_{But Wait; There’s More!}

Mark 16:1-8   I Corinthians 15:1-11
First Scripture, Mark 16:1-8

There’s more, there has to be more.  How can Mark’s gospel end so abruptly?  For heaven’s sake, you can’t end the gospel with the words, “And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”  If that’s all there was, we wouldn’t be celebrating this Easter morning!

If you check your Bible, however, you will find footnotes saying that Mark’s gospel appears to end with verse 8.  Later authors added verses 9-20 in an attempt to provide a more satisfactory conclusion.

The lectionary reading, however, is precisely what scholars believe to be the authentic ending of Mark’s Gospel, and so the story ends abruptly. 

Why don’t we finish the story by reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15?

 Have you seen the series of commercials with a man and an unfocused focus group of 5 or 6 children sitting in a circle? I’ve not bothered to figure out what they are selling, internet service? But they decide that more is better than less, because, well because more is better. 

In our consumer culture, more is always better and the promise of more makes us sit up and listen.  It’s rather like the Shopping Network I surf through between commercials on the NCAA basketball tournament.  One of the salespeople invariably shouts, “But wait!  There’s more!!  And I pause, because, who doesn’t want more? 

Although I hesitate to equate in any way, shape, or form the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the Shopping Network, still the Easter story is an astonishing tale of, But wait!  There’s more!!.  Just when you think the story is told, there’s more, and it gets even better.

Good Friday concluded with a sigh too deep for words.  Judas betrayed, Peter denied, the disciples fled.  Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God was dead.  Joseph of Arimathea took the body down from the cross and placed it in a tomb.  The women at the foot of the cross wept until they were still. 

But wait.  There’s more.

Saturday, the Sabbath, the women rested.  They could not perform the ritual preparation of Jesus’ body, so they grieved quietly, prayed, and waited. 

Sunday, as soon as it was light enough, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, went to the tomb to work through their grief with the practicalities of life and death.  The body needed to be prepared, they were the ones who would do it.  They came to the tomb grieving, to honor and bury the dead.  They did not expect a miracle, they did not anticipate resurrection life.

They did expect that someone would be at the cemetery to help them roll away the stone, but they did not expect that the task had already been done.  So they stood, staring at the open tomb, bewildered.

But wait, there must be more.

Like the women who came to the tomb, we come to church this Easter morning impelled by the circumstances of life.  Many of us come with joy this morning to celebrate resurrection, to be stirred by the glorious music, to greet our neighbors and friends and to enjoy a gorgeous day.  Some of us, however, are weighed down with anxiety about health or finances, or with grief, and some of us feel a yearning in our soul for something deeper to fill the void.  The truth is, however, that very few of us come to church this morning expecting a miracle.  The stone is rolled away and we are curious, but not really expectant or hopeful.

But just wait; there’s more, and it gets even better.

As we join with Mary Magdalene and Mary and Salome, peering into the tomb, uncertain of what we will find, we are startled by the young man in the white robe. 

“Don’t be alarmed.  You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.  He has been raised.  He is not here! See, here is the spot where they laid him.  Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee.  There you will see him, just as he said.”

That’s when terror and amazement hit us.  Everything we expected, every certainty we have known is suddenly turned upside down, because this is so much more than we ever knew possible.

·       Jesus, whom we thought was dead, is alive!

·       Those whose death we grieve, they are not dead, they are alive with him!

·       The sickness we fear, though real, has no power to separate us from those we love!

·       Our financial uncertainties, though real, do not undermine our true worth!

·       The sin that overwhelms us, has been forgiven, redeemed on the cross!

Hear this again, because as many Easters as I have lived, sometimes I still don’t get it.  Sometimes I still don’t believe it.  Sometimes I still don’t allow it to transform my life.  The resurrection of Jesus changes everything!  He is not dead, he is alive!

 You’re still not sure?  Wait, there’s more, much more.

Jesus did appear to Mary Magdalene, to Peter and John, to the disciples on the Emmaeus road, to Thomas who put his fingers in the wounds, to the disciples on the beach when they were fishing, to Paul on the Damascus road, and yes, Jesus appears to us, to us in our prayers, in our music, in our worship.  Jesus appears to us in the faces of our IHN guests and the guests at Clinton Avenue Soup Kitchen.  Jesus appears to us in the face of everyone we share God’s love with and in the face of everyone who shares God’s love with us.

Jesus appears to us and invites us to live by faith, trusting in the resurrection miracle that those who are dead are alive with Christ, that sickness does not separate us, that anxieties do not undermine us, that sin does not control us.

 Our lives are different today than they were yesterday.

Paul describes resurrection life this way.  “By the grace of God I am what I am,” which sounds suspiciously like God’s revelation to Moses in the burning bush, I am who I am.  I am what I am; I am a beloved child of God, healed, forgiven, redeemed, and raised to resurrection life.  I am not stuck in a tomb; I am freed by God’s Grace to resurrection life!

But wait, there’s more, much more, and it gets even better.

God’s grace to me has not been in vain; on the contrary, God’s grace has transformed my life, and I cannot keep this story to myself.  The story does not end, “They said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.”  No! We write the ending of this gospel!  Mark’s gospel is unfinished, because we make the ending happen.   

We are not afraid, we are overwhelmed with joy and our lives are transformed. 

We are not paralyzed, we share our joy by reaching out to help others.

And we are not silent, we sing, we shout, we live the Good News to anyone and to everyone that they might share our joy!  Because, friends, there is more, even more to come, and it gets even better. 

Thanks be to God who brings us new life in the Easter resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.