"And they were afraid" -The empty tomb in Mark's gospel

 

Sunday 4^th April – Easter Sunday

Acts 10: 34-43. Peter’s speech in the house of the centurion Cornelius is significant as it marks the expansion of the Christian message outwards from its Jewish roots to the wider world. All the elements of early Christian preaching are there. It is a message for the whole world (v34) though its roots are in Israel (v36), Jesus was raised on the third day and ate and drank with his chosen witnesses. There is a command to preach and that Jesus will judge the living and the dead, and we have forgiveness of sins.

1 Corinthians 15: 1-11. Paul’s account of the good news of the resurrection being relayed first to Peter, then the twelve (although presumably 11?) and then to 500 people (otherwise unknown accounts) and to James (this makes sense as he led the early church in Jerusalem) ends with Paul placing his own conversion experience on the same level as the other aforementioned “sightings”. This mixing of the physical and spiritual, and placing them on the same level emphasises the mysterious nature of the resurrection where categories break down and are unable to be investigated by historical methods but only by the dramatic effect it had on the witnesses.

Mark 16: 1-8. Enigmatic, sparse, lacking in any details of any resurrection “appearances” (verses 16-20 were added by an editor afterwards so disturbed were they by the lack), this for me just adds to the mysteriousness of the resurrection, so much is unknowable and defies description. My favourite explanation for the sudden end sentence “and they were afraid” is that the next chapter in the story has to be written in and through the lives of the people who believe and want to follow Jesus Christ. We are all the final chapter of Mark.

 

Mark’s gospel is the original and therefore oldest gospel, so naturally the early church wanted something much more concrete to help with their spreading the gospel so they helped Mark out by adding the five verses they thought the gospel lacked which had appearances of Jesus and words of instruction.

It was deemed too detrimental to the evangelistic cause to have a gospel that ended with the words “and they were afraid” so they decided to help Mark out and provide the ending he had obviously and bafflingly left out.

But Mark’s gospel was written well after the events they describe and Mark was a skilful and punchy writer. There must have been method in what he wrote.

Those words “And they were afraid”, could easily have been “and they were confused, befuddled, doubtful” which I’m sure they were as well.

Mark emphasises the mysteriousness of what they found, a situation that confounded all expectations and they were unable to compute the full extent of an empty tomb.

We have all the other resurrection accounts in the other gospels, and the result of the resurrection led to the other letters and writings in the new testament, a result which was extraordinary but in Mark we have a vital element of all this that we always need to bear in mind.

The resurrection defies historical investigation and accurate description. We can see that in that no two accounts agree on the details.

We can agree on is that the effect on the lives and the faith of people who encountered the resurrection was profound – earth shattering – and the good news of this revelation spread like wildfire. But it was not just the extent and speed of the spread it was its staying power.

2021 years later, the church still survives against all the odds, is still the most widespread faith on earth, and is still sustained by the life and death of Jesus but also and uniquely by what happened on that first Easter Sunday.

The ultimate and best proof of the resurrection is a changed life of a Christian believer.

The best explanation I have ever come across about the ending of Mark’s gospel is this. Yes, there is meant to be a next chapter of his gospel but that chapter is written not in words on a page but is lived in the changed lives of Christian believers.

Hundreds of millions of Christian lives, over many centuries, including ourselves, inspired by the Holy Spirit are the final chapter of Mark. It is a chapter that never ends.

The church is the ultimate proof of the resurrection. We go through good times and not so good times. Years of plenty and lean years, but on we go in the power of the Holy Spirit sent by the Father at the request of his son Jesus Christ, who lived, died, was raised and lives through us – his body on earth.

Easter Sunday is a time of Joy, rejoicing and gratitude for the revelation that we are loved by God and our lives do not merely exist between our births and our deaths but all life is lived against an infinite horizon in which all time and all life finds its eternal place in God – the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Amen

Which procession are we in?

