Lean in with me and listen to the Easter story. (Read Mark 16:1 – 8) …I’m sorry, I must have lost my place. I’m supposed to read through to the end, right? …Did I already read this…? I’m sorry, something doesn’t seem to be quite right here. (Read v. 8 slowly) Hey, wait a minute. That’s it? That’s how the story of Easter ends, with women running from the tomb trembling and afraid? I thought Easter was supposed to end on a high note, Jesus resurrected, appearing to his disciples, proving he rose from the dead. But, that’s where Mark, at least, ends his Gospel – with fear and trembling.

There’s something just quite not satisfying about this, something missing. That’s why those who came after Mark tried to improve his ending. Those who study these things tell us that Mark, written about 70 AD, ends with verse 8. Isn’t it amazing how scholars can know accurately what the original Gospel of Mark said? Verses 9 – 20 were added later. Some copyist, writing out the gospel to share with other Christians, decided to bulk up the ending, to make it more satisfying, at least to his way of thinking. So, he took pieces from the end of other Gospels. After Mark concludes with the women running from the tomb, the later copyist adds Jesus appearing to Mary, just like in John’s Gospel. She later tells the disciples, with this note added; they didn’t believe her, which Luke’s Gospel mentions. Jesus then appears to the 11 disciples, just as in John, then instructs them to spread the good news near and far. That’s from Matthew. It looks like the copyist wanted Mark to end, not with trembling but with triumph.

There were other attempts to add to Mark’s gospel. A  4th or 5th century partial manuscript builds in more fanfare by adding the words, “Suddenly, at the third hour of the day there was darkness over the whole circle of the earth, and angels descended from the heavens, and as Jesus was rising in the glory of the living God, at the same time they ascended with him, and immediately it was light.” (Codex Bobiensis)

Doesn’t that sound better? Doesn’t that make for a better television script? Ending with Jesus rising up to heaven? Sure, include in the script the women fleeing from the tomb in fear, but break right there for commercial. That will add  suspense; the audience will have a moment to wonder how it will end. Let the anticipation build, then come back from commercial. Cue the lights to brighten, cue the trumpets to play, add cymbals crashing, then watch Jesus rising in majesty…. Now, that’s how to end the story of Jesus. But, fear and trembling?

Why would the Gospel of Mark end this way? Why stop where he did? People have proposed various ideas. Maybe he ran out of ink! We know what that’s like. Our big school paper is due tomorrow, and, while we would never say we procrastinated, let’s just say we were delayed in writing it. It’s now late Sunday night, the paper is due tomorrow morning, we hit print and page after page comes neatly out, until our printer chooses the last page on which to run out of ink. It’s happened.

Maybe Mark was interrupted. He’s just finishing the last page when he gets a phone call, “Johnny fell out of a tree and we’re on the way to the emergency room.” He jumps up and rushes to the hospital. His secretary, thinking he is finished, puts it in the mail just as the mailman is coming down the block. Some speculate that Mark did write a final paragraph or two that nicely tied it all together on the final page, but that last page was misplaced or torn off. Surely, what we have now didn’t originally end this way?

Unless, Mark chose to end it this way, on purpose, with fear and trembling. This word, “fear,” pops up in other places in Mark’s gospel  Right at the beginning, chapter 1, Jesus enters a synagogue and teaches. The people, it says, felt fear at his teaching. (Mark 1:22)  Now, our English Bibles don’t use the word, “fear.” It says the people were “amazed” at his teaching, but Mark wants us to know; they felt fear.

Later on, a woman in need of healing touches Jesus’ cloak as he passes and is healed immediately, after so many years, (Mark 5:33) Then, she touches Jesus and she is made well. What just happened? No wonder Mark tells us she came forward, trembling and in fear, just like the women at the tomb.

Or, take this occasion. Jesus and the disciples land with a soft thud on the sandy shore in between the rocks of the Lake of Galilee and are confronted with a man who is wild, demon possessed, throws himself around with such force no one could restrain him. Jesus casts out the demon and word spreads at what happened. When the townsfolk come out to see for themselves, they see the wild man now healed, sitting by Jesus and in his right mind. What’s their reaction? Guess. They are afraid (Mark 5:15) What could have happened that would make this wild man change? And, on the lake, rowing hard in the midst of a great storm, the disciples awake Jesus who with a word backs the storm down. Their reaction? (Mark 4:41) “They were terrified and said to one another, ‘Who then is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?’” Who indeed.

All these are events of Jesus or our Heavenly Father acting in a powerful way. How can anyone detail, step by step, a sudden healing? Somehow, God acted! How does someone describe a wild man regaining his mind? How does a disciple explain how Jesus stops a storm? These all defy description: stunning, shocking, paralyzing, indescribable. What we can not understand, or explain, or control that reaches out and grabs us shoots fear right through us.  

We’re sitting down, reading the newspaper, drink in hand and the airplane we’re in suddenly jolts hard. We may cover it up with a laugh, but what we can not control that reaches out and grabs us shoots fear right through us.

