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Today's Gospel lesson is a reading from the Good News of the Gospel According to Mark,
chapter 16, verses 1 through 8, as printed in your liturgy.
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome,
bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.
Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise,
they were on their way to the tomb, and they asked each other,
Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe,
sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
Don't be alarmed, he said.
You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.
He has risen.
He is not here.
See the place where they laid him.
But go, tell his disciples and Peter,
he is going ahead of you into Galilee.
There you will see him, just as he told you.
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.
They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Happy Easter, Christ Church.
It's very good to see you today, and we want to just begin with this question.
What actually happened that first Easter Sunday?
And since Christmastime, we've been exploring one of the four gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And Mark's gospel is the earliest of those four.
It was written about 65 A.D., and it's the shortest of those four.
You can read it in about 65 minutes or so.
And Mark opens his work, presenting his thesis in the opening line,
where he says this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.
And we've been exploring these past months, over 16 chapters,
the way that Mark gives compelling evidence to support his thesis statement
that Jesus is God's King and God's Son.
And so now we come to Mark 16, which is his closing argument and his climactic evidence.
And he says that on Easter Sunday morning, these female followers of Jesus saw that his tomb was empty,
and they heard this promise of reunion with Jesus.
Two pieces of historical evidence.
First of all, that Jesus' body was no longer in his tomb.
And secondly, that Jesus would go and appear to his disciples,
and that they would have eyewitness encounters with the resurrected and living Jesus.
Now, it's important to state the obvious up front today that people in Jesus' time and place,
they knew what we know, which is that our bodies, once they die, they stay dead.
That when our time is up, either through age or sickness or accident or crucifixion,
we do not live again.
And all of our relationships, all of our projects come to an end.
And that truth was not discovered 300 years ago in the age of the Enlightenment.
It's been known since time immemorial.
In the first century, both pagans and Jews were sober-minded that death was the end.
And yet, these first Christians, these first eyewitnesses to the resurrection,
they affirmed two things.
They affirmed that on the one hand, we live in a world where the dead stay dead.
And yet, on the other hand, paradoxically, they affirmed that one human being
has broken through death and gone out the other side into a new life
and has launched a new creation and a new age.
And so I just want to acknowledge up front, this is extremely odd.
Right?
This is an outlandish event.
It's unimagined and unheard of.
In fact, it's so unlikely and so improbable that it's astonishing this story
was ever even told in the first place.
It's that one person in the middle of history, in the middle of the night,
walked out of his grave alive with this transphysical, indestructible body
that can never die again.
That's nuts.
That's just bananas.
That's crazy.
But what if it's true?
What if this revolutionary, nonconformist vision of the world
and way of living in the world,
in this tired old world where the dead stay dead,
what if this is true?
And I want to just explore this for a moment,
talking through this text about truth to the women,
grace to Peter,
and mission to the world.
Truth to the women, grace to Peter,
and mission to the world.
First of all, truth to the women.
Look at verse 1 of our text.
It says that when the Sabbath was over,
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome,
bought spices so that they might go anoint Jesus' body.
On the one hand, we know for certain that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.
It's one of the most secure facts in the history of the world.
And yet, on the other hand,
we know that literally thousands of Jews were crucified
within 50 years on either side of Jesus.
And on this very day,
two others had been crucified right beside Jesus.
So what is it that made Jesus special?
Why do people all over the world tell the story of his death
rather than the story of any of these others?
There were dozens of messianic movements
in the years before and after Jesus' death.
But in all of those cases,
where people claimed to be the Messiah,
the leader would be killed,
the movement would collapse,
everybody would go home because that's just game over.
But not this time.
This movement, it didn't collapse.
It, in fact, exploded.
And it transcended cultures
and it transformed the Roman Empire.
So we want to ask the question,
what made the difference?
Well, the New Testament says
that the difference was the tomb was empty
and Jesus appeared to many people.
The skeptics look at that and they say,
well, that's just fantasy.
That's a legend.
We actually don't know that history.
We can't really get back to those original events.
And so I want to just respond to that
by pointing out a few strange details in our narrative.
And I want you to notice, first of all,
that no one was expecting Jesus' resurrection.
No one was expecting this.
Look at verse 2.
It says that very early on the first day of the week,
just after sunrise,
they were on their way to the tomb
and they asked each other,
who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?
Now this is extremely odd
because Jesus has told them three times.
We looked at this in the past few weeks.
It's in Mark chapter 8, Mark chapter 9, and Mark chapter 10.
Jesus told them,
I'm going to be killed
and then after three days, I'm going to rise again.
