“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.”

– Mark 16:6-7

Beloved of God,

The final steps of our wilderness journey lead us, with a handful of faithful women, to the edge of a rock-hewn tomb.   This is not how it’s supposed to end!   Our leader, dead.  Our hopes and dreams, crushed.

But then—do our eyes deceive us?—the stone has been rolled away! And a messenger announces the news:

“You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.”

Mark captures this intersection of defeat, surprise, and alarm so powerfully in this “unfinished” ending to his gospel. (Mark 16:1-8)  Resisting the temptation to neatly tie loose ends together, Mark affirms the truth that the reality of Jesus’ empty tomb takes sorting out.  The church has been about that sorting ever since Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome made their journey that morning to anoint his body.  We never cease asking the questions – What does it mean that the tomb is empty? What does it mean that Christ was raised from death?  One thing is certain—it cannot mean business as usual.  It cannot mean that we go about our lives as if his resurrection never happened.

Something fundamental is at stake in how we answer the questions raised by the empty tomb—and answer them not with words alone, but with our lives.  Let’s keep sorting it out together, as we meet the risen One at Table and Font, as we go about embodying Christ’s work of reconciling and healing the whole universe.  Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Pastor Erik