I was seated in a portable lawn chair with arm rests, my dog beside me. About 20 head of cattle made their way across, munching on the grass in front of us, with a barb wire fence between us. My dog growled at them, which only attracted their attention. More quickly than I imagined they could move, they all lined up at the fence, face forward, looking at me and my dog at my side, 800 pounds each A laugh that this ridiculous sight was just coming up inside me, when it was cut off by my dog suddenly sitting in my lap. My 70 pound dog did not come around in front of me to jump up in my lap. She did not turn and place her paws on the arm of the chair before she jumped. One minute she was seated to the side of the chair; the next, without moving, she had somehow beamed herself up into  my lap. That was pure fear.

Women have come to the tomb. They have bought spices to mask the smell of death. They come to anoint the dead body of Jesus, one last act of devotion to the man they had followed and loved. They are surprised that the large stone blocking the entrance to the tomb been moved back. They are stunned to discover there is no body in the tomb. They are shocked to find an angel inside, telling them Jesus has risen. They stumble out of the tomb, flee, running in terror. They do not know what this means. They sure can’t control it. God has done something; something they can’t really describe or get a handle on, something unimaginable. This event, this empty tomb, has reached out and grabbed them and pulled them in and they don’t what’s going to happen, and they are afraid. Mark ends the story of Jesus with fear and trembling, which signals that something incredible, unimaginable has happened. Something of God. Rather than explain it, or tie it up neatly, Mark invites us in, to sit on the cold stone ledge around the edge and ask ourselves what it means that Jesus is risen. He invites us to ponder what it might mean for us.

Since Jesus rose from the dead, it says something about death. I remember a family in Pennsylvania asking me if I would lead the funeral service for their grandfather. Yes, of course, even though I did not know the man; but I told the family I would be late getting to the viewing. No problem. The night of the viewing, I went to the church board meeting then immediately drove to the funeral home. I pulled up with 15 minutes to spare before the viewing ended. I entered quickly; because it was so late, the family was no longer standing up by the casket. The room was full of friends and family, whom I didn’t know, so I decided the best thing to do was keep walking right up, pay my respects at the open casket, then look for the immediate family that I did know. Quickly I walked up. I didn’t expect that I would recognize the grandfather, since I didn’t know him, but I still was surprised, since the person in the casket was a woman! Without stopping, I realized I was in the wrong funeral home and kept right on going around and out the door, while noticing several startled looks at my drive-by viewing.

But, I also remember the first funeral viewing I ever went to with an open casket. First year in seminary, I went to the viewing of a church member where I was working. I figured it was the respectful thing to do to walk up to the casket. I did. I looked at the dead man and my stomach spun and I’m sure I blanched. That was the first dead person I had ever seen. The force and power of death hit me with a gut wrenching blow. I’d known about death, of course, but the sight drove home the reality that one day I would be like that person. One day, any day, I could die. And if death was the end, my end forever… I panicked – and I was in seminary, studying to be a pastor.  

Another Bible writer besides Mark, by the name of Paul, considers the possibility that Jesus did not rise from the dead. He writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have (already died) in Christ are lost. If (there is only this life to consider) than we, who have hoped in Christ, are to be the most pitied more than all people.” (I Corinthians 15:17 – 19) If death is all there is, then those with faith are the most to be pitied because they trusted in a lie.

But if death is not the end for those who trust in Christ, then death need not terrify us. When God reached into human history and resurrected Jesus, he invited us to discover that trusting Jesus with our lives means that death is but a doorway into eternal life. In New Orleans – you’ve seen it, mourners march solemnly down the street, following the casket and a band playing sad, slow music. When they come back from the cemetery, the band strikes up joy-filled music in witness to the one who has gone ahead of us to everlasting life. People who sense – who know they have a future to look forward to handle death in a different way. Those who can claim, along with John the disciple, “I write these things to you that you may know you have eternal life….” (I John 5:13) have a hope and a future. The God event at Jesus’ tomb invites us to ponder our own death and decide whether we are living to die, or living to live. We can handle death in a differently.

And, that means we can handle life differently, too. Jesus’ resurrection makes an impact on life. Again, we hear Paul, who says, “If there is no resurrection then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.“ (I Corinthians 15:32) If there is nothing but death and that is our end, then all we have is what this world can bring us; money, pleasure, and success. What we find out is that these things don’t satisfy us, not for long. Ask around: a big, expensive house soon becomes just a house and a new television becomes quickly outdated with new technologies. Money doesn’t buy happiness. It doesn’t buy love. It sure can’t buy health. Those who are famous long for the days when they could walk down the street without being stared at, or eat at a restaurant without someone asking for an autograph or picture. The God event at the tomb invites us to ponder Jesus’ words: whoever tries to hang on to his or her life, and the things of this world, will end up losing it. Whoever chooses to give up control of the direction of his or her life and ask for Jesus’ direction will end up gaining it. (Mark 8:35) Whoever would follow me, says Jesus, must crucify living for himself, and daily live under my direction. 

On the radio this week, I heard a woman say, “I’m an American; and I don’t like anyone telling me what I have to do.” Yet, when we choose to live under the direction of Jesus, we end up finding our true selves and finding true life. There’s more to this life, sings Steven Curtis Chapman, than living and dying. And so, the Gospel places the decision in our lap. We choose whom we will live for; ourselves or Jesus – and having made the choice, each day choose how we will live out what we have chosen. The women fled the empty tomb with fear; God had done something. How will you choose to respond?