Sunday 28^th March – Palm Sunday  

Isaiah 50: 4-9a. A reading that has always been applied to the sufferings of Christ as part of the “servant songs” in Isaiah. It is very human and speaks of his face, cheeks, beard and face being abused. But the servant is content to know that God is on his side and he bids us “Let us stand up together”. Does he mean himself with God or does that invite us to solidarity with Christ in his suffering? I prefer to think it is the latter.

Philippians 2: 5-11. It is thought that this piece of Paul’s letter may be a pre-existing early Christian Hymn. Whatever the truth of that, this is the basis of much theologising about the “self-emptying” of God called the apophatic tradition or the way of negation where God cannot be described positively but only by saying what God is not!

Mark 11: 1-11. According to the aforementioned Marcus Borg, what we have here is a carefully planned counter demonstration to the other procession of Pontius Pilate that would have entered from the other side of the city. That theme of careful planning is supported by the fact that he then went to the Temple and looked around but it was late and few people were around. The “cleansing of the Temple” could wait until a time when there would be more of an impact the next day. The tone of Jesus’ triumphal entry is one of a man of peace, who would save people (Hosanna means “save us”) not by violence but by peaceful sacrificial means.

 

 What we have today is the best documented counterdemonstration in history – a counter demonstration that was carefully planned to have a massive impact on the Jewish people.

Jesus had pre-arranged the use of a colt, with a coded form of words to use it, and supporters were primed with branches and cloaks to welcome this charismatic preacher and miracle worker into the city.

I say counterdemonstration because it was supposed to contrast directly with the spectacle of Pontius Pilate arriving in Jerusalem up from the coast, where he lived at Caesarea Maritime.

His procession would have been a magnificent spectacle of armed men on horseback, with gleaming armour and swords and spears, arriving with great pomp and a show of strength to impress the local population and instil enough fear to deter any anti-Roman trouble in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover.

By deliberate contrast Jesus rode on the back of a Colt to indicate that he came in peace, and rather than instil fear he evoked love and hope.

Hosannah means something like “Save us!” and they look forward to the coming Kingdom, being ruled by God rather than a collaboration between the Roman Empire and local Jewish collaborators.  

Jesus wanted to make a splash and having entered Jerusalem, note that he went into the Temple. He didn’t disturb the money changers then, he just looked around saw what the situation was and went home because it was late, there would have been hardly any people there and the impact wouldn’t have been so great had he made a fuss then.

Jesus decided to delay making a scene until the Temple was packed the next day and no-one could fail to notice so the turning over of the tables in the Temple could wait for a more opportune moment.

Jesus knew exactly what he was doing and what impression he would leave on the pilgrims in Jerusalem. He wanted to leave nobody in any doubt as to his intentions and that he stood for peace, mutual love, freedom and respect, justice and mercy – in direct contrast to the Roman occupying force that ruled through force of arms.

The two processions into Jerusalem – Pilate’s and Jesus – revealed two different approaches to life – the way of love and the way of force, characterised in religious terms as the Kingdom of God versus the kingdoms of this world, represented in this instance by Rome.

Palm Sunday sets up the final week – which we now know as “Holy Week” when everything that Jesus stands for will be directly challenged by the Roman/Jewish authorities acting in tandem to preserve the status quo.

This final week will come to a head on Good Friday when finally the powers that be, will think they have got rid of Jesus for good and consigned him to the dustbin of history. Or that is what they thought.

The question for all of us is the same now as it was then. Which of the two processions are we in, Which one do we want to be in?

Amen  

 

Jesus our great high priest

 

Sunday 21^st March – The fifth Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34. Jeremiah looks forward to a new covenant (an agreement between God and his people) that is better than the agreement that the Israelites broke. This law would be written on our hearts and all would know God. But in the cold light of day have we really been any better at following the law of love than the Israelites were? This is more like a precious hope that all mankind will love what God commands and desire what he promises, a state of union only really ever fulfilled in Jesus Christ himself

Hebrews 5: 5-10. Any high priest has to be chosen and anointed, be able to empathise with human weakness and represent humanity before God and his role is to offer sacrifice. This is all based on the original model of priesthood of Aaron. The once for all nature of a more perfect priesthood is derived from the example of Melchizadek, who is superior because he blesses Abraham the progenitor of all God’s people. Because he is chosen and anointed by God, fully identified with those he represents through suffering, He is able to offer the one perfect sacrifice for the salvation of all.

