How do we tell the Easter story, the
story of Jesus’ resurrection? The varied
ways of telling the “greatest story ever told” are evident by the contrasting
ways that the gospel writers tell us of the same event. In Matthew, we read of an earthquake, terrified
guards, and Jesus meeting the women after they leave the tomb. In Luke, Peter is shown running to the tomb, disciples
encounter Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and then that same Jesus appears to a
larger gathering of disciples. When we
read John’s gospel, we see a Thomas full of doubt, and Jesus meeting with the
disciple by the seashore. We place Mark’s
gospel next to all of these, and we discover that we aren’t even sure where the
gospel in fact ends. The only common
thread in all these various accounts is the visiting of the tomb by the
women.
Despite its brevity when compared to the
other gospels, Mark’s resurrection story does teach us some important things-
not only about Jesus, but about our faith as well. First of all, the women who visit the tomb
are seeking the crucified Jesus, rather than the resurrected Lord. This is more than understandable, as they
were there for Jesus crucifixion. These
three women all saw the death of Jesus (Mark 15:40), and the two Mary’s were
there for Jesus burial (Mark 15:47).
Despite their confidence in what they have witnessed the young man, who
is most assuredly an angel, instructs them that they are looking for Jesus in
the wrong place. His statement that
Jesus “was crucified” has the ring of a Christian confession, as the
crucifixion is now in the past. More
than that, the testimony continues beyond Jesus recently endured crucifixion, to
state that “he has been raised.” Jesus
death been overcome by life, by resurrection, and it is God who has
accomplished this, as is made clear by the fact that “has been raised” is cast
in the passive.
Where do we seek Jesus? As important as the crucifixion is for us,
for our redemption, it is firmly in the past.
The cross is important, even vital to our spiritual lives, but the power
it possesses to shape us comes not from Jesus death, but from His resurrection.
Of course, that power is only relevant if
we believe the word about Jesus that we hear.
In the words of the author of Hebrews, “faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) To that end, there is no dispute that the
tomb was empty. If Jesus’ body had
remained in the tomb, stating that fact would have been the easiest and most
logical way to undercut the power of the Christian message. After all, as Paul would tell the Corinthians,
“if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is
in vain.” (I Corinthians 15:14) In other
words, if Christianity’s early opponents could discredit the resurrection, they
would have all but discredited the entire faith. And
yet, with that being the case, in all the early Jewish polemic against
Christianity, the empty tomb is never disputed, nor is Jesus’ body produced.
The real thrust behind the news of Jesus
resurrection is not just the indisputable fact that the tomb was empty. The power lays in the fact that Jesus’ followers
saw in this action, in Jesus’ resurrection, a fulfillment of what God had
promised to do all along. The prophet
Hosea would foretell the event centuries earlier, when he said: “After two days
he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live
before him.” (Hosea 6:2) Jesus himself
hints at an interpretive lens through which we should we view both the
crucifixion and the resurrection, when he says as he hangs on the cross, “my
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
By quoting the first verse of Psalm 22, a psalm that begins with such anguish
and pain, he is pointing us forward to the end of the psalm, to an ending
characterized by renewal, and even resurrection.
Like the women, we are left with an
empty tomb. The question is, what will
we do with it? Will we believe that word
of revelation that interprets the empty tomb, and infuses it with meaning?
Embracing that word of revelation is more
than a mental or intellectual exercise. The women are told to go and tell the
disciples and Peter, the news of the resurrection. In short, they are to take the news to those
who need to hear it the most. Those who
abandoned and even denied Jesus are rehabilitated. The lack of closure in the gospel is
intentional and draws us into the story, giving us the task of interpreting the
rest of what has, and indeed what will happen.
In essence, the gospel tasks us with writing an end to the story through
our own faithfulness. D. English would
write that “our first century forebears in the faith were not naturally
superior (or inferior) to us. Neither
did faith and discipleship come any easier for them. Yet despite all, they went on believing and
laid the foundation for us.” The
question is, like them, will we embrace faith and discipleship in spite of the
cost? Will we build on the foundation
laid by them, a foundation grounded in the blood of Jesus Christ, and the power
of His resurrection?
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