Text used – John 10:11-18

• As I was thinking about this whole image of lambs and sheep and shepherd and Jesus this week, I have to admit that it was challenging.
  • Challenging because there’s almost an overabundance of sheep/shepherd/flock imagery throughout Scripture → speaks heavily to the culture in which these sacred texts were first spoken and written and shared
    • Culture rife with pastoral scenes
      • Sheep and shepherds occupying hillsides all around
      • Sheep and shepherds encountered going along the road from one place to the next
    • Religious culture rich with the importance of sheep → one of the main animals of sacrifice: “an unblemished sheep” or “the finest of the flock” were some of the most lavish sacrifices offered both in atonement and in thanksgiving
    • Other Scriptures speaking of sheep and shepherds (just a small sample, mind you)
      • Ps 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want[1] …
      • Ezek 34: The Lord God proclaims: I myself will search for my flock and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out the flock when some in the flock have been scattered, so will I seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered during the time of clouds and thick darkness.[2]
      • Jn 21: When they finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.” He asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was sad that Jesus asked a third time, “Do you love me?” He replied, “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”[3]
      • 1 Pet 2: Like shepherds, tend the flock of God among you. Watch over it. Don’t shepherd because you must, but do it voluntarily for God. Don’t shepherd greedily, but do it eagerly. Don’t shepherd by ruling over those entrusted to your care, but become examples to the flock.[4]
      • Rev 7: They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.[5]
      • And as I said, these are only a few – a scant few – of the passages I could have pulled to illustrate this. Yes, Scripture is full of references to various aspects of our faith being like sheep … like shepherds … like flock. The sheep/shepherd language is everywhere.
    • Challenge presented by this overabundance of sheep/shepherd/flock language – scholar: The good shepherd is one of the most familiar images of Jesus and all the more demanding of theological attention, for the familiar too easily becomes routine and its range of meaning narrows.[6] → I think for today’s particular passage from John 10 – what is most often referred to as “The Good Shepherd” passage – this is particularly true. So after so many references and interpretations and sermons and devotional readings and everything else we’ve encountered about this passage specifically and about sheep/shepherd imagery in the Bible in general, I was struggling with how to come at this from a new vantage point.
• But then I stumbled across this piece written by a modern-day shepherd back in 2013. – “10 Things I’ve Learned from Lambs” by Craig Rogers[7] from the Modern Farmer website
  • According to bio at the beginning of the piece: Craig Rogers = owner of Border Springs Farm in Patrick Springs, Virginia
  • And as I was reading through these 10 things, I thought, “That could be a good way to approach this text, especially for those of us who haven’t grown up on sheep farms” (which I’m relatively sure applies to almost everyone in this room … am I right?)
    • Can’t tackle them all – 2 reasons
      • ONE: we’d be here all day because there’s a lot here
      • TWO: Frankly, the last 3 all deal with eating lamb, and sometimes an illustration can only go so far!
• Lesson 1: “A shepherd’s life is most humble: From the beginning of time, shepherds have been the proverbial ‘ditch diggers,’ the down-trodden, the disrespected. Hence, even the angels came to the shepherds, the lowliest of all men, to share the news of the birth of Christ, as the story is told. Over the centuries, nothing has changed much. From the shepherds of the hills of Scotland, to the shepherds of the new Western frontier, to the Basque shepherds who migrated from Mexico and became the shepherds of the far west and the emancipated slaves who headed west with prolific breeding sheep as their source of livelihood, all have been discriminated upon and viewed as a lowly class over the ages. … [Yet] I find great pride in doing the ancient work of caring for sheep, the humble work of caring for the sick, ensuring the health of each individual, providing feed and shelter and protecting the safety and health of the flock. Shepherding requires more hands-on work than most livestock farming. Lambing (the birthing of lambs) often occurs at night, in the cold, and is a solitary farming task where the reward is personal satisfaction in perhaps saving the life of a ewe or bringing a lamb into the world that otherwise would not make it. It is a personal satisfaction with few equals.”
  • The culture in which we reside seems pretty deeply focused on notoriety.
    • Think about YouTube, tiktok, FB/IG reels and all the other ways people share short, 15-second snip-its of anything and everything
      • Dances
      • Major life events
      • Personal opinion rants about whatever happened to cross their path in the last 5 mins.
      • Cute kids … puppies … kitties … turtles … fill-in-the-blank
    • Think about the entire job description of paparazzi: get the best picture you can of celebrities’ most intimate, unguarded moments … the juicier, the better, regardless of the privacy, wishes, feelings, and often even safety of the celebrities involved.
  • I think we can safely say that the photographers and journalists working for all the gossip rags out there aren’t actively seeking out random shepherds in the fields.
