Easter Sunday message

by Randy Hein

Reflecting on the qualities of what makes a story a good story, Aristotle said that every good story has a beginning, a middle and an ending. The Gospel according to Mark has a clear beginning, it has a clear middle … but when you get to the end, you get the sense that the ending is to be found beyond the gospel somehow. If the gospel of Mark were translated into music, it’s as if Mark plays the first seven notes of the scale and then just waits … why would he do that? Why would he leave his gospel open and, if I could be so bold, unresolved?

Hopefully my message tonight will answer that question …

If you ever read all of the gospels – one after another – you will discover that each writer, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, has their own particular way of telling us about Jesus. Each one of them has certain themes that they wish to articulate and emphasize. One thing that has become very clear to me in our study of Mark. One theme he wants to emphasize is this: that, in Jesus Christ, God is on the loose.

It begins at the beginning. Mark spares no time emphasizing this. Right there, in Chapter one, right after Jesus gets baptized in the river Jordan we have this scene … he emerges from the water and heavens part, the Spirit descends like a dove, the Father speaks … “that’s my boy”. At least that’s how I’ve always pictured it. But this isn’t what Mark says.

But unlike the other gospel accounts, Mark doesn’t simply write, “The heavens opened”. He writes that, “The heavens tore open”. Why does he add that? What is opened may be closed, but what is ripped and torn? Well, that’s a little more permanent. “The heavens tore open” … the Spirit descends, the Father speaks … and Jesus goes forth. The veil between heaven and earth has been broken. God has penetrated our world and he is on the loose.

Now understand, very key to understanding Mark, the heavens have not torn open so that we can get to God, they have torn open so that God can get at us. We are the runaways, but God is pursuing us and coming after us and nothing can hold Jesus back.

Fast forward fifteen chapters, and you will find the only other place in all the gospels where this verb “to tear apart” occurs. It happens in the temple at the very moment Jesus dies. Now remember, it was believed that the temple was the place where God dwelt. It is the place where his presence was to be experienced. So there was a scared – “set-apart” – holy distance between that ground and the ground you and I are now standing on.

It is recorded that when Jesus breathed out his last breath, that the heavy temple curtain that separates the very holiest of places from you and me was ripped in two.

I was always led to believe that this event signified that I have access to the Holy of Holies. That, because of what Jesus did on the cross, if I want I can “walk in and out” – so to speak – anytime I want. But it’s more than that.

God is not a passive agent here. It is God that is “tearing through” and “bursting forth” from the confines that we have placed on him. He can’t be contained. It ripped from top to bottom and inside-out.

The curtain was torn not so we could get to God – not from bottom to top, but from top to bottom – the curtain was torn so God could get at us. We are the runaways, but God is pursuing us and coming after us and nothing can hold Jesus back.

Nothing can contain him. Not even death.

I love how the gospel accounts show the women disciples arriving on the scene first. Typical. The boys are off hiding cuz their scared … or sulking.

It speaks to the authenticity of the event. If Mark was trying to fabricate the story to convince people of the truth of the event he would have had the men arrive first. Because, culturally, women weren’t considered credible witnesses. To the first century ear, this doesn’t have the ring of great drama. It has the ring of reality. There is no skill to this writing, no fanfare, Mark is simply telling it the way it was.

The women arrive at the tomb. Obviously have not anticipated his resurrection: they are there to anoint a dead body. They’re probably grief-stricken; with no hope … the only thing motivating them is loyalty and devotion to the one they loved. They come across the tomb and the stone has been rolled away and there – in the entryway – was a messenger …

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

Is the gospel story now resolved? Have we heard the last note of the scale? Does it end with the resurrection of Jesus, or does it begin with His resurrection? Jesus is still on the move.

“He’s going ahead of you into Galilee.”

He is still on the move and God is still ahead of us. The heavens have ripped open, the temple curtains have tore in two open, the stone has been rolled away and God is on the loose

These things happened, the heavens, the temple curtain, the resurrection, not simply so we could get to God, but so that God could get at us. We are the runaways, but God is pursuing us and coming after us and nothing can hold Jesus back.

He has broken through every boundary and taken down every wall to get into our lives.