If I were not preaching through the Gospel of Mark these days, I would have probably chosen another Gospel from which to read the Easter story. All the other Gospels tell a fuller and more complete, even more dramatic, story of the Resurrection. Mark’s announcement of Easter is really understated. In Mark’s Gospel, the big day is Good Friday He builds up to that day for five chapters, beginning with Palm Sunday. I don’t know whether you’ve ever noted it or not, but the events of Holy Week take up one-third of the Gospel of Mark. He uses only 8 verses to describe the Resurrection — 8 verses compared with 5 chapters That’s an understatement, isn’t it?

It was such an understatement that somebody felt they needed to add to it - so there is a second ending to the Gospel of Mark, The original Gospel ended with the 8th verse of the 16th Chapter, 9th verse begins a second ending. Some of your Bibles note that.

In fact, in the translation from which I read in our worship services from Sunday to Sunday, the Revised Standard Version, verses 9 — 20 are printed as a footnote — not even included in the regular printing of the text. So, Mark describes the Resurrection with 8 verses…

What an understatement for this most earth shattering, world changing event in history!

Why do you suppose Mark did that? Why such a glaring understatement? Consider this possibility, and we’ll come back to it later. Could it be that Mark wanted to make the point that the story doesn’t end there in the First Century? Those first 8 verses are the beginning of the story of the Gospel of the Resurrection. Maybe, just maybe, that’s the reason he wrote only 8 verses. This was to be a preface to the Gospel that you and I would write. For isn’t it true that the real story of the Resurrection is stilt being written wherever and whenever anyone experiences the gift of new life that comes undeserved and unearned and unexplained.

Let’s think of it that way on this Easter Sunday as we lift some pungent truths out of this understatement of the most dramatic event in history.

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Three verses I think, tell it all. First, verse 3:

“And they were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”’

Can you feel with these women? Let’s try.

“They were moving quietly through the streets of Jerusalem toward a tomb in the garden. The first rays of sun were just beginning to give a hint of daybreak. Look closely at them. There is a look of sadness, of deep grief, in their faces. Their slow, somber steps suggest a weariness and heaviness of heart and spirit. They are carrying spices to anoint the body of Jesus. As they walked slowly along, they asked a single question, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”....

That stone was a tragic reminder of the death of Jesus. The women were still in a state of shock as they recalled the events of Friday. On Friday, they had seen their leader and Lord strapped to a post and stripped to his waist. They had seen a Roman soldier take a bone and lead-tipped leather thong to beat Him again and His back was cut so deeply the flesh was torn lose exposing, in places, the ribs. It was a terrible punishment. Many men died during this beating. Others went insane. On Friday, Jesus had been cruelly beaten. They saw Him crowned with thorns. He had been mocked and spit upon. On Friday they heard the crowds yell for the release of Barabbas, a criminal, and cry out that Jesus should be crucified! On Friday they had seen Him carry the heavy cross through the streets of Jerusalem; they had seen Him stumble and fall; they had watched as Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry the cross for Him. On Friday, they heard the ring of the hammer against the nails as the spikes were driven through his wrists and feet. On Friday, they saw the cross lifted up and dropped into the ground. On Friday, they watched as Jesus struggled for every breath of air. On Friday they heard his final words from the cross, until at last He said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit.” (Luke 23:46). On Friday they watched as his dead body was taken down from the cross. They saw his mother, Mary, hold Him for a moment before He was wrapped in a linen shroud and placed in a borrowed tomb. The cries of the mob, the shrieks of the crowd, the cursing of the thieves all the sounds still rang in their ears. The stone was a grim reminder of Jesus’ death. They had no thought or hope of resurrection. (Joe A. Harding, “Let Easter Happen to You”, March 30, 1986)

Can you feel with them? Who will roll away the stone?

And what about the stones in our lives? Our own death? Or the death of someone we love? I’m sure the stone sealing the tomb of Jesus was for those women a gruesome reminder of the “grim reaper” who had not only claimed Jesus, but would claim each of them. Woody Allen speaks for most of us when he says, “I don’t mind talking about death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” But not only the mystery of death and the finality of that pronouncement, the stone represents the unfairness pf life.

“Talk to these women about the fairness of life. They tell you Jesus had done only good in his ministry. He had healed the sick and reached out to the hopeless. Still He died an agonizing death between two criminals. It wasn’t fair, and still isn’t. Heart attacks, strokes, cancer - all sorts of illnesses come along. Birth defects, tragic accidents things happen all the time where lives are twisted and broken. It doesn’t make any sense, and life isn’t fair. That stone is a reminder of the tragedy and adversity that can come to the people we love, just as it had come to those women. (Harding, Ibid.)

The stone is a reminder of death and the unfairness of life, but also the other things which happen over which we have no control. Who will roll away the stone?

Note this about those Easter women. They kept on, walking through the pre-dawn darkness to the tomb — walking on, even though they were burdened by the question, “Who will roll away the stone?”

In a letter to the editor of Sojourners Magazine, Anne Cauzillo, helps us identify with these women. Listen to her.

“‘Recently while working in a shelter for the homeless in Harlem, I found myself becoming more and more despondent with a seemingly hopeless situation. One day I was walking with my head down, letting depression and discouragement claim me a gentleman of Harlem, who had often greeted me on the streets, called out to me. “Hey, Anne, lift your head up. When you walk with your head up, you never lose hope.”