    • Position with few accolades
    • Position with little to no recognition
    • Position that requires long days, hard work, and plenty of very messy moments
    • Long days … hard work … plenty of very messy moments … I wonder if Jesus would have described his ministry that way? Clearly, there is humility in today’s passage. → Jesus speaks about the shepherd sacrificing for the sheep, particularly in ways the hired hand will not – text: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That’s because he isn’t the shepherd; the sheep aren’t really his.[8]
  • Work that we do within the life of the church is the same
    • Not work that we do for the recognition of it
    • Work that is often long … hard … even messy
    • It’s work that we do, not for the good of ourselves or our reputations or our bank accounts, but for the good of others.
      • Good of those around us in this space (Christian community)
      • Good of those whose lives we get to touch through our ministry here (mission and outreach)
• Lesson 2: “Sheep are smarter than everyone thinks they are. You just have to be smart enough to recognize it: Over the years I have often been told, generally by non-sheep people or someone with 10 or 20 sheep that are fed from buckets, how dumb sheep are. However, if you pay attention, you cannot help but be impressed by how smart they are to have survived domestication since 10,000 B.C. Although many think of their flocking instinct to be a sign of ‘dumbness,’ it is in fact a community-based survival mechanism where they have learned that their strength is much greater in numbers and their comfort and survival is enhanced as a group rather than as an individual. Not a bad lesson for all of us.”
  • This idea of “community-based survival,” as Rogers calls it, is the whole point of today’s Good Shepherd passage. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus speaks of the ability to gather the sheep to himself – to keep them together for the purposes of protection and prosperity, for the good of the shepherd’s purposes as well as the lives of the sheep.
    • Rogers’ point: the sheep stick together – the sheep “flock up” – for their own benefit
      • Safety
      • Warmth
      • Companionship
    • Jesus speaks to this in our passage today, too – text: I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I give up my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them, too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.[9]
      • And isn’t that why we come here, friends? For safety for our spirits when we’re at our lowest and most vulnerable … for the warmth of seeking God and experiencing God together as the body of Christ … for the companionship of praying and worshiping and exploring and living out our faith together, no matter our current terrain? The whole idea of “church” is a place where we can embody that “community-based survival” together amidst the throes of life – the ups and the downs, the lost moments and the found ones, the green pastures and still waters and everything in between.
  • Lesson 3 rolls into this idea as well: “Tend to the flock, but care for the individual.: Shepherds, like the sheep themselves, learn quickly that the path to success depends on tending to the flock but caring for the individual. Providing clean water, ample forage and shelter to an entire flock is essential to maintaining the health of the flock. But the success of a shepherd or shepherdess is in the compassion they have for each individual. This means being able to identify a sick or injured sheep or lamb within a flock of hundreds or thousands of sheep. … The more concern the shepherd has for the individuals who are in need of health care, supplemental food assistance or individual attention, the healthier the flock and the more profitable the whole operation is. (This lesson applies to more than a flock of sheep.)” → In our passage today, Jesus speaks about the utmost lengths to which he’ll go to care for the sheep, and as Christians – when we choose to follow Christ to the point of bearing his name as part of our identity – we are called to act like Christ as well.
    • Caring for the sheep [re-read underlined portion]
    • Jesus’ familiar words in another sheep-referencing passage: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” Then the king will reply to them, “I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.”[10]
• No matter how we approach this idea of sheep and shepherds and flocks and faith, friends, nothing about this imagery suggests things are easy.
  • Not easy for the sheep
    • Constant threats (getting lost, predators, dangerous terrain, etc.)
    • Challenges of everyday life (finding food, lambing process, etc.)
  • Not easy for the shepherd → needing to protect the sheep in the midst of those same challenges
  • Certainly times when it’s easier to scatter – to try to go our own way because we think it will be better … safer … more abundant … more exciting
    • World of the church = in a time of scattering right now → It’s no secret that congregations are shrinking, no matter their starting size, and that the fastest growing religious group are the “nones” – those who have no religious affiliation of any kind.
      • Statistics that can feel scary … daunting … hopeless
  • And yet as sheep together, we hold to the compassion and care of the Good Shepherd. We tune our ears to the voice of the One who names us and claims us as his very own. Sometimes we scatter. But be assured, friends, that the Good Shepherd will always seek us out and bring us home … again, and again, and again. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] Ps 23:1.

