Easter Sermon

Now What?
Text: Mark 16:1-8
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
Easter Sunday, 2009

The Call to Worship had just been pronounced, starting the Easter Sunday service in an East Texas church. The choir started its processional, singing "Up from the Grave He Arose" as they marched in perfect step down the center aisle to the front of the church.

The last lady was wearing shoes with very slender heels. Without a thought for her fancy heels, she marched toward the grating that covered that hot air register in the middle of the aisle. Suddenly the heel of one shoe sank into the hole in the register grate. In a flash, she realized her predicament. Not wishing to hold up the whole processional, without missing a step, she slipped her foot out of her shoe and continued marching down the aisle.

There wasn't a hitch. The processional moved with clock-like precision. The first man after her spotted the situation and, without losing a step, reached down and pulled up her shoe; but the entire grate came with it! Surprised, but still singing, the man kept on going down the aisle, holding in his hand the grate with the shoe attached. Everything still moved like clockwork.

Still in tune and still in step, the next man in line stepped into the open register and disappeared from sight. The service took on a special meaning that Sunday, for just as the choir ended with "Alleluia! Christ arose!" a voice was heard under the church shouting, "I hope all of you are out of the way 'cause I'm coming out now!"

The little girl closest to the aisle shouted down the register, "Come on, Jesus! We'll stay out of the way." (Bob Hager, SermonCentral.com)

We’ll stay our of the way.

Interesting words and in lots of ways very fitting for Easter.

We read today from the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the oldest of the four Gospels and his is the first narrative of the resurrection that was written. The other Gospel writers add a great deal more detail and the others speak of the young man as an angel. Mark, however, has a character who runs away naked from the garden on Thursday night, and scholars believe that this is the young man who follows behind ans actually is the first person at the tomb. It is he who makes the pronouncement to the women that Jesus had been raised.

The women, Mark tells is, flee in terror and excitement.

The resurrection of Jesus was truly a ‘now what’ kind of scenario.

We often like to think of the joy of Easter and the joy the disciples had that Jesus had been raised. There was, however, more to the story than just ‘joy.’

Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and death, did not mark a high point in the lives of the apostles in terms of their response. John stayed and was with Jesus until the end. Judas killed himself. Peter had denied Jesus three times and along with the nine other apostles, fled and hid in fear. It appeared that when Jesus needed his friends the most, his friends fled.

It’s amazing how this happens. Years ago I had graduated from seminary and a group of us, mostly clergy, were playing baseball in the back of my friend’s church in Newark, New Jersey. Someone hit the baseball and it broke a neighbor’s window.

When we were children and we hit a ball and it broke a window, we’d all run and hide. We did not have the courage to encounter the person whose window we had broken. As adults, well, we ran and hid and let our friend deal with the angry neighbor----while all of his friends hid behind the church.

Jesus’ resurrection was great news, but it also meant that the ones who fled had to come face to face, again, with Jesus, the one who they had abandoned.

Now what?

There were two things that they had to deal with that are the same things we have to deal with concerning the Easter story.

The first is this. For the apostles, following Jesus was about the joy of discipleship. They were popular and famous.

When Jesus died on the cross there was no joy. They saw only the cost of discipleship.

Upon Jesus’ resurrection the apostles and the disciples and all of us come to grips with the cost and joy of discipleship. It is not just about joy and delight; but it is also about paying a price; but it is more than paying a price; it is a sense of joy and enthusiasm.

Discipleship is easy when it’s only about joy. Discipleship is easy about things all going our way. Discipleship is much more challenging when we have to contemplate ‘cost.’ Jesus’ death taught the disciples that there was a real cost to discipleship; his resurrection taught that there is a real joy to discipleship. Embracing it all reminds us that there is a cost and joy of discipleship.

The second thing is dealing with God and things beyond human understanding.

I knew a person who said that there was something she liked about church and something she didn’t like about church.

When she came to church and we talked about Jesus’ teachings, and such, that was great. When it came to miracles, and stories of Christmas of the angel appearing to Mary and Easter when Jesus comes forth from the tomb, she was uncomfortable. For her, it was all great until the, as she said it, “God thing” showed up.

She was okay with a concept of God philosophically, but didn’t want to come face to face with the divine, things beyond human comprehension.

Sometimes I wish Easter was not in the Spring. We often draw parallels to the blossoms of Spring and the resurrection of Jesus. We point the flowers, the green grass, and the sunshine and relate it to the resurrection. If we’re really clever we can talk about all sorts of great stuff and never get around to talking about Jesus being raised.

It helps us because it makes us not feel that we have to totally buy into the power beyond our comprehension, the “God thing.” It helps us not engage that which is beyond our understanding.

But Easter is about embracing something beyond our understand. Easter is about coming to grips with the ‘God-thing’ and realizing that there are things we cannot fully know and understand.

For those who witnessed the Risen Christ there was something of a ‘now what’ kind of experience. Encountering the resurrected Lord forced them to confront the true cost and joy of discipleship, and to encounter the power of God as God is.

That challenge exists for us this very day as we too encounter the Risen Savior and ask, ‘now what?’