After three days, I'm going to rise again.
Well, it's the third day.
And there are no male disciples here.
And the female disciples, what have they gone to do?
They've gone to anoint a corpse.
And the question that they're asking themselves
is not who's excited to witness a resurrection today.
The question they're asking is
who is going to roll away the stone?
They're not prepared.
They're not expecting to find what they found.
Why doesn't at least one disciple say,
hey, isn't it the third day?
Didn't Jesus say something to us about,
I mean, shouldn't we at least go check and see?
If Mark is writing a legend,
if he's making this story up,
he would have surely depicted pious disciples saying,
ah, yes, it's all unfolding
exactly as Jesus told us three times at least
that it was going to unfold.
But no, no one, none of these Jews
are expecting a resurrection of one person
in the middle of history.
It's just inconceivable to them.
That's strange.
Another strange detail are the names of these witnesses
in verse one.
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome.
Why does Mark give us the detail of these names?
And again, he does it three times.
In chapter 15, verse 40 at the crucifixion,
he does it again in chapter 15, verse 47 at the burial,
and he does it again here on Easter morning
in chapter 16, verse one.
Three times, the names of these women.
Now, you're probably aware that in the first century,
people gave very little credibility
to a woman's testimony in a court of law.
In fact, a woman's testimony was ranked
at the level of slaves and criminals.
And I'm sorry, ladies, I didn't make that up.
That's just how it was back in the day.
So if you're writing a legend,
and you're making this story up,
why wouldn't you include witnesses
that people thought were credible?
But the reason is,
because of the norms of ancient historiography,
people valued the oral histories
of still-living eyewitnesses,
so that when you would go and sit down
and record your written history
with their oral testimony,
you would cite their names,
like we do in footnotes today.
You would cite their names
so that people, your first readers,
could go and cross-examine
and corroborate your message.
And the reason that Mark has given us
the names not of men,
but of these women,
is because they were, in fact,
the first ones inside the empty tomb.
They were the first ones to hear the message.
They were the first ones to actually see Jesus
and touch his body.
And Mark is telling his first readers,
go talk to these women.
Go validate with them whether or not it's true.
Now, I don't know about you,
but for me, I'm very grateful to be part of a movement
that elevates women.
Has anybody in the history of the world
done more to humanize and dignify
and empower women than Jesus Christ?
Where are the men in this story?
They're cowering in fear.
They're afraid that somebody's gonna find out
they're followers of Jesus
and they might be the next to be crucified.
But here are these fearless women
and they go to the tomb
and they ask this question,
who is gonna roll the stone away?
And then in verse four, it says,
but when they looked up,
they saw that the stone,
which was very large,
had been rolled away.
And as they entered the tomb,
they saw a young man dressed in a white robe
sitting on the right side
and they were alarmed.
Now, again,
if Mark is making up this story,
shouldn't these women be dancing?
Shouldn't they be singing and clapping
and shouting and doing something
way more positive
than what it is he tells us they're doing?
How does he describe them?
He says,
they're terrified.
These women are doing
what everybody else in the Bible does
when they realize
that they're in the presence of the living God.
It says that they're deeply alarmed
and that their distress
is profound
and intense.
And Jesus,
knowing that this would be the case,
he gave them a message
through his messenger.
And what does he say
to them in verse six?
Do not be alarmed.
He said,
you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene
who was crucified.
He has risen.
He is not here.
See the place where they laid him,
but go.
Tell his disciples and Peter,
he's going ahead of you into Galilee.
There you will see him
just as he told you.
What a moment.
They're realizing
as their minds are kind of being blown,
like Jesus,
in Jesus,
death
has somehow been reversed.
that somehow death
has just been undone,
that death is now working backwards
on itself,
that Jesus somehow,
inexplicably,
went through death
and he went out
into a newly embodied life,
out beyond death,
where death can never touch you again.
One of the stories
I've been following this year
with great interest
is the story of Molly Worthen,
who's a journalist
and a professor of history
at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
She did her studies at Yale
and is now a teacher at UNC.
Over this past decade,
she's pursued this career
researching the religious
and intellectual history
of North America.
You may have read her.
She's a regular contributor
to the New York Times,
the Atlantic,
the New Yorker.
But Molly's story
took a really interesting turn
over the past couple years.
Having described herself
as an agnostic
for most of her life,
she says that she was
a vaguely unhappy
but lazy agnostic.
In 2022,
she converted to Christianity.
And the way it happened
was she was researching
an article about a pastor
and his church
and became friends
with the pastor
and started asking questions.