[2] Ezek 34:11-12.

[3] Jn 21:15-17.

[4] 1 Pet 5:2-3.

[5] Rev 7:16-17.

[6] Stephen A. Cooper. “Fourth Sunday of Easter – John 10:11-18 – Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 448.

[7] https://modernfarmer.com/2013/12/10-things-learned-lambs/.

[8] Jn 10:11-12.

[9] Jn 10:14-16.

[10] Mt 25:37-40.

Text used – Luke 24:36-48

• Food … for some it is an art form. For some, an obsession. For some, a tool. For many, it’s something with which they have a complicated relationship. Yet no matter how we view food or explore food, use food or grapple with food, for all of us – for every living thing on this plant, be they human or plant, creature or organism – food is a necessity. Life cannot happen without food.
  • Human body can survive anywhere from 8 days to 3 weeks without food, depending on conditions and how healthy your body was to begin with
  • Access to food has driven societal and industrial development and mass migration
    • Potato famine in Ireland – often called “The Great Hunger”
      • Lasted 7 yrs. from 1845-1852
      • Killed 1 million people
      • Displaced another 1.3 million people
    • Makes food highly political → All you have to do is look at the headlines from day to day to see just how big a role food plays in the landscape of global politics.
  • No matter where you are in the world, food is central. It’s central to economies. It’s central to communities. It’s central to cultures. It’s central to families. It’s even central to religions.
    • “Friends, as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim Christ’s death and resurrection until he comes again in glory. The table is set. The feast is ready. And Christ bids us, ‘Come.’” … Right?
    • Food is our gathering point. It is our common language. It is the way we share with and care for one another. It is a way we express ourselves – our lives and our dislikes, our personalities and our personal histories.
      • Hanging up on the wall in my kitchen = 3 framed recipe cards
        • Mom’s handwriting
        • Grandma Viv’s handwriting
        • Grandma Joanne’s handwriting
        • Not only is it their handwriting, but all three are recipes that they make or made frequently. You can tell by the food stains on the cards themselves.
  • With the inescapable, complex role that food plays in our lives and our everyday, it’s no wonder that Jesus reintroduces himself to the disciples post-resurrection using … food.
• BEFORE WE GO ANY FUTHER THIS MORNING – CONFESSION: As I was reading through Scriptures and planning sermons a few months ago, I read the context of this Scripture incorrectly. I made a mistake that lots of people make on a regular basis – I confused two very similar accounts from two different gospels.
  • Today’s reading = from Luke (context we’ll explore more fully in a minute because it’s important)
  • Other reading = from John’s gospel[1]
    • Resurrected Jesus reappears on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where the disciples have returned to the pastime they knew before: fishing
    • Jesus again helps them with their catch, reenacting his first appearance in their lives by telling them to fish from the other side of the boat → “and there were so many fish that they couldn’t haul in the nets”[2]
    • Disciples recognize Jesus and join him on the beach
    • A dawn fish breakfast ensues in which Jesus himself eats some of the fresh catch
  • When I was planning my sermons and I read this morning’s passage from Luke and mistook it for the passage from John … hence this morning’s title “A Beachside Breakfast of Fish … and Faith.” However, in Luke’s account, there is no beach. My mistake, all … just cross that word out on your bulletins for me this morning. Thanks.
• So if they aren’t on a beach … where are Luke’s disciples? → context within Lk’s gospel = crucial
  • Today’s text = very near the end of ch. 24 and the whole of Lk’s gospel
    • Only thing after today’s text = 4 short verses describing Jesus’ final ascension into heaven in which he blesses the disciples, the disciples worship and give thanks, then return to Jerusalem “overwhelmed with joy”[3]
    • The rest of ch. 24 = divided into 3 key pericopes (short stories)
      • 1-12 = Jesus’ initial resurrection (“The Empty Tomb”)
      • 13-35 = what has lovingly been referred to throughout the centuries as the “Walk to Emmaus” passage in which Jesus appears to 2 disciples as they’re walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus → Jesus spends time speaking with these disciples about recent events (i.e. – his death and resurrection) without the disciples recognizing Jesus for who he truly is → Jesus’ identity is finally revealed to them when they stop and break bread together (yup … food again, y’all!) → end of that account: They got up right then and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen! He appeared to Simon!” Then the two disciples described what had happened to them along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread.[4]
    • Leads into today’s encounter where Jesus appears to all the disciples together in Jerusalem – 1^st verse of today’s reading: While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”[5] → So while the disciples were standing there swapping stories about who had seen the Risen Christ where, POP! Jesus appeared there in their midst!
      • Jesus immediately tries to calm them: “Peace be with you!”
