s version of the Gospel message did influence the other Gospels,
Which brings us to ask… What if Mark’s story really was supposed to end in fear and in silence? What if Mark’s story of Easter morning really was supposed to end in confusion? What if Mark’s story of that first Easter morning really was supposed to end with us wondering what happens next?
Because as a people of faith, this seems to be more in line with our experiences of faith anyway. Along our faith journeys, we have learned that faith is not about having clear cut responses. Rather faith is about being present in the confusion and silence. Faith is about having hope in the thing unseen. Faith is about finding and holding on tight to the light in the midst of shadows.
Maybe that’s why Mark ended his Easter story this way. He knew that the resurrection experience wasn’t a one size fits all type of experience, that each of us experience God’s grace and God’s love differently in our lives.
For Mark, all that really matters is that there is an empty tomb. Mark knew that Jesus had better things to do than wait for his followers to discover that he was actually telling the truth all along. Mark knew that Jesus had better things to do than sit around and answer all our questions of how, when, where, and why which surround the resurrection experience. Mark knew that what really mattered to us and for us as Jesus’ disciples is that Jesus brought new life to share with all of God’s creation.
You see, for Mark, for us as Jesus’ disciples, the resurrection is not the ending to the story. It is actually just the beginning. It is up to us to decide just exactly what happens next. Jesus is waiting for us to remove our blinders and see, actually see the Beloved Community in our midst. Jesus is waiting for us to change the narrative and in doing so, change the world. Through this seemingly simple story, Mark is reminding us as Jesus’ disciples, that it is up to us as people of faith, as disciples of Christ, as ones who have experienced the power of life over death and destruction it is up to us to decide how the story will continue.
Or let me say it this way… Each and every year, we approach the Easter story with fear and trembling, worried that this year the promise of the resurrection won’t be there, that the gift of new life won’t come through. And who could blame us? Given everything that is going on in our world right now, nothing seems sure anymore. It doesn’t feel like we can count on anything. Things that were once firm foundations are crumbling underneath our feet. And this year, this year, we are worried, we fear that the Easter story is just that…a story that will once again be proven false.
So let me put your fears and worries at ease. If we remember nothing else from this sermon, remember this. Every single time we encounter the Easter story, whether it is today, or tomorrow, or the day after that, or 5 months from now, the story remains the same, the promise remains the same. The experience of the resurrection, the same experience which generations and generations of people of faith have had since that first Easter morning remains true. What changes is us as Jesus’ followers, as Jesus’ disciples. The experience, the story, the promise changes us. It transforms us. It strengthens us. It challenges us. It encourages us…to become, to become the people of love and grace God created and calls us to be now and forevermore.
No matter what Gospel we read on Easter, it all comes down to this…Every year, every day, every minute, the story of Easter invites us to be open to the transformation God is bringing about in our midst. We are Easter people. We tell the same story over and over again as Jesus’ disciples, as ones who have experienced the Risen Lord because through it, we know, we show that God is still at work in our world, bringing healing and wholeness to all of God’s people, that this world does not have the last word. We tell the Easter story over and over, each and every year, each and every day because it reminds us that again and again, hope rises, that hope renews, that hope restores. As people who have experienced the Risen Lord in our lives, in our midst, we tell the Easter story over and over, each and every year, each and every day, because it reminds us that again and again, love and light will always, always, always overcome. Thanks be to God. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, April 20, 2025 – The Sun Rises Mark 16: 1-8.
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