Write Your Own Ending

 How many of you have ever been watching a television show, a movie, or a sporting event and been near the climax of the show or end of the game and, suddenly, something interrupts you? Maybe it is a telephone call, someone knocking at the door, the dog barking, or your spouse trying to tell you something. Some of us can remember the days when a "breaking news story," "weather notice," or a "test of the emergency broadcast system" would interfere with what we were watching. That may still happen, but since we cut the cord and pretty much stream all the shows we watch a day or so later, we can pause and rewind our movies and shows, eliminating much of that interference. Watching live sporting events is different, though, and having one of those interruptions or having the internet go down can still leave us frustrated. There are also those times where someone intentionally or accidently changes the channel or turns off the television right at the peak of the show or game. It is a lot like watching a television drama series that gets cancelled halfway through the storyline and you are left without any resolution to the story-that's happened to Anita and I more times that I want to count. In any of these situations you are left hanging. How did it all end? There are other times where we may see the ending, and not be satisfied with it. That happens with a lot of movies. You know those times, where you are sitting in the movie theater or the comfort of your den recliner, enjoying a movie, and then the credits start rolling. You're shocked. You want to stand up and say, "that's it? That's how it ends? You've got to be kidding me?" That's one reason I stopped watching any of those true-to-life movies on the Lifetime Channel with Anita, after a true North Carolina kidnapping story ended with the father who kidnapped the kids blowing himself and the kids up right as his ex-wife and the police were approaching his truck. In the realm of fictional movies, there must be many producers and directors that have felt that same way about how some of their movies ended, because you can rent or purchase many different movies that will have "special features" that include "alternate endings." What does any of this have to do with Easter? Actually, if you are reading the Easter Story from the Gospel of Mark, as we did this evening, it has everything to do with it. Let's look at the passage that was just read again: "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "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." So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." And that's it...that's how it ends. There is no appearance of the resurrected Jesus and everyone keeps quiet because they are afraid. If you look at your Bibles when you get home, most of them will note in some way that this is considered the original ending of Mark. Many of our Bibles have a note starting at verse nine, and maybe at verse fourteen, that these are longer or alternate endings to the Gospel. Most scholars will agree that the most ancient of the authoritative copies of the Gospel of Mark end at verse 8. Obviously, as most of our Bible's contain extended or alternate endings for the Gospel of Mark, there was someone who came along and was not satisfied with the short, abrupt ending, without witnesses to the resurrection and without an appearance of the resurrected Jesus. Much like the movie producers of our day, those folks decided that Mark needed a different ending. Back in the days of the early church, the Scriptures were not mass produced like today's books or digital media, they were copied by hand. Evidently, at some point, possibly by someone charged with copying the text, additional verses were added, and they became a standard part of the Scriptures when the New Testament was formally adopted by the Church. We can understand why the later folks wanted to add the extended story. I mean the way Mark ended: Jesus was dead. He had not been seen resurrected. Those who were told he was resurrected by the angel went off scared and quiet, not breathing a word of the news to anyone. It is almost as if everyone is left in the dark. If the women don't tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus is going to Galilee and to meet him there, will they miss an opportunity to see the risen Christ? Of course someone would want to complete the story. Any of us would have probably done the same thing. The question for us, though, is why would the original author of Mark have apparently cut the story short? It is not because he did not know about the resurrection or know that the women and disciples eventually saw the resurrected Christ. The Gospel was not written until many years after the crucifixion and resurrection. There must have been some other reason. We don't truly know what it is, but let's consider a couple of possibilities. The first possibility is that the author of Mark wanted his readers to understand just how difficult a concept the resurrection would have been for the followers of Jesus. We know the other Gospels (which were written after Mark) have the empty tomb, then boom, there is Jesus, and everything is good. Well for everyone except Thomas, and then that is quickly handled. We've heard the story of the resurrection of Jesus for years and years. We take it is given. We almost take it for granted. However, if we were there that first Easter morning, we might not have been as joyful as we tend to be each Easter morning now. Chris Tomlin was not there singing "Crown Him (Majesty)," nor was there a church congregation singing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." Jesus' death and resurrection was not accompanied by the same angelic singing as his birth. There was only stillness and quietness, and no body. Sure there was the man in white there to tell them that Jesus had been raised from the dead, but imagine if you went to the grave of someone you had just watched buried a few days earlier, and found it empty and someone told you that that person had been raised and was going to meet you and his other friends in Otway, to go ahead, tell the other friends and all of you head there. There are two likely reactions, 1) we are going to want to know what was wrong with that person and think they might be crazy and we want to get as far as we can away from them; or 2) we would just say "yeah right" and figure someone had robbed the grave and that we better get out of the area quietly in case they are still around or in case we might be blamed for stealing the body ourselves. The resurrection, though promised by Jesus, was still a hard pill to swallow, and the author of Mark may have wanted to make sure we understood that. The other possibility is that the author of Mark wanted his readers to finish the story. We have the extended ending that some of his readers added to his original ending, telling the story of how Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, then to two of the disciples walking along a road, and then to all of the disciples and gave them the commission to go into the world proclaiming the good news. If the author of Mark wants us to complete the story, how would we? How do we complete the story? Have we experienced the resurrected Christ? Is Jesus alive for us? Do we live a life reflecting the resurrection? Think of our lives and the story they tell. We live in a world that is filled with darkness, despair, and death. We live in a world that for the last year has been marked with the COVID pandemic bringing about sickness and death, executive orders and lockdowns. We live in a world where racial tensions seem to reign supreme. We live in a world where cancer, heart attacks, drug overdoses and accidents take additional lives every day. We live in a world where anger leads to murder or depression leads to suicide. How do we continue the story of Easter morning in the face of all this darkness, despair, and death? Our answer reveals how we write our own ending to the Gospel of Mark. Do we walk around depressed, sour, or even angry as we look at the world around us? Do we give up and say "it can't get any better"? Do we focus all our talk on doom and gloom? If so, then we are living as if Jesus is back in the tomb, like someone went back in after all the women left, and said, "Hey wait a minute ladies, you missed the body, here he is over in the corner." IF we live our lives in the dark, that is how we write the ending of the Easter story. However, if we are able to face the darkness by proclaiming the Light that has filled our lives; if we proclaim that the love of God found in the Risen Christ is with us and none of the darkness can take it away; if we share that there is always hope, that no matter how bleak things may seem, that God will have the final word; if we remind ourselves and others that even death itself has been defeated and that we can have joy in the promise of the Resurrection-then our lives proclaim Christ is Risen and the Easter Story goes on with yet another extended ending-for with our live we declare that the resurrected King is resurrecting us! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Page 2 of 2 *Sermon idea from Homiletics Online, "Extended Ending." Write Your Own Ending* Mark 16:1-8 Page 1 of 2