      • Clearly not a greeting that sticks the first time around – text: They were terrified and afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost.[6] → Now, I find this interesting considering what we just read at the end of the Walk to Emmaus passage. The end of that passage said that the two unnamed disciples who encountered Jesus along the road to Emmaus “returned to Jerusalem” where “they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.”
        • Means that all of Jesus’ remaining former “inner circle” disciples were there (12 minus Judas = “the eleven”)
        • “the companions” of the eleven could be referring to the women who initially found Jesus’ tomb empty (yes … conjecture, but we’re told earlier in chapter 24 that, after they found the tomb empty, “they reported all these things to the eleven and all the others.” So the women certainly could have still been there.)
        • So that means that in the room were certainly Simon Peter who had his own empty tomb experience as well as the two disciples who knew they encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus and possibly the women who had had their empty tomb experience as well. And yet, when the Risen Christ appeared among them, they were still startled … afraid … even terrified. I just find it really interesting that despite the stories and eyewitness encounters that they had just been discussing, I don’t think they actually expected to encounter Jesus again. And yet all of a sudden, there he is among them.
• Three distinctive parts to this encounter
  • FIRST, Jesus calms and comforts
    • “Peace be with you!”
    • Further (in reaction to their fear): “Why are you startled? Why are doubts arising in your hearts?”[7] → I don’t hear Jesus saying this in an accusatory way or even in a disappointed way. I hear Jesus saying this in a pacifying way with a tone of voice meant to further placate and ease the disciples’ distress. With all that he’s been through with them and for them, at this point, I think Jesus is beyond admonishments.
  • SECOND, Jesus proves → not in ways that are ethereal or overly theological or esoteric but in ways that are grounded in the body … in the flesh … in Jesus’ own humanity
    • Text: “Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me! Touch me and see, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones like you see I have.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. Because they were wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness, he said to them, “Do you have anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish. Taking it, he ate it in front of them.[8] → Jesus is trying to show the disciples without a shadow of a doubt that he is still fully himself.
      • Interview with the publication for The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology on the topic of “A Theology of Food and Body,” Rev. Kate Sweet (ordained Disciples of Christ minister): One of the most shocking aspects of the Gospel story is the claim that God had the audacity to take on human form, with all of its messiness and uncertainty. The Incarnation speaks to me of God’s total embrace of our embodied life. … I believe that God made us with bodies on purpose; it wasn’t a mistake. We are made in God’s image, and in some mysterious way these bodies of ours help us to glimpse something of what God is like. Because of this fact, I don’t think that it is possible to separate our faith from how we eat or treat our bodies. We enact what we believe about the world, about life, about God, through our physical life; there is no other way![9]
      • To reassure them … to prove himself to them … to bring them all back into the same space, back onto the same page … Jesus uses that universal language: food. He tries to show them his hands and feet (clearly it wasn’t just Thomas who doubted after all, right?), and when even that didn’t do the trick, Jesus asked them to share their food. He took the fish. He ate it. And that was that.
        • Interesting point – text (given as the reason Jesus asks for the fish): Because they were wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness[10] → I find this fascinating and refreshing and critical because in this little in-between verse, we are both reminded and reassured that doubt doesn’t always have to be mired in struggle and shame and fear and reprimand. Yes, the word for “disbelief” and “unfaithfulness” is here, but that striving to belief is couched in joy and wonderment.
  • THIRD and final phase of this encounter = Jesus returning to his beloved, well-known role: teaching
    • Scholar: Just when we thought the story is over, God had something to say. It has always been about God and continues to be so. Jesus did not launch into explanations about the mechanics of resurrection, nor did he provide an itinerary of his whereabouts since Friday. Instead, Jesus taught and commissioned: his whole life, death, and rising were about what God is doing in the world – reconciling the world to God’s self.[11] → So Jesus takes those last moments (at least some of the last moments that we know about) to teach the disciples more about God … more about Scripture … more about Jesus’ own role as the Christ … and finally, more about the disciples’ role as witnesses. Bodies renewed. Spirits renewed. Food and faith … hand in hand.
      • I want to leave you with the words of a lovely little memoir by journalist Sara Miles (from Take This Bread: The Spiritual Memoir of a Twenty-First-Century Christian[12]) Amen.