So we do this morning. We say Amen to those women who walked on toward a stone-sealed tomb, wondering how that stone would ever be rolled away — going on to perform their loving tasks, giving us a model.

Listen friends. “You were not created to be intimidated by the unmovable stones. You were created to live victoriously - to share the Resurrection victory of Jesus Christ. God wants you to know that your life really matters. It matters ultimately and finally. Every moment of your life is important.

That leads to the next verse which we need to look, verse 6:

“And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here; He is risen. Come see the place where they laid Him.”

What glorious news — but it’s not easy to believe, is it? It took the women, and Jesus’ other followers a long time to believe that Jesus was really alive. Look at those women’s response to this shout of Easter, verse 8: “And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

That’s the way the Gospel of Mark originally ended.

“They said nothing, for they were afraid.”

He is not here; He is risen. The women couldn’t believe it — couldn’t take in the meaning of that. At best, it was wishful thinking.

So with the resurrection of Jesus. “He is not here; He is risen.” That was the truth, but the women were frightened. Yet, in their heart of hearts, wishing it were so.

It was left for Paul in the New Testament to state the truth theologically. First Corinthians 15:22 says it, “As in Adam, all die; so in Christ shall all be made alive.” That’s the truth which sets us wishing for it. D. L. Moody claimed it as can we.

“Some morning you will read in the papers,” said Moody once to a group of friends, “that D. L. Moody is dead. Don’t believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die: That which is born of the Spirit shall live forever.” He was right. Death cannot touch this glorious thing which is ours in fellowship with Jesus. “He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life.” “And death lies dead forever.” (James S. Stewart The Strong Name New York: Charles Schriebners Sons, 19 p. 237).

Incredible! Wishful thinking? No. The truth that sets us wishing for it. Isn’t that the reason Mark tells the story the way he does. To make the point that the resurrection was undeserved, unearned, and unexpected? There’s no reason for it, but it s true. God’s grace is given to us because of who God is not because of what we’ve done.

It’s given to us — ‘As in Adam, all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive.” Not tomorrow - today - this very moment if by faith we accept his life-giving offer. Do you know what Easter is about? It’s about life – eternal life. It’s about a war of escape from eternal death and hell. “He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life.” That’s present tense. You can claim it now – and when you die you’ll simply be ushered by God’s angels into another realm, a higher realm of reality where life will go on uninterrupted fellowship with God and with those who have God as you do.

And that moves us on now to the one other glorious truths at which we want to look. See it there in verse 7: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him, as He told you.”

What a bracing truth. Christ always goes before us.

Let me illustrate it out of a dramatic situation with which you and I can only faintly identify — the situation in South Africa. One of the most unforgettable times of my life was the 15th World Methodist Conference which met in Nairobi last year.

The highlights were numerous. I believe the most electric and meaningful for me was the testimony of Peter Storey a white Methodist preacher who serves in Johannesburg. Peter is going to preach for us here in the fall of 1988.

Peter began his testimony saying, “I want to celebrate with me and with my sisters and brothers from South Africa that at the heart of our faith there is one astounding paradox. If you want to know whether God is alive — don’t go to the places of comfort and ease — inquire rather in those places where the fire of testing burns hottest. Living in the furnace of Apartheid forges a unique experience of God. It melts away cheap piety, until all that is left is something you know is real Someone you know is real. That there is in that furnace with you another whose form is like that of the Son of God.’ (Proceedings of the 15th World Methodist Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, July 23 29, 1986, edited by Joe Hale, pp. 173—174).

His testimony confirmed that. One story after another of the Christ who is alive and goes before us.

He told of a man who came and knelt at the Communion rail of one of his services one day – a young white man. In counseling afterward, the fellow told Peter his story and shared a crippling burden of guilt. He had been a policeman in Sweta during the youth uprising of 1976. He had participated in that dreadful brutality of death and horror familiar to all of us on our television screens across the world.

The Gospel had touched him and had searched his soul. He wanted to be clean. He made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Some months later he received into membership of that Methodist church in Johannesburg. He knelt again at that same communion rail to be confirmed. The hands of the President of the Conference reached out to be laid upon his and those hands were black hands. The voice that confirmed him in his pardon, in his forgiveness, in his acceptance, spoke with a rhythm of black Africa. The walls were down. And only Jesus can do that!?

Peter his witness by sharing the fact that in his church in Johannesburg, on the altar, there stands a candle. It’s no ordinary candle; it’s surrounded by a coil of barbed wire - they call it the amnesty candle. Every Sunday there comes a moment in the service there when the Christians who are gathered pray for South Africa. They read the names of those they know who are in prison, and they commit them selves again to justice. Then they light the candle and suddenly in the middle of those cruel, imprisioning coils of barbed wire, those Christians remember the word of John: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never mastered it.”

I know South Africa is far away and we can only faintly identify. But the Gospel is the same for us as for those Christians being tried in the fiery furnace. Christ always goes before us, always meets us in Galilee. When we tend to want to seal the tomb and bury our hopes or when we have reached what we think is the journey’s end, and see no hope, He comes. He came two weeks ago in my study when a woman, through tears of joy, shared her appreciation for this congregation who has loved her through the toughest time of her life.

When we die, or a loved one dies, and darkness descends, He comes! When life is being pulled at and tested and strained and stressed when the skies of our life grow dark and the sun of our life is overshadowed by the bleakness of our circumstances, He comes. Believe it friends – lay hold of this glorious promise.