Preaching Texts: Isaiah 25.6-9, Mark 16.1-8
January 1, 1994. We were screaming in the stands of the Orange Bowl, because we had a chance. The ball was on the 28 yard-line, and our field goal unit was going onto the field. One second left. Florida State ahead of our beloved Cornhuskers by two points. National Championship on the line. The kick went up – and started hooking left from the second it left the kicker's foot. No good. Nebraska loses again.
Now – skip ahead one year. The theme that year was "Unfinished Business." The thought was, we came so close the year before – we would settle for nothing less than finishing the job in 1994. Now here we were again: same marching band, same stands, same stadium. The opponent was Miami, but considering we were playing a Florida team in Miami for the third consecutive year, it might as well have been the same team. But after trailing by 10 points halfway through the fourth quarter, our beloved Huskers had tied the score and were driving again. Before we knew it, our fullback rumbled into the end zone for the second time that quarter. Touchdown – Nebraska took the lead, 24-17. Three sacks and an interception later, the national championship was ours. 25 years of waiting for Coach Osborne to win the big one were over, and we danced and screamed and celebrated all night. From the stands to the Miami airport. On the plane all the way home. From the Lincoln airport to the basketball arena where 16,000 people gathered to welcome the champions home. The "Unfinished Business" was finally finished.
It is a rare occurrence for us when life is perfect, wrapped up nice and neat, where everything feels finished like it should be. Even the high points in our lives are often flawed or even disappointing. A beloved friend can't make it to your wedding. A celebration dinner is ruined by one person's loose tongue. You throw a party and no one can be bothered to even reply to the invitation, much less attend the party.
But, every once in a while, things just seem to mesh just right, everything comes together perfectly, and nothing spoils the fantastic moment for which you've been waiting. Well, that day in January 1995 was one of those perfect days for a lot of people in Nebraska. But do you know what happened after that? Nothing happened after that. Oh, sure, we danced and we partied and we celebrated some more. For a week or so living in Nebraska was almost utopian. People smiled a lot and were even more courteous and friendly than usual. You saw lots of red all over the place and you could buy a National Championship toilet seat if that was what your silly, football-besotted heart desired. Some of the players went on to pro careers, and some went on to other careers, and unfortunately a few of them went to jail or worse. The coach became a Congressman and is now running for governor. We band geeks kept playing and partying together, and I'm friends with some of them to this day. But once the 'Business' was no longer 'Unfinished,' that was the real end of the story. The team that won that last game on January 1, 1995 has never played another down, and the band of which I was a part hasn't marched a step together since.
We all know somebody who continues to live in the glory days of their past because the inconveniences of the present are just too much to bear. The jock who can't leave high school football behind. The frat boy who still acts like he's the Big Man on Campus even though he's just another slob in the suburbs. The small-town beauty who still throws that Miss Feedlot 1987 crown around like it means something. The pastor who still mentions his address at his seminary graduation three years ago. (oops – how did that get in there?) We aren't meant to live in the past, even if the past is beautiful beyond comparison.
Thank goodness the gospel of Mark doesn't let us live in the past. Of any of the four gospels, Mark sounds the most realistic to me. No one comes out #1 in Mark's gospel. If this is the big victory for which God's people have been waiting, they sure have a funny way of showing it. As Fred Craddock once put it, "Is this any way to run a resurrection?" Read that final verse with me again:
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."
It's not easy to find a Hymn of the Day for Easter that lines up well with this final verse. 'Afraid' is not the first thing that comes to mind when you say the word 'Easter.' But here it is: these women were the first to hear about the great victory God had won over death, and they were so overwhelmed by the news that they went and told no one.
The triumphalism of Matthew, Luke & John is not present in Mark's gospel. Jesus, it seems, doesn't know how to celebrate this marvelous victory – He doesn't even show up for the ticker-tape parade! Instead, the messenger tells the women that Jesus is already back at work – that He has gone ahead to Galilee and will meet His disciples there, just like He said. And that's the end of the story in Mark. No fanfare – no trophy – just a message and three terrified women running for their lives.