[1] Jn 21:1-14.

[2] Jn 21:6b.

[3] Lk 24:52.

[4] Lk 24:33-35.

[5] Lk 24:36 (emphasis added).

[6] Lk 24:37.

[7] Lk 24:38.

[8] Lk 24:39-43.

[9] https://theseattleschool.edu/blog/theology-of-food-and-body/.

[10] Lk 24:41a.

[11] Barbara J. Essex. “Third Sunday of Easter – Luke 24:36b-48 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B., vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 427.

[12] Sara Miles. Take This Bread: The Spiritual Memoir of a Twenty-First-Century Christian. (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007), xi-xii, xiii.

For this Sunday after Easter, we chose to honor the Myrrhbearing Women. The tradition of Myrrhbearers’ Sunday comes from the Orthodox tradition. You can read more about it here.

During our service, we divided our encounter with the myrrhbearing women into two parts: how the women enter the story, and how the women proclaim the story. Much of the service involved a variety of Scripture readings and a couple of reflections.

How the Women Enter the Story:

Luke 8:1-3

Luke 23:44-49

Luke 23:50-56 (because Joseph of Arimathea is also traditionally considered one of the myrrhbearers)

Matthew 27:55-61

Mark 15:40-47

John 19:25-30

John 19:38-42

1st Reflection:

The women came from all walks of life and had all sorts of relationships to Jesus. One was his own mother – that beloved Mary who’s initial “yes” to God’s seemingly-ludicrous plan was now reverberating throughout the towns and villages as God’s Son … her son … taught and healed and loved, as God’s Son … her son … gasped and bled and died. Others were the mothers of some of his closest followers. Some of the women were sisters of Jesus’ dearest friend – friends of the Messiah in their own right … in their own special way – while others were women whose lives had been changed by the words and actions of this Jesus of Nazareth, this itinerant rabbi who taught people and healed people and loved people in a way no one had ever seen before.

None of them loved Jesus better than another, but they all loved him in their own special ways. None of them followed Jesus more faithfully than another, but they all followed Jesus faithfully, even unto Jesus’ last gut-wrenching, heartbreaking moments and beyond. When things got dark and difficult, their devotion to him – their faith – remained. Even after all the others had betrayed him … had denied him … had deserted the pain and shame of the cross, these women stayed. They stayed in the midst of utter grief – stayed long enough to water the foot of the cross with their tears … stayed long enough to see Jesus’ broken, lifeless body taken down from that cross … stayed long enough to begin the ritual preparations for the dead before the beginning of the Sabbath.

And not only did they stay, but after the Sabbath, they came back. They returned to that place of grief … of hopelessness … of trauma thinking not of themselves and their own discomfort and agony, but of what they could still do for their beloved Teacher: give him the ritual burial that they thought he deserved.

Friends, things in our world are seldom as perfect and rosy and easy as we would like them to be. Our world is broken and flawed because humans are broken and flawed, and sometimes that makes it so incredibly hard to do what needs to be done. We are afraid. We are weary. We are wrung out in body, mind, and soul … just as those myrrhbearing women surely were. In the face of that physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion, those women let their love for Jesus lead them to the next step … and the next step … and the next step. It didn’t require an elaborate plan or a false smile or the impression that they had everything together. It just required their presence and their devotion to the one they had grown to love: Jesus, the Christ.

How the Women Proclaim the Story:

Luke 24:1-12

Matthew 28:1-10

Mark 16:1-8

John 20:1-2, 11-18

2nd Reflection:

So what’s the second lesson we can learn from the Myrrhbearers? They took the good news of the gospel OUT!! They proclaimed a resurrected Christ! They ministered! They didn’t let anything get in their way: fear of repercussions from the Romans who had just crucified their beloved Teacher; the disbelief of others … even some as powerful and influential as Peter … as some as intimate as themselves; not even societal expectations related to their gender and their abilities. I’ve said it before, friends … I just said it to my kids as we were hiking in the beautiful weather yesterday … and I’ll say it again and again and again: never, ever forget that the very first people to preach the gospel were women. And don’t let anyone else tell you different either.

