As One Untimely Born
Text: John 20:11-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8
By: Rev. Terry Carty
Date: 04-08-2012
Place: Kingston Springs United Methodist Church
Season: Easter Sunday
Main Point: The unfinished story of Easter morning in the book of Mark reminds us that the story of the resurrection is not finished even today. Jesus continues to meet those who follow him at the places where he calls.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, then read Mark 16:1-8
Four Gospels in the Bible. Four Easter stories. And each one differs a bit from the others. John’s gospel is the most detailed and explicit. Some scholars think that the passion narrative in John was written to teach new Christians, those preparing for baptism, about the crucifixion and resurrection.
But of the four, Mark intrigues me the most. The most ancient reliable manuscripts abruptly end just like I read it today (except in Greek). If you turn in your Bible to the end of Mark, you may find that it has a ninth verse or perhaps it goes all the way to a 19th verse. Most likely there is a footnote to let you know that the verses beyond eight are later additions.
Why would the earliest gospel account end with the women running away from the empty tomb and saying nothing to anyone because they were afraid? The author of Mark did not go to his grave thinking that the women never told anyone and that Jesus never appeared after his resurrection. If that had been the case, the gospel never would have been written – Jesus would have been just another dead prophet.
We just don’t know why Mark left the story unfinished. Perhaps accounts of the resurrected Jesus were written in different volumes that were never found. We can only speculate because there is no way of knowing.
But of critical importance to the people of that time were the eye witness accounts of Jesus walking, talking, eating, cooking. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells of a gathering of 500 people who saw him alive. The other three gospels give resurrection sightings and have a feeling of completion.
What we may be able to get from the Gospel according to Mark today is a feeling that the resurrection of Jesus is not finished. The young man in the white robe told the women to tell the disciples, especially Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of them into Galilee – the region where Jesus’ ministry had been accepted the least. Jesus is not finished and wanted his disciples to meet him in the mission field.
Now, let’s consider Paul. If the resurrection of Jesus had been finished, Paul would have remained a persecutor of Christians and never would have become the great apostle (one who is sent) beyond the Jewish world. Paul recounts some of the resurrection sightings and includes his own, with a turn of the phrase “as one untimely born.”
Paul always regretted that he was not one of the 12. He felt that he was a matter of bad timing. But an unfinished gospel of Mark allows for that. It allows for Jesus not only to meet the disciples in Galilee, but to meet Paul on the road to Damascus as well.
When I hear Paul call himself “one untimely born” in relation to Jesus’ pre-crucifixion ministry, my mind slips to a lyric. I know some of you here are “Parrotheads” and will know the lyric I think of in Jimmy Buffett’s “Pirate Looks at Fourty.” (A Parrothead is a fanatic Jimmy Buffett fan.) Jimmy Buffett grew up around the Gulf Shores region of Alabama learning the ways of the sea from his grandfather and others. In many of his songs he bemoans the fact that he was born too late to be an old time man of the sea.
“Yes, I am a pirate
Two hundred years too late.
The cannons