I'm reminded of the hit movie Inception which came out a few years ago. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, it is a movie that bends reality. The main character, Dominic, is a thief who works in corporate espionage for a living. With the use of a special device, he can get inside people's heads in order to get information or even change a person's way of thinking. Throughout the movie, DiCaprio's character goes deeper and deeper into the subconscious until you can't remember what is real and what is just your imagination. As the movie ends, after he's finished his last job, he comes home to see his children, whom he hasn't seen in a long time. He greets his children and takes in the scene. Then he pulls out a little tin top. This top was a kind of anchor, a sign to verify that he was not dreaming. He starts to spin the top to see what happens, but his children then pull him away. Dominic is no longer look at the top, but we are. Just as the top might topple over, indicating that this is reality, the film ends.
“Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”
Today's text is probably one of the most disturbing. It's troubling because the Gospel of Mark ends at verse 8. Some of your Bibles may have verses 9-20, which seems to give a more complete ending. They were probably added later by someone who didn't like the short ending. I totally get that, since the other gospels tend to have longer descriptions of this Easter morning. We at least get some proof the Jesus is alive in the other gospels. Without the longer ending, all we have is this story where the women come to the tomb and find it rolled away and run away in fear.
Just as abruptly as Mark begins, this gospel ends and it leaves us uncomfortable. No risen Jesus talking to us. No meeting with the disciples. There is no intimate encounter with Mary Magdalene. No ascension to heaven. Just a people running away in terror.
But what is here does matter and does give us an Easter hope.
Listen to what the angel said to Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James and Salome encounter at the empty tomb tells them the following:
“Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.[a] He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. 7 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.”
Jesus isn’t here. He has been raised. Tell the disciples.
We might not have Jesus talking to the women, but we do have someone telling us that he has been raised from the dead. On top of that, they are asked to tell the disciples the good news. There is also a promise that they and the disciples will see Jesus in Galilee just as he told them.
This was all too much for the women who ran away and you can’t blame them; they didn’t understand what was going on and neither would we.
Mark ends with a question: how will we end this story?
Because this odd ending is not just an odd ending, but an invitation to finish this story, to live it out and tell the world that Jesus is alive and death is defeated.
So how will you finish this story? How will you tell the story that Jesus isn’t stuck in a tomb, but risen and alive? How will this church tell the story that we believe that Jesus, the Son of God is not dead in a tomb, but alive and active in the world?
This story is like Dominic at the end of Inception. We’ve spun our tops to see if this is real. We have questions and wonder could this all be true? But the angel's words still ring true today. Jesus is not at the tomb. He has been raised, and he goes ahead of us. All we can do is live in faith. We believe that Jesus is God in human form, who came to live among us and die for us. On the third day, he rose from the dead. Is it all real? That’s for us to live out.
Easter isn’t a period to faith or even an exclamation point. Instead it is an ellipsis, those dots that follow a statement. There is more to be written. How will we finish this amazing story? How do we live it out? How do we hold on to the promise that Jesus goes ahead of us knowing that he is with us? How will we tell the world the amazing news that Christ is alive?
Questions to Consider:
The women wonder who will roll away the stone. Why do you think they headed to Jesus’ tomb not knowing if someone could move the stone?
The angel gives the women a promise that Jesus is going ahead of them and that they will see him in Galilee. What does this promise mean to us today?
When they leave the tomb the text says they are both terrified and amazed. What amazed them?
Why do you think the writer of Mark chose to end things this way? Why do you think later writers added in the extra text?
Why does the passage say they said nothing to anyone? Why were they afraid?