          There are a lot of things in the world that try to get in the way of us living and sharing our faith. And there are a lot of things inside us that try to get in the way of living and sharing our faith. Sometimes we’re afraid. Sometimes we’re uncertain. Sometimes we’re intimidated or we think that we won’t find the right words … the perfect words … the “faith-i-est,” “holy enough” words. And as Mark’s account showed us last week, it’s okay to be in those moments of hesitation. Fear and uncertainty and even doubt are not markers of an inadequate faith. Fear and uncertainty and even doubt do not make you a bad person or a bad Christian. Even Jesus feared. Even Jesus experienced uncertainty and doubt in the Garden of Gethsemane on the cusp of his arrest. But 2000 years later, we are still telling the story of that Resurrection Morning … so somewhere along the line, we know that the strength of their faith and the power of the good news of a Risen Christ spurred the women to overcome their fear and uncertainty. Eventually, they told their story … a story we still get to tell today.

          No matter how they eventually came to it, the women ended up finding the words that morning – perfectly right and perfectly simple and perfectly faithful: “Christ is risen!” Sounds like a pretty good place to begin, don’t you think?

Christ is risen!

Text used – Mark 16:1-8

• It is Easter morning, friends! We get to declare to one another and to the world that Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! … Or … has he?
  • Of course, we know that he has because we’ve had the benefit of the other gospels accounts for centuries – stories of the women discovering the empty tomb and encountering first the stranger in white robes to tell them Jesus had been raised and later the resurrected Christ himself → But I want you to imagine for a moment that Mark’s gospel account – the Scripture that we just read – was the only account that we had of the resurrection this morning.
    • Remember, Mk’s gospel was written first – a full 10-20 yrs. before either Matthew or Luke → So for at least a decade, this was the only account that the early church had. And how does it end? – text: Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.[1] → Not exactly the happy ending we’re used to, is it?
• So let’s address the various endings of Mark’s gospel this morning. Because there’s more than one ending. In fact, there are three.
  • Pew bibles: p. 830
    • End of the full paragraph at the top of the p. = what we read today → ends the gospel with the women fleeing the tomb, terrified into silence by their unbelievable encounter → This is where the most ancient surviving versions of Mark’s gospel end.
    • Small bracketed section below that = “The Shorter Ending of Mark” → ends with two short sentences about the women relating their experience to Peter and the oddly cryptic statement: “And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”[2] → Note that even in this ending, there is no mention of a resurrected Jesus appearing to anyone.
    • Larger bracketed section that fills out the rest of Mk’s gospel on p. 830 = “The Longer Ending of Mark” → includes 11 extra verse that encompass Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, Mary going to share the news with the others, Jesus appearing again to the rest of the disciples, Jesus commissioning the disciples to “go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation”[3], and finally Jesus ascension into heaven → It’s an ending much more in line with the rest of the gospels, but some of the oldest versions we have of Mark that do include this section also include marking next to this whole section indicating doubt in its authenticity.
  • Essentially, this means that the oldest, most authentic testimony we have of that first Easter Sunday included silence … and fear … and uncertainty. Why? Well … I’m so glad you asked.
• As odd as it may sound, Mark’s version of the Easter resurrection story is probably my favorite exactly because it is so ambiguous. It feels more authentic. It feels more like real life. Because while it’s no secret that we all like happy endings the best, we also know that life isn’t always a series of happy stories all strung together.
  • Real life can be …
    • Hard
    • Frustrating
    • Painful
  • Real life involves …
    • Grief
    • Uncertainty
    • Fear
  • Sometimes the events of our real lives feel out of our control. And that’s exactly why I think Mark’s Easter account is such a crucial part of our overarching Story: because even in the ambiguous darkness of those early morning hours … even in the ludicrous audacity of the empty tomb … even in the terrified silence that strikes the final chord in Mark’s tale, the Good News endures. Mark’s gospel doesn’t end with a period. There is no full stop with this good news. Mark’s gospel ends with an ellipses – that simple punctuation mark of three dots that indicates an omission of words … or a pause … or suggests there is something left unsaid. Mark’s gospel concludes … with a continuation.
• And I find this sort of ending to Mark’s gospel powerful for two reasons.
  • FIRST: Mk’s ending is powerful because it bring the unmitigated grace and comprehensive salvation of a risen Christ into all our moments and experiences – the uncertain and broken ones as well as the happy ones
