Presented to 614 Warehouse Mission Resurrection Sunday Breakfast, 01 April 2018
Mark
16:1-16a:
16 The Sabbath
day ended. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices.
They were going to use them for Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of
the week, they were on their way to the tomb. It was just after sunrise. 3 They
asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?”
4 Then they
looked up and saw that the stone had been rolled away. The stone was very
large. 5 They entered the tomb. As they did, they saw a young man dressed in a
white robe. He was sitting on the right side. They were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be
alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.
But he has risen! He is not here! See the place where they had put him. 7 Go!
Tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you
will see him. It will be just as he told you.’ ”
8 The women
were shaking and confused. They went out and ran away from the tomb. They said
nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
9 Jesus rose
from the dead early on the first day of the week. He appeared first to Mary
Magdalene. He had driven seven demons out of her. 10 She went and told those
who had been with him. She found them crying. They were very sad. 11 They heard
that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him. But they did not believe it.
12 After that,
Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them. This happened while they
were walking out in the country. 13 The two returned and told the others about
it. But the others did not believe them either.
14 Later Jesus
appeared to the 11 disciples as they were eating. He spoke firmly to them
because they had no faith. They would not believe those who had seen him after
he rose from the dead.
15
He said to them, “Go into all the world. Preach the good news to everyone. 16
Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved
One year on April Fools Day, when I was posted in
Saskatchewan, we found out Judy, our receptionist, won $5000 from Tim Horton’s
Roll up the Rim contest. On the morning of April Fools Day, Judy told us she
had won $5000. At our staff meeting on April’s Fools Day, Judy told everyone
that she won $5000. We were so happy for Judy, who is so honest and who is so
trustworthy, that she won $5000 on April Fools Day that we were all simply
stunned an hour later when she concluded our staff meeting with the words,
‘April Fools!’
Even though we were all aware that it was April Fools Day,
even though we all joked about it being April Fools Day, even though we all had
openly spoken about April Fools Day, we were all completely shocked when dear,
honest, trustworthy Judy ended our staff meeting with the words ‘April Fools!’
It must have been the same for the disciples with Jesus’
crucifixion and resurrection: even though they knew about resurrection, even
though they all had discussions about the resurrection, even though Jesus
repeatedly told them about His resurrection, they were all completely shocked
when the angel met them with the words ‘He is risen’, the ladies (and later the
other disciples) were so surprised. It would be the same effect as us hearing
‘April Fools!’ The ladies had gone to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ corpse as part
of a burial ceremony. Even though Jesus’ followers should have known He would
rise from the grave, they believed he was dead; just like we believed Judy had
won $5000. April Fools! You thought He was dead but He has risen!
This is what is going on with the ladies in the text today
and later with the other disciples still continuing in disbelief. In one account
even after the others have finally realized that Jesus has actually risen from
the dead just like He said He would, the disciple Thomas is so convinced that
Jesus is dead that he only believes the truth when he sees and touches Jesus
himself.
Now here we are today, two millennia later, in the
conflicting moments of April Fools Day and Easter Sunday and we have that very
same decision to make and it is just important now as it ever was. Our very
life depends upon it. Who is Jesus? What do we believe? Do we believe that
Jesus is God’s own Son and that He rose from the grave? And if so what are we
going to do about it?
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