They Said Nothing to Anyone

Year B: Easter Sunday

Divine charity, the ripe fruit of Christ’s resurrection, never diminishes; it is increased by being shared¹ —Thomas Keating

Year B, Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

First Reading: Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 25:6-9

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43

Gospel: John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8

Sermon - They Said Nothing to Anyone

Easter Sunday: for many Christians this is one of the most important days of the year, a day marked with worship, Easter dresses, hunting eggs, and family pictures. For many priests and pastors, it marks the last stretch of a marathon composed of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Holy Week. But for all Christians, Easter represents the anniversary of Jesus’s resurrection.

While Jesus prophesied that he would die several times during his ministry, he also promises that he would rise again. In one of our passages during Lent, we talked about how when Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, he challenged the people to destroy the temple and he would build it again in three days (John 2:19). Well, the time has come. Three days ago, Jesus was crucified. Now, the time has come for the resurrection.

In the Bible, we have roughly eight accounts of Jesus’s post-resurrection appearances: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts 1, Acts 7, Acts 9 (including chapters 22 and 26), and 1 Corinthians 15. Each of these accounts are rich with information and can build our faith in the Risen Christ. Each of these accounts also exist because they are different. They include different details, name different people, and emphasize different aspects of the resurrection. Instead of viewing these differences as hostile to the Christian witness, I personally see them as beautiful, like a mosaic of personality, truth, and mystery.

For our purposes today, we will pay special attention to Mark’s account of the resurrection of Christ.

What makes this interesting account especially intriguing is the differences of opinion regarding when the book of Mark should end. From various sources, scholars argue for three different endings: (1) verse 8, (2) an intermediate ending containing the actions of the women and the appearances of Jesus, and (3) the longer ending you and I are familiar with.

We’ll begin by assuming the shorter ending before considering the longer:

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”

When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

This short ending might shock us and leave us a bit unsatisfied. Where is Jesus eating fish? Where is Mary Magdalene’s interaction with Jesus after the resurrection? Where is Jesus’s appearances to the apostles?

Well, don’t worry. It’s all here. It’s just in a different place. In Mark 14:28, Mark alludes to the fact that Jesus would appear to his disciples in Galilee, anticipating the angel’s command to the women in chapter 16. Of course, the fact that they eventually did tell someone about Jesus’s resurrection is evidenced by the fact that Mark is writing to a community of believers. They wouldn’t be there if the women hadn’t gone to preach the good news.

So why does the book of Mark apparently end here?

“So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

As Craig Keener observes,

Throughout Mark, people spread news that they were supposed to keep quiet; here, when commanded finally to spread the word, people keep quiet. If the original Gospel of Mark ends here, as is likely, it ends as suddenly as it began, and its final note is one of irony.²

And what is the purpose of this kind of irony?

I propose it is to force the audience of Mark to ask the question, “What will we do with this good news?” Like the book of Jonah, the book of Mark forces us to put ourselves into the place of the characters and imagine what we might do in their place.

You and I have encountered the risen Christ. Through reading scripture, through the testimony of others, through seeing the gentleness of a child or the power of storm, we have come to know God. How will we react?

We have the sacred privilege of sharing this good news with others. As it has transformed us, so it can transform the world, but there is a risk associated with sharing the good news of Jesus.

In the longer ending of Mark, Jesus specifically appeared to Mary Magdalene and had her go tell his disciples that he had risen, but they didn’t believe her. Then he appeared to two others, though in another form. Their report was not accepted.

So, there is a chance that the people we would expect to be the most attentive to the transformative message of the resurrection would be the very ones that wouldn’t hear us. This fear of rejection is one of the most paralyzing fears for me personally. It’s hard to overcome, but how fortunate are we that someone didn’t shy away from sharing the gospel with us or with the person who shared with with us or with the person who shared with with the person who shared it with the person who shared it with the person who shared it with us?

Jesus takes their fear in Mark 16 and transforms it into action. After upbraiding them for their stubbornness, he doesn’t turn to another group but charges them to peach the good news to all creation! And we may have stood in the apostles’ shoes and feel that our fear or our unbelief or our past disqualifies us from being ministers of the gospel, but Jesus disagrees. Those who struggle with doubt can be even more effective ministers because of that struggle!

What will you do with this good news?

Second Reading: Jesus is Lord of All

Throughout Jesus’s ministry, he warned his disciples that he would die but that, after three days, he would rise again. Jesus knew that crucifixion would be a necessary step before he would begin to “draw all people” to himself. After his resurrection, the apostles began to preach this good news to all people. Peter was specifically selected to kick off this ministry to the gentile world. During his first sermon to the household of Cornelius, he said,

“We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:39–43).

Earlier in the sermon, Peter said that Jesus is the Lord of all. He is the Lord of all not because he had won a mighty victory in the conventional sense but because he had gone about doing good, healing all who had been oppressed, and willingly dying at the hands of the ones he came to save. It is this resurrected, victorious Christ that we celebrate today.

His message is a message of healing. His example is one of self-sacrifice. And his destiny is the destiny of all who call on his name: eternity in the presence of God.

This sermon first preached in a house in Caesarea is still relevant to us today. Believe in Jesus! Believe in the one who was raised! Jesus is Lord of all!

Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.

1. Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.

2. Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Second Edition. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014. Print.