    • It’s not about us being perfect enough to share the good news. It’s about the good news overcoming any and all barriers … even us. – scholar: The women’s response also brings readers face to face with the mystery of faith. There are no heroes among Jesus’ followers. The hostility that puts Jesus on the cross has reduced them all to flight and fearful silence. … However imperfect our faith and however many times we remain silent when we should testify to the gospel, we can always return to the Lord. None of us can get so far away from Jesus that we cannot be touched by [God].[4]
    • Another scholar put it so beautifully, I just had to share her words with you this morning – scholar: It is finally a story in which we face the reality of God’s presence to us in the sturdy, raw facticity of history. God is present not only in the loud hallelujahs and glorious proclamations of a grand, churchly Easter morning … God persists as well in the midst of speechlessness, in death, in the outer regions of our own experiences and of our social lives, where life unfolds underfoot, as it were. Mark gives us a powerful account of God’s good news by giving us these traumatized, determined women as witnesses to God’s truth – it is not just pride or falsehood or arrogance or violent boasting that God redeems. It is also the nether regions of life where we are broken by violence and by love and by sheer exhaustion of the labor it takes to go on. Here, where we expect to find him dead, the tomb does not hold him … And with often unspoken force, grace abounds.[5]
  • SECOND: powerful because the open-endedness of Mk’s ending emphasizes what the “young man in a white robe” said to the women – text: He said to them, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.”[6]
    • Scholar: One of Mark’s unique claims is that Jesus is absent. Not only is the tomb empty (as each Gospel reports), but Jesus is not there—and nobody sees him. How can this possibly be good news? The other Gospels offer concrete assurances that Jesus is present with his followers even after the end of his earthly ministry. But in Mark there is no Paraclete to comfort them (as in John), no fellow traveler to explain everything (Luke), not even the promise “I am with you always” (Matthew). In Mark, the resurrected Jesus is not described as being “with you”; instead he is “going ahead of you.” If that is true, then death is stripped of its power. There is nothing Jesus’ followers will endure, no place they can go, that Jesus isn’t already there.[7] → Mark’s open, even uncertain ending to his gospel leaves that open space for Jesus to go on ahead – not just ahead of the disciples but ahead of us as well: into our shadowed moments … our uncertain moments … our fearful moments. Jesus goes on ahead through the grief that we think will shatter us … through the anxiety that we feel paralyzes us … through the desperation that we feel weighs us down. In those moments that seem wholly impossible to navigate, the good news of Mark’s gospel is that Jesus has already made a way for us. Ultimately, this ambiguous ending to Mark’s gospel is an ending of triumphant hope – hope that is raised, even if we’re too scared to declare it so … hope that exults over something even as seemingly-certain as death … hope that shines brighter than the dawning sun even in the face of all that would blot it out … hope that doesn’t negate or omit the most broken aspects of our lives but instead promises blessing in the midst of that brokenness.
      • Leave you with the words of Jan Richardson this morning – from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons: “Therefore I Will Hope” → This was written as a blessing for Holy Saturday – that time in the cycle of liturgical seasons between Jesus’ death on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter morning. A Holy Saturday, or Easter Vigil, service is a service of waiting and grieving, but it is also the mirror image of the Good Friday service the night before – a service which begins in darkness, but as the evening wears on and Easter morning draws ever closer, the light begins to make its way back into the sanctuary.
        • Often includes baptism – a welcoming of others into the body of Christ even as Christ’s body is being resurrected again
        • Often held between sunset on Saturday, or sometimes even midnight, and concluded with a sunrise service on Easter morning
        • Often includes the relights of all the candles snuffed out during the Good Friday service
        • Holy Saturday is a liminal time within the cycle of our faith, just like the end of Mark’s gospel feels like liminal time – time that is in between … time that is both darkness and light … time that is weighty with both grief and joy, uncertainty and blessing. → [read “Therefore I Will Hope”] Amen.

[1] Mk 16:8.

[2] Mk 16 – “The Shorter Ending of Mark” (NRSV).

[3] Mk 16:15 (NRSV).

[4] Pheme Perkins. “The Gospel of Mark: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 8. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 733.

[5] Serene Jones. “Easter Vigil – Mark 16:1-8 – Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 356.

[6] Mk 16:6-7 (CEB – emphasis added).

[7] Audrey West. “Commentary on Mark 16:1-8” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/resurrection-of-our-lord-2/commentary-on-mark-161-8-9, accessed March 31, 2024.