And she said,
she said,
why should we take
any of these resurrection accounts
seriously?
And she was surprised
to get these long,
detailed,
well-resourced,
footnoted responses
from this pastor
who was taking every question
that she asked
with extreme seriousness
and giving her homework.
And so she went and read
Richard Baucom's
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.
And then she went and read
N.T. Wright's
The Resurrection of the Son of God,
a really 800-page romp,
you know,
just a tome.
She read Craig Blomberg's
The Historical Reliability
of the New Testament.
And in one of her interviews
about her conversion,
she just masterfully summarizes
the argument of N.T. Wright's book.
And then she says this
in this interview.
She says,
he, Wright,
who's a historian,
a New Testament scholar,
he persuaded me
that attempts
by post-Enlightenment scholars
to mythologize
these resurrection stories,
to read them as later
Christian beliefs
imposed on the past,
to say that the witnesses
and the gospels
engaged in wish fulfillment
based on dreams
or special feelings
they had about
their experiences of Jesus,
all of this
is what C.S. Lewis
called chronological snobbery.
It doesn't take seriously
the sophisticated way
in which first century
Jewish people
navigated their world
and their worldviews.
I felt personally indicted
as a historian.
I had always thought of myself
as very committed
to taking
historical subjects seriously.
This is the whole reason
I do this for a living.
She said,
but reading N.T. Wright
made me realize
I'd been engaging
in a kind
of chronological snobbery.
And she says,
also she says,
it turns out
that there's a lot
more interesting,
provocative,
and compelling
historical evidence
around that set of events
than I had ever realized before.
And so from there
she began to open-mindedly
and rigorously
investigate the evidence
and just follow
where it led
and let it challenge
her worldview.
And she says,
eventually,
I took that crucial step
of being vulnerable,
of putting myself
at risk
and I entered
into a relationship
with the resurrected
and living Jesus.
And now,
what's amazing to me
is that this historian
is adding her witness
to those original
eyewitnesses,
those beloved women
on that first
Easter Sunday morning.
And so I would just
encourage you
to take a little time
to look Molly up
on Google,
Molly Worthen,
her conversion story,
especially if you
describe yourself
as a vaguely unhappy
but lazy agnostic
like she was,
but who may also
be curious
and maybe even serious
about these
historical questions.
And I just want to
provoke you today
to think about
the truth
that was given
to these women
of all people.
Truth to the women.
But I also want to talk
about grace to Peter.
Grace to Peter.
And I want to,
I'll get to Peter
but I need to first
clarify something.
If you look at verse 6,
it's translated,
he has risen,
but the Greek,
the original Greek text
actually doesn't say that.
It's a little bit
of an inaccurate translation
because the verb
is in the passive form
and it doesn't say,
it's not he has risen
but he has been raised.
He has been raised.
Now why does that matter?
Well, number one,
he has risen suggests
that Jesus entered
into this new life
of resurrection
on his own
and this was kind of
like the ultimate
do-it-yourself project
and Jesus kind of
pulled himself up
by his own
metaphysical bootstraps
as it were.
But the biblical testimony
is not
that the human corpse
of Jesus
was able
just to individualistically
defeat the power of death
and come out of the tomb.
but rather the Bible teaches
that Jesus
has been raised.
That Jesus was raised
by God the Father
through the agency
of God the Holy Spirit
who's the giver of life.
And the reason
this is important
is that the Apostle Paul
uses the same verb form
in his great epistle
to the heart of the empire,
his epistle to the Romans,
where he says
in Romans 4.25,
he, Jesus,
was delivered over
to death for our sins
and he was raised
to life
for our justification.
He was delivered
over to death
for our sins
and he was raised
to life
for our justification.
What does it mean
to be
that Jesus was raised
to life
for our justification?
Well, I want us
to think a little bit more
about this in verse 7
where the message
is this,
but go,
tell his disciples
and Peter
he is going ahead of you
into Galilee.
There you will see him
just as he told you.
And it's interesting
of all four of Mark's Gospels
or of all four of the Gospels,
Mark's Gospel
is the only one
that adds these words
and Peter.
So if Peter's hearing
this message
that Jesus wants
to see all of you disciples,
what's Peter thinking
in this moment?
He's probably thinking
to himself,
well,
yeah,
Jesus can't possibly
include me.
Right?
Maybe all the other disciples
but not me,
especially after all
that I've done.
Backstabbing,
coward,
and failure
that I so obviously was.
But what's the message
of the resurrection
of Jesus
to Peter?
