You may have noticed, or
maybe I’ve mentioned it before, but growing up, I watched a lot of movies. I
don’t watch as many now as I used to, I used to watch a lot of them; I loved
movies. So much so that in college, I decided to take some film courses. Intro
to Film, History of International Cinema, I even took a couple of classes on
writing for TV and movies. One of the things we learned in those classes still
resonates with me today. There are no new stories. My professor taught us that
there were only so many stories, you just had to find a new way of telling one
of the same old stories. If you watch movies very much, you would probably
agree.
Hollywood likes certain
themes or plot points. One of those themes is resurrection. It happens in
almost every horror movie ever made, especially those with numerous sequels.
But it’s not just horror movies. Lots of movies from almost every genre use
this idea of someone or something returning from the dead, or seemingly dead,
at least.
Sometimes the characters
literally come back from the dead. Spock in Star
Trek. Neo in The Matrix.
Sometimes people just think they are dead. Hooper in Jaws. Or they return from
something like or worse than death. Han Solo in the Star Wars movies.
Regardless of the details, the
basics are always the same. And apparently it’s a story that works, because
it’s told again and again.
Resurrection is also our
theme today. Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and what that
resurrection means for us.
Mark 16:1-8
I think some of my favorite
movies growing up were prison movies. I can think of 4 or 5 that I really liked
and a few more that I thought were OK. One that I really liked was Cool Hand Luke.
Paul Newman played Luke
Jackson. Luke was arrested for busting up parking meters and sentenced to two
years in a prison work camp. Despite his being a prisoner, the story of Luke
serves as a pretty good parallel to Jesus. Almost from the beginning of his
time in prison, Luke spends most of his time fighting against the status quo.
Much like Jesus challenged the authority of the religious establishment in
Judea, Luke challenges the authority of the Bosses at the prison camp. As he
does, he brings hope to the prisoners. It’s like he brightens the place up and
even though their situation doesn’t change, things seems better somehow. Eventually, Luke tries to escape from the
work camp. It is a prison movie after all. He escapes a couple of times, but
he’s caught and returned. Finally, the Bosses get fed up and they decide something
has to be done and they set out to break his spirit. One boss has him dig a
hole. Another demands that he fill it. Then the first makes him dig it again.
Then fill it. Again and again until Luke finally gives up. He pleads with the
bosses. He promises not to run and to cooperate and begs them to let up.
The other prisoners see this
and they turn their backs on Luke. Their hero gave in to the authority he
fought. To the other prisoners, Luke might as well be dead. They all desert
him.
There’s no such thing as a perfect
metaphor. Luke is not crucified. He’s not dead. But the reaction of his
“disciples” is similar to that of Jesus’ disciples. After Jesus’ arrest, they
scattered. They deserted him. And maybe, like the prisoners thought about Luke,
they couldn’t believe that they’d followed him. They can’t believe that they’d
actually expected him to change things. “I can’t believe we hitched our future
to this guy. What a waste!”
But it’s a story about
resurrection. About re-birth. Jesus spent a day and a half locked in a putrid
tomb. Luke spent, we don’t know how long, in the stinking, lowly position of
servant to the guards. But that wasn’t the en for either of them. As we know on
the morning of the third day, Jesus escaped from the tomb, escaped the clutches
of death. And Luke eventually broke out again and escaped the inhumane conditions of the prison.
Eventually, the metaphor
breaks down again. Luke is caught and
killed during his escape attempt. Jesus spends a couple of months with his
disciples in and around Galilee before his ascension to heaven.
But if you remember the end
of Cool Hand Luke, the parallel in the stories picks up again. The movie ends
with the prisoners telling stories about Luke and his exploits. Even death
could not stop his influence. Just as death didn’t stop Jesus. After the
resurrection and following Jesus ascension, the Apostles continued to tell
Jesus’ story and it continued and continues to inspire.
Mark’s telling of the
resurrection is like the rest of his gospel. Quick and to the point. That’s not
the only way it’s different from the other gospels’ resurrection accounts.
If you look in your Bible
you’ll notice that chapter 16 has 20 verses. We read the first 8, but the story
continues. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and she tells the disciples. He
appears to two “walking in the country.” Then to the 11 disciples and tells
them to go out and proclaim the good news. Then Jesus is taken up to heaven.
But there’s a problem with
that ending. Almost all Bible scholars agree that those verses were added
later, maybe a couple of centuries later. Your Bible may have a footnote about
this at the end of Mark’s Gospel. The earliest versions of Marks’ Gospel end
after verse 8.
The young man in the tomb
tells the women to go get the disciples and go to Galilee to meet Jesus and
they run away scared and don’t tell anyone anything. The end.
It’s a bit abrupt to say the
least. And it can be troubling. So much so that over the course of time at
least three people tried to fix it.
The ending also makes sense
in the context of Mark’s gospel. Remember how the Gospel of Mark begins? “The
beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The entire story
Mark tells, all 16 chapters is just the beginning.
But still, that ending. A
group of frightened women running from an empty smelly tomb. Scared of what
they found, scared of what they heard, scared of what it might mean. So scared,
they don’t even do what they are told to do.
But, again, it’s an ending
that works, because it’s not the end. As the readers of this gospel, we are
drawn into the story. Mark uses a literary technique that was common in Greek
literature called the historical present. Most of the verbs in our passage that
are translated in the past tense are, in the Greek, in the present tense. The
women go to the tomb. They see the stone. The young man says to them. The
present tense draws the reader into the story as if it’s happening right in
front of our eyes. And in doing so, we enter as another witness, as another set
of eyes who see the young man. And as another set of ears to hear his
instructions. Go. Tell.
To end the story at verse 8
makes it seem like the gospel ends in failure. But if it is to fail, it will fail,
not because of a group of scared women, but because of you and me. Because we
aren’t willing to do what it takes to tell that story.
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