Put yourself in the shoes of Mary, Mary and Salome. The Teacher you've followed for so long was brutally executed just two days ago, less than a week after the crowds welcomed Him into the city as their coming king. His death came so suddenly that you didn't even have time to prepare the proper anointing materials for His body, and so you've come to pay your last respects to the greatest human being you've ever known. All you want to do is minister to Him one last time and then leave Him behind forever, putting your life back together however you can, even though the years stretch out before you in darkness and lost hope.
Maybe this is a good time to remember that the day we celebrate as the Sabbath, Sunday, was in Jesus' day the day after the Sabbath. In Jesus' earthly time, Saturday was the Sabbath, the day of rest, and Sunday was the first day of the week – the day to go back to work. It may be that Jesus didn't appear to the three women of Mark's gospel because He had already gone back to work. It may be that even after the Resurrection, even after the great victory of sin, death and the power of the devil, Jesus still had Unfinished Business.
Don Juel, a New Testament professor at Luther seminary for many years, said in his commentary on Mark that
"Mark ends with one last collapse. The story concludes with the world much as it has always been – shrouded in darkness and disappointment. Yet the world is not the same. The tomb is empty. Jesus is out, beyond death's reach, on the loose…The story is not over and will not be until Jesus returns. The surprise for the [believer] is that the resolution of critical tensions in the story is left for the future. The life of faith is lived between the resurrection and the consummation, 'between the times.'…There is hope only because Jesus is no longer imprisoned in the tomb – and because God can be trusted to finish what has been begun.
None of the Gospels can really end the story of Jesus. The whole point is that it continues – and that its significance continues. Mark ends, however, with a greater sense of the mystery yet to be resolved and a deeper appreciation of the gulf that still separates…, to use Paul's language, the wisdom of this age and the wisdom of the cross.
Jesus is full of surprises…the world's uneasiness in the presence of Jesus is fully justified. He will not be bound by tradition that defines human life; even death has no final power over him. The end only marks a new beginning – a beginning of the good news that Jesus, the One who is the ultimate threat to our autonomy, now becomes our source of life.
It is only fitting that just as the tomb will not contain Jesus, neither will Mark's story. Jesus is not bound by its ending; he continues into the future God has in store for the creation. In the meantime there is only the Word, the bread, and the wine, and the promise that 'you will see him.' We walk by faith and not by sight. We can only trust that God will one day finish the story, as God has promised."[1]
What we have in Mark's gospel is a sense of life as it is really lived. We have a story that doesn't end "and they all lived happily ever after," because most of the time we don't live happily ever after. Even though Jesus fought and won the great battle of the cross, you and I remain Jesus' unfinished business. The power of Mark's gospel, the terror and amazement of the women at the tomb, the uncertain and immediate resurrection of the Messiah; all of these things remind us that Jesus is still shaking the foundations of our lives, still going ahead of us to meet us where He has promised. Jesus is still out of the tomb, beyond death's reach, and on the loose, and we never know where we will meet Him next. After all, if the cross and the tomb couldn't contain His power, what can our own defenses do to stop Him?
In 1994, when that great Nebraska team won the national championship, they talked in the newspapers all the time about the great dedication the team had shown that year. They weren't just the most talented team: they had outworked and outhustled every opponent they faced. They set a goal and worked toward it, achieving it in the end. But what happened afterwards? They realized that it was the journey that had made them champions, and the victory in the end was just an affirmation of all that they had done. The Unfinished Business campaign was a success long before it was finished.
For us, the situation is entirely different. There are no wind sprints to run here, no weights to be lifted. The victory has already been won, long before we even entered the field of play. But there is still unfinished business for the victors. Since God has won the battle for us, how then shall we live? Shall we run in terror, because Jesus is on the loose, or shall we live as free and joyfully as those who are just beginning to celebrate the great victory of our Lord? The time has come, brothers and sisters, for us to live the Resurrection we have been given, to see how God is reconciling the whole of creation in Jesus Christ, to remember that though the cross is history, it is living history, the event that has changed time and existence itself, the event under which our baptism makes us children of God, marking us as God's unfinished business.
Beloved in Christ, the day of salvation is upon us. Rejoice, and be glad, for the victory has been won. This is the God for whom we have waited. Let us join together in the cry of all creation:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Amen.
[1] Juel, Donald H. Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament Commentary: Mark. ©1990, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis. pp. 233-235.
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