Go Tell It

by First Church

Mark’s version of the resurrection story leaves things a bit unfinished.  In the version that ends at 16:8, and which most scholars agree is the accurate ending, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome run from the tomb and say nothing to anyone because “terror and amazement had seized them.”  All the other gospels tell us the women told of what they had seen and heard.  But Mark says, the women said nothing to anyone for they were terrified. 

If faith is dependent on visual sightings, one would more readily choose either Matthew, Luke or John to tell the story of the resurrection.  There is an unfinished quality to Mark’s account that leaves us wanting something more.  We know, from a historical perspective, that the women did not remain silent.  After all, the church exists because people through the centuries, including Mary and the others, did, indeed, tell the story of what they have seen and heard of the risen Lord beginning on that first Easter morning.  So somehow the women found their voice and shared the news of Jesus’ resurrection. 

There is an interesting aspect to Mark’s closing comments, however, words that come from the angel who attends the empty tomb.  The angel reminds the women that Jesus had promised that he would rise on the third day and more importantly, that he would “go ahead of them into Galilee” (16:7).  Which pushes us back to chapter one of Mark’s gospel where Jesus emerges onto the stage of world history in Galilee.  And there he was made known and his works have followed him.  Mark points us to the Galilee of our lives, to the everyday experiences of life, the places where there is hurt and brokenness, laughter and sorrow, illness and healing, children and widows, bread and wine as the places where he is present.  It is there in the everyday of life that he is now, and Mark invites us to go back to chapter one and reread the story, this time looking for the places and the occasions which nearly shout the announcement, He is Risen!  We are Easter people, and ours is an Easter world, where God is present and Christ is Risen. 

Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

                                                                                                                                                 Jon M. Walton