He says,
tell my disciples,
particularly Peter,
that I look forward
to be reunited with him.
Back at ground zero,
back at the Sea of Galilee,
back at that fishing spot
where I first called him
to come follow me.
Go tell Peter
that I want to see him.
The resurrected Jesus
is inviting Peter especially,
moral failure that he is,
spiritual failure that he is,
to come and experience
the grace of forgiveness.
And that's what
the Apostle Paul means
when he says,
Jesus was delivered
over to death
for our sins
and he was raised to life
for our justification.
That the resurrected Jesus
has infinite grace
to take the worst sinners
like Peter
and make them into
the greatest saints.
And I want you to consider
the impact that this had
on Peter's life.
We know that Mark,
the author of this gospel,
became the secretary
and the translator of Peter.
One ancient source tells us
that Mark wrote accurately
all that Peter remembered,
which means that in this gospel
we basically have
the memoirs of Peter.
And you can imagine Mark
interviewing Peter
as his core and primary witness.
And you can imagine Peter
responding back
and recalling the story
of how all the disciples
had been faithless to Jesus,
had been disloyal to Jesus,
how all the disciples
had abandoned Jesus
in his hour of greatest need.
And then Peter gets
to that climactic moment
and he reveals
his own horrible failure.
He said,
I not only denied Jesus one time,
I don't only denied him two times,
I denied Jesus three times.
And again,
if this is a legend
and you're making this story up,
why would you write
that the leader
of this new movement
is a colossal failure?
Peter.
But Peter shares with Mark
and he shares with us
and he shares with the whole world
his terrible guilt
and his most shameful moment.
Now what is it
that got Peter to that point?
What got Peter to the point
where he no longer
had anything to fear?
He had nothing to hide,
he had nothing to lose.
It was that Peter realized
Jesus was raised to life
for my justification.
Think about that.
After all of his failures,
how could Peter know
that he had been made right with God?
How could Peter know
that his grievous sins
had been forgiven?
How could Peter ever approach
God in prayer again
with confidence?
And how could Peter face death
without fear?
And how could he think
about the coming judgment
without a sense of despair
and alarm?
It's because the resurrection
of Jesus
is the proclamation
that God the Father
has been fully
and completely satisfied
with the work
that his son did on his cross.
That the son of God
bore the full punishment
for Peter's sins.
He bore the full punishment
for our sins
and his atoning work
there was effective
and God the Father
was so fully satisfied
with Jesus
that he raised Jesus.
He has been raised
for our justification.
It's not only that God
vindicated the innocence
of his son
by removing the power
of death over him,
but he also vindicated us.
He also caused us
to be forgiven.
He caused us
to be put right.
He caused us
to be justified.
Friends,
do you know
that your greatest failures,
the worst things
you've ever done,
that you'd be horrified
for anybody in this room
to know,
your greatest guilt,
your most shameful moments
were carried
on the shoulders
of Jesus
and they were nailed
to his cross
and there it was all
paid in full.
That is what the apostle
means when he says
he was delivered over
to death for our sins
yet he was raised
to life
for our justification.
And that's why Peter
hears these words,
but go,
tell the disciples
and Peter,
I'm going ahead of you
and I can't wait
to see you again.
Truth to the women,
grace to Peter.
And I want to end
just talking a little bit
about mission to the world.
The mission to the world.
Notice how the story ends.
My youngest son
read this story this morning
and he's like,
really,
is that how it ends?
Verse 8,
trembling and bewildered,
the women went out
and fled from the tomb.
They said nothing to anyone
because they were afraid.
That is the most downbeat,
anticlimactic,
literary ending ever.
And I wish that I had time
to explain to you
why that's the case
and if you come to coffee
I'll explain it to you
if you're interested.
But it took these women
just a minute
to kind of get over their shock
and get their bearings
and let this message
sink in.
But the rest of the New Testament
tells us that
they did in fact
go deliver these words.
And that the disciples
and Peter did see him
both in Jerusalem
and in Galilee
over the period
of the next 40 days.
And this answers for us
some critical
historical questions.
Like why did Christianity
begin in the first place?
And why did it take
the shape that it did?
Why did Christianity
emerge so rapidly
and with such power
and with the explosion
of a full-blown worldview
literally overnight
and out of nowhere?
By far the best explanation
for those questions
is that the tomb was empty.
And that the disciples
and Peter went and saw Jesus
and they heard Jesus
and they touched
the body of Jesus
and they knew
that Jesus was alive.
And these encounters
with Jesus
changed them profoundly.
