Many of us today will be gathered around a large dining room table, filled with ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni salad, and a plethora of desserts. Mine was full last Friday, as I went home to celebrate an “early Easter” with my family and some close friends.
I love our dining room table, and the memories made around it. It’ll always be special to me, and filled with memories of family both present and those who have gone before us. Many family dining rooms are filled with artwork. Ours is too – But not artwork from local artists or paintings from grandkids. The art in our dining room, proudly shown off at every holiday meal to friends and family, was made by my mom’s first cousin, Jennifer Wickersham. She attended the Philadelphia College of Art, and spent a lot of time at the Brandywine Art Museum, where she was a regular volunteer.
She completed many pieces of art throughout her life, and several of her paintings, sketches, and pottery can be found hanging in my parent’s home in Port Royal. I think it’s interesting how you can really see her evolution into artistry, as she gained skill, learned more about her talents, and captured the simple farm houses around the county (this one, is from Nancy Kulp’s family farm, who you may remember from the original Parent Trap, as the maid in the I Love Lucy episode where she meets the Queen, or as Jane Hathaway in the Beverly Hillbillies).
My favorite piece, though, that she did is this one above. It was started as she battled a breast cancer diagnosis, and was left unfinished when she passed at the age of 46 in 1990. I never met her, but every time I see the painting, I wonder: What would she have painted? Would she have kept the same colors, or the same season as the one she had finished earlier in her life? The painting hangs in our dining room, unfinished. The incomplete-ness of it all is interesting, and I love it, because my mind fills in the gaps. I tend to put myself in her shoes, filling in the gaps in the artwork.
Today’s Gospel from Mark is a bit of an unfinished story, as well. The book of Mark, where we get our Gospel reading for the day, is known as both the shortest of all the Gospels, but also the oldest. It’s simple, straightforward, and gets to the point.
The other Gospels provide so much more detail regarding the Easter story. Matthew talks about a violent earthquake, along with elaborate descriptions of the angel that appears at the tomb. Luke recounts the words of Jesus predicting his death and resurrection, and adds more women to the group that goes to Jesus’ burial place. John is perhaps the most elaborate, though, describing who came to the tomb when, how fast they ran to get there, and where exactly the strips of linen that covered Jesus’ body lay. And then there’s Mark, who tells us in just eight verses that a group of women came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body at sunrise. They were worried about who would roll the stone away from the tomb, but when they arrived they saw a young man in white, who told them to not be alarmed because Christ has risen. He tells them to go and tell the disciples, but they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
In all the other Gospel texts of the resurrection, the women listen to the angel and they go and tell. They ran to the disciples, told them about what the angel had said, and shared the good news of the Resurrection with Jesus’ followers. But Mark is different.
Readers are left at the end of Mark with an unfinished story.
Like my cousin Jennifer’s paintings, we are left with more questions than answers. What will the women do? Will they go and tell? How do we know about the Easter story, the resurrection, and the legacy of Christ if they didn’t?
Mark’s Gospel ends telling the reader that the women were terrified and told no one about what they had seen. And it’s no wonder. These women- Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome- were the same women that Mark tells us were with Jesus when he carried his cross, was crucified, and died. Mark tells his readers that these women “Followed him and cared for his needs”. It’s these women, who were there, who stayed with Jesus, pledging their allegiance and belief in him when the other disciples left, abandoned him, and betrayed him. The women stayed.
Mark tells us that after Jesus died, these women knew where Jesus’ body was laid, where he was buried, They were the only followers of Christ, aside from Joseph of Arimathea who gave the tomb and Nicodemus, who helped to prepare the body, to know where the tomb was. And now, they are the only people who know of the news from the angel at the tomb. And the Gospel ends with Mark telling us that these women, who have seen the incredible horrors of the past few days, who watched as Jesus was abandoned, stripped of his clothing, as he was raised up on the cross, and murdered – these women, the only true witnesses of the crucifixion and now the resurrection- that they were afraid and said nothing to anyone. And there’s no wonder.
Unlike Matthew and John’s account of the Gospel, Jesus is not physically present in Mark. He does not appear to Mary or the women after they experience the empty tomb.We find ourselves in a similar place as well, on this Easter day. We too, do not experience Jesus in front of us, or run into him in the garden. However, despite the womens’ fear and amid our own uncertainty that we so often have when it comes to sharing our faith with others,
But Mark reminds us today that Jesus always goes before us . We receive the same message as the women in today’s resurrection story:“The angel told the women to go and tell the disciples that Jesus is going ahead of them and will meet them in Galilee”. We too know that Jesus goes before us, and that because of the cross, there is not a time or a place where Jesus is not already there, with us, always.
Mark ends with an unfinished story, and today we are called to put ourselves in that story, in the shoes of the women, and go and tell the Good News To . Tell about a God who came to earth, took on the form of a human, died, and was risen so we can have eternal life. who destroys death, who loves and saves all of God’s children through grace, not by our works, who we cannot see, but know that abides with us amid all of life’s joys, trials, and tribulations. Who loves us, all of us, for we are beautifully and wonderfully made.
Who will go and tell?
Sermons at St. James Gettysburg 