John 12:20-33. The hour of confrontation with the world has come. Only those who are willing to give everything up can see eternal life. Unselfish sacrificial living isn’t about denying or destroying yourself, it is about discovering your true self – the part that looks like God and living out of that consciousness. I take this to mean that people closest to the divine in this life see the truth much more clearly than others. This passage ends with Jesus proclaiming that when he rises from the dead he will draw “all people” to himself.

 

 What do we mean when we say, as Hebrews says, that Jesus is our great High Priest?

The high priest in Jewish religion is the man chosen and appointed by God to make sacrifices to God on behalf of the all the people to atone for their sins and make us "one with God".

Of course, there were many high priests and they had to make repeated sacrifices but in Jesus Christ we have one eternal high priest who made one once for all sacrifice and of course that one sacrifice was of himself.

So after Jesus Christ there is no more need for the Temple or the high priest or a sacrificial cult any more. Jesus is both the high priest and the sacrificial offering all in one. But Hebrews adds another ingredient to the mix to supplement the picture taken from the Jerusalem Temple

And so, we again see our old friend Melchizadek, priest king of Salem, from Genesis 14, given as an example of the mysterious eternal nature of Christ.

Melchizadek steps out of the pages of Genesis and disappears again just as suddenly with no genealogy or back story. From this the Jews considered him eternal. He is the King of Salem which means “peace”. The king of peace appears from no-where bearing gifts of bread and wine and blesses Abram.  

Abram in return gives him a tithe of all that he had. This is the first mention of tithes in the Bible and tithing is what you give to God.

Put all this together and you can see why the early church made such a big deal of Melchizadek, even though he only appears for four verses in Genesis.

Jesus can represent all humanity because he is human and his humanity was made perfect through suffering and he fulfils this role eternally.

This is what is meant by the verse that says that Jesus is a high priest according to the order of Melchizadek.

When we come to what our great high priest says in John’s gospel about loving and hating our life we have to be so careful that this is read and understood in the whole context of scripture that life is God given and human lives are very good.

The essential spiritual difference between, as Jesus says using typical Semitic hyperbole, is between complete self-centredness “loving your life” – believing that you are the crown and focus of all creation and everything and everyone only exists for our personal benefit and “losing your life” which is a lack of this egocentric worldview and seeing the truth of life which has God as the unifying source and centre of life and we learn a proper humility in the face of this truth.

This can be hard work. Of course, there has to be a reasonable amount of self-interest and natural ego to live at all.

But at the same time we all recognise people when it goes too far and they become unbearable.

The Love principle leads us to see the divine spark in all things and that self-centredness and self-sufficiency have very narrow limits. Love always draws us outward to embrace things and people outside our need for them on a purely utilitarian basis.

As we all know, love, in Christ’s own estimation is to embrace even our enemies which has to be the hardest commandment to follow or even think possible to follow. But that is the direction of travel. We see all people as part of the whole, as collaborators and teachers, not just as competitors or opponents.  

This is how we are to live our lives in the Christian tradition. But what about people who don’t do any of that or can’t see the point or never heard it in the first place. Well, it is hugely important that Jesus also says that “in the end I will draw all people to myself”.  

All People. Whenever that happens, presumably after death then the lessons of love will have to learned quickly by everybody but to participate in the life of Christ now while we are very much alive, we are bound to start embodying it now.

The church is the vehicle for exploring and encouraging that journey and we are all on a different point on that journey towards the truth. But this is a marathon, not a sprint and we are all just by being here showing that we are all off the blocks and wanting to walk in the same direction.

I want to encourage anything that helps in that journey and once the restrictions are hopefully behind us I fully intend starting and encouraging  sustainable spiritual practices and prayer as a way of life for all of us to help us on that journey.