They went from being
fearful men
and women
locked behind closed doors
afraid that they would be
the next to be crucified
to in a very short time
boldly claiming
that Jesus had been bodily
raised from the dead.
And when they went
and they saw Jesus
who had gone ahead of them
into Galilee
can you imagine
what those conversations
were like?
I think Jesus
was basically reminding them
of everything
he had taught them
prior to that moment.
And I'm sure
that he took them back
to these great words
in Mark chapter 13
which he's already
spoken to them.
I'm sure he spoke them again.
It says in Mark chapter 13
verse 9
he tells his disciples
on account of me
you will stand
before governors
and kings
as witnesses to them
and this gospel
must be proclaimed
to all the nations.
They probably needed
to hear that again
when they met
the risen Jesus.
On account of me
you're going to stand
before governors
and kings
as witnesses to them
and this gospel
must be proclaimed
to all the nations.
This is the foundational
mission
of the church.
The primary task
and the primary focus
of the church
is this exact
statement of Jesus
that we are to proclaim
his good news
to all the nations.
That our job
is to bear witness
to Jesus
to his person
and his work
to his incarnation
his crucifixion
his resurrection
and they got that
loud and clear
because Peter
in a very short time
was totally transformed
and he goes out
on the day of Pentecost
where he preaches
the first Christian sermon
and he says
in Acts chapter 2
God
to this crowd
of unbelieving people
he says
God raised Jesus
from the dead
freeing him
from the agony
of death
because it was impossible
for death
to keep its hold
on him.
God has made
this Jesus
whom you crucified
both Lord
and Messiah
repent
and be baptized
every one of you
in the name
of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness
of your sins
and you will receive
the gift
of the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul
who had his own
dramatic encounter
with the resurrected
Jesus
he writes this
in his letter
to the heart
of the empire
in Romans 10 9
he says
if you confess
with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart
that God raised him
from the dead
you will be saved.
when I think about
the permanently changed
lives of these eyewitnesses
when I think about
the provocative passion
with which they
went on to continue
and extend
the mission of Jesus
when I think about
the ways that they
embraced poverty
and prison
and painful death
in order to proclaim
the gospel
would they really
have died for a lie?
Would they really
have given their lives
for a legend?
The French mathematician
and philosopher
Pascal
he said
I believe those witnesses
that get their throats cut
the only reason
that you would call
all the nations
of the world
to repent
and be baptized
the only reason
you would go out
and you would tell people
at the heart of the empire
that they needed
to confess
and to believe
is if your message
is worth dying for
and therefore
very much worth
living for
and so if you're here
today and you say
yes I'm one of those
people
I would have never
thought
that I'd be one
of those people
who confesses
with my mouth
that Jesus is Lord
and who believes
in my heart
that God raised him
from the dead
but here I am
somehow
I don't know how
what am I supposed
to do now?
Well I just want to
I just want to
encourage you
we need to get on
with the mission
that Jesus gave us
and the mission
he gave us
is very clear
these are his exact words
the gospel
must be proclaimed
to all the nations
and friends
that's not something
that we go out
and we do on our own
with our own effort
and our own resources
it's a mission
that's to be done
with the presence
and the power
of the resurrected
and living Lord
that just as Jesus
goes ahead
of his disciples
into Galilee
that's been his pattern
with his church
throughout the ages
he goes before
his people
so that wherever
we go
we actually find
that Jesus
has already been there
before us
he got there
ahead of us somehow
Jesus doesn't follow
the mission of the church
Jesus leads
the mission of the church
and so my question
for you today
is do you trust
do we trust
that Jesus
has gone ahead of us
into 2024
and beyond
do we trust
and believe
that Jesus
is out there
in Berkeley
and Oakland
and the San Francisco
Bay Area
ahead of us
and are we willing
to follow him
and do what he said
which is to proclaim
his gospel
to all
the nations
Christ Church
Jesus
Christ
has been bodily
raised
from the dead
he came to launch
the new creation
where all can be forgiven
all can be reborn
and all will
in fact be
remade
and so I want to say
to you
let's join
in that resurrection
project
let's be
a resurrection
people
let's be a joyful
people of life
for a world
that's still in death
let's be a
worshiping people
that celebrate
God's victory
over sin
and death
and let's be
a forgiven people
let's be a
missionary people
who are sent out
to proclaim
the gospel
for the nations
for whom
Jesus bled
and for whom
he died
to save
is that what we want
this Easter Sunday
may God give us
the grace to do it
in the name of the
Father
Son
and Holy Spirit
Amen