Easter B 2003 Mark 16:1-8

"He goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."

I have mentioned on occasion that I failed remedial singing – those who have heard me try to sing know why. While I was in my sacristy this week in the middle of Holy Week, Olivia came in to practice on the piano and loosen the keys. She played Hymn 204, which I failed to complete as a solo in remedial singing! But it is a lovely French Easter Carol:

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
love lives again, that with the dead has been:
In the grave they laid him, Love whom hate had slain,
thinking that never he would wake again,
laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
he that for three days in the grave had lain,
quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
thy touch can call us back to life again,
fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again
like wheat that springeth green.

Like many people who write a lot, I kept E.B. White’s Elements of Style close at hand for many years. White was an essayist and an extraordinary writer and user of the English language. White and his wife lived a long life together. She died before him. She died of a terminal wasting illness. He wrote once of the autumn before his wife's death—of the autumn when she was just a shadow of what she had once been. It was an autumn when the ravages of disease and treatment had rendered her weak, haggard, worn. And E. B. White writes how in that autumn he watched her again and again struggle her way out to her flower garden to plant tulip bulbs for the spring that she would never see. And he said of her that she went to her garden to make arrangements for the resurrection. 1
A resurrection that she believed she would soon see. He goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."

Saint Paul provides the earliest witness tradition of the Christian community's faith that God raised Jesus from the dead. The early church made its way in the world with this faith. And they proclaimed that Christ died for our sins and was buried; Christ was raised from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures, and Christ appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, then to more than five hundred, then to James, then to all the apostles and finally to Paul. Whatever else is true, the church made its way in the world with this faith: Jesus was dead; but is risen—and of that, we are all witnesses.

And so we proclaim during Holy Communion: Christ has died, Christ IS risen, Christ will come again.

He goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."

The Easter Gospel in Mark 16:1-8 strikes a somber note for Easter even in the midst of the final revelation Good News of the Resurrection. It pronounces the darkest reality imaginable: and the women flee the empty tomb trembling and astonished and silent for they are afraid. It's an unusual way to end a gospel! With astonished silence and fear. But this may be the best way to end Mark's account since it confronts us with the stark reality of Jesus' death and the early Christian community's initial confusion, dismay and fear. Jesus has been crucified, was dead and buried. Easter cannot eradicate that reality. Easter may vindicate it, but Easter cannot cancel it. Mark 16:1-8 both ends and begins a story, but the next chapter cannot be written until some amazed, frightened, silent women report to the disciples what they have experienced.

In Mark's gospel Easter seems to serve and vindicate Good Friday; the resurrected Lord is the crucified Jesus. The women are not yet beyond their fear. In silence they may whisper what the man clothed in white told them about Jesus' resurrection, but they are not yet confident enough to shout it from the housetops in triumphant joy. They have yet to understand that the full meaning of the Resurrection can be understood only through the Crucifixion.

He goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." Christ has died, Christ IS risen, Christ will come again.

There is a story about a young man named Martin. Martin's parents owned a cabin up in the mountains where two rivers met. The family went to the cabin to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions. The cabin held many good memories for Martin. It was his own personal "secluded, warm haven." But the devastating flood waters from a winter storm destroyed their cabin. All the trees and plants were gone or dead. Martin’s green paradise was nothing more than a barren mud flat.

He was depressed over the whole experience, trying to understand why it happened. But when he returned in April he was startled. Many of the trees showed signs of life. A bud here. A leaf here. "I was overwhelmed by feelings of joy," he said, "struck by the fact that life was there after all!" The whole world was transformed, resurrected. There was new life everywhere.

Easter is above all about new life--new life in Christ. He goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." Christ has died, Christ IS risen, Christ will come again.

The resurrection of Jesus remains a mystery and a miracle. It remains a mystery. And always will. The resurrection is also a miracle. Nothing quite like this had ever happened before. (3) A miracle and a promise:

“He goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." Christ has died, Christ IS risen, Christ will come again.



1. as told by Dr. Carl L. Schenck in There you will see him, InterNet
2. Adapted from Jasper N. Keith, Jr., The Eternal Question, SermonMall.com
3. Adapted from Timothy J Smith, With Fear and Great Joy, SermonMall.com

Wicomico Parish Church
PO Box 70
Wicomico Church, Virginia 22579