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Rev. G. Scott Turnbrook – April 12, 2009 – www.dluc.ca –
Mark 16:1-8

In the middle of the last century, French philosopher and Nobel Prize recipient Albert Camus wrote the myth of Sisyphus. In this political essay, Camus took on the issue of humankind’s search for meaning – and it does not come out well! In the concluding chapter, Camus outlines the punishment of Sisyphus who had been sentenced by the gods. He was condemned to push a boulder up to the top of a mountain each day. Upon reaching the top, the boulder would quickly roll down again, forcing Sisyphus to start over once again. This was his life sentence: Sisyphus would begin the day pushing the rock up the mountain only to find that he would be required to do this again and again and again. Life, for Sisyphus, was stuck within the eternal monotony of bondage and oppression. Sisyphus was stuck.

As we explore the Easter story in Mark’s gospel, we realize that the first followers of Jesus’ Way – like Sisyphus - were stuck as well. The men were stuck in fear and panic at the hands of Roman oppression They were stuck and found themselves in hiding for fear of the Empire. Jesus had been killed; and with his death came the demise of the hope that Jesus had brought. It was all over. The movement had ended. Jesus was to become just another great Jew in a long line of Jewish martyrs who had been executed for their opposition to Rome. And so the men had fled the scene. As such, they were not even recorded in Mark’s account of Easter. As they went into hiding, they also bowed down before the powers of Rome; they remained stuck in their long history of Jewish oppression and worshipped the Empire as they believed its powers had triumphed once again. The men were stuck and hid in fear and awe over the powerful Kingdom of Rome.

Historically, the women in the story have been given a much higher status than the men. They are actually recorded in the story! They did not run away, they stayed by Jesus’ side to the end on Friday. And today, following the Sabbath, they return to finish the job that they had started. Following Jesus’ death, Joseph of Arimathea had persuaded the Romans into giving them Jesus’ crucified body for burial. The women had lovingly wrapped his body in a linen cloth and gently laid it in the tomb, where a massive rock now sealed the grave. What they did not have time to do as dusk rolled in on Friday – as the Sabbath was about to begin – was to perform the Jewish ritual of anointing Jesus’ dead body. And now that the Sabbath had ended and sunrise ushered in a new day, Mary Magdalene, James’ Mother Mary and Salome found themselves walking to the grave to give Jesus a proper burial. They had come to finish the job that the Romans had so brutally done of crucifying Jesus; they had come to reverently lay Jesus to eternal rest.

Now, as loving and devoted as the women are, I am going to suggest that they, like the men who gave up on Jesus, were also stuck in the ways of death. The women were stuck in believing in the powers of death. The women were stuck because, just like the men, they too continued to believe in the power of Rome. They had given up on the power of the Kingdom of God and they were preparing to bury Jesus – to write him into history as just another Jewish martyr and thereby to end the story of Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God. The women like the men were stuck. They had given up on Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God and they believed Jesus to be dead and the movement to be over. The first followers of Jesus were stuck in the ways of death and had given up on Jesus. It was over.

And how could they not be stuck in the ways of death! We look back on them with our judgmental eyes and say ‘how could you’?. ‘You had met Jesus’. ‘You knew him’. ‘He was God’s Son’. ‘How could you believe it was over’? To walk to Jesus’ tomb was to believe in the powers of Rome and to give up on the Kingdom of God. Yet they had lived for centuries upon centuries under the control of the ruling powers. We know their story: enslaved in Egypt and in Babylon, consistently falling captive to the warring countries who dominated. That was their way – to live as oppressed people. Roman domination was seen within the long history of countries who had overthrown and dominated them. Jesus said that he had come to bring a new Kingdom – the Kingdom of God. Last Sunday, as Pilate and the military troops marched into Jerusalem to ‘beef up’ security for the coming Passover celebration, Jesus also processed into Jerusalem as well. Pilate came into the city on a war horses and weaponry; Jesus processed into the holy city on the back of a donkey bearing no weapons at all. Which would it be? The Kingdom of Rome or the Kingdom of God? Jesus came to the people to bring in a new Kingdom – a Kingdom ruled by God; a Kingdom that would be known by peace for all; a nation that where all were fed and loved; a community that would not have dominant Romans and subordinate Jews – Jesus came to oppose the mighty Kingdom of Rome with awesome Kingdom of God!

And as the week unfolded, how else did you expect it to play out. Caesar to hand Jerusalem over to Jesus? You are right, we were wrong, here are the keys to Jerusalem. Pilate you are fired. Jesus is now in charge? Of course not. Like any insurrectionist, Jesus was killed – publically and painfully. He was killed as a lesson to all others who would oppose Rome. Except that is not how the story ends – is it? While the women were stuck in their beliefs in the powers of Rome – believing that Rome had won and Jesus had lost – amidst that God enters the picture and proceeds to write the conclusion to the history of oppression.

As the women arrive, they meet someone who will change the world for all time. Mark calls him “a young man”. The other gospels will later elaborate on this character calling him an angel, some adding more angels. But in the earliest version of Easter, it is just a simple character – a young man. He is not an aged person full of wisdom – he is young. He has no name – no status. He will go down in history as a nameless, nobody who will change history. As the women arrive, they find the stone rolled away and the young man says: “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.”

The young man shows God’s final judgment of the way of Rome – and as Casear put it in the Colliseum, it was a thumbs down. God had raised Jesus and sentenced the Kingdom of Rome’s oppressive ways to death. God had raised Jesus and made him alive for all places and all time. God had raised Jesus and the Kingdom of God was now beginning to reign. In Easter, God says yes to the ways of non-violence and peace and ensures that the powers of death and domination will not have the last word.

As we gather 2,000 years later, I wonder what truth Easter has to speak to us today. I must say, I love this young man and the hope that he offers for us. When all had been lost; when defeat seemed inevitable, this young man says “do not be afraid, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has been raised.” Have you had moments in your life when you thought it was over / when you came looking and expecting death – yet somehow you heard the voice of hope ‘you have come expecting this to be over. It is not. There is hope. Believe!’ I have seen couples struggling with their marriage / couples who were ready to give their marriage a proper burial and give up. Yet, before they did – something spoke to them and said ‘it is not over! You were expecting death. There is hope’. I have seen people overcome with depression / ready to give up / ready to write that note of goodbye to their loved ones. And I have seen something speak to them saying ‘it is not over! You come here expecting death. There is hope’. And as we think of this nameless/ faceless young man caught on the pages of Mark’s gospel, I wonder if he continues to live at times in you, and you, and in me.

You see, Easter is not a static event. Easter is a dynamic event that has liberated the powers of life for all places and all time. And whenever we allow that young man or young woman to live inside us as we proclaim the voice of hope – then we proclaim that ‘Christ is risen’. Whenever we allow that young man or young woman to speak to us, we proclaim that ‘Christ is risen’. And whenever we proclaim that ‘Christ is risen’, then we proclaim the death of the powers of the Roman Empire and any other Empire who seeks to oppress. In Easter, we proclaim that the Kingdom of God is alive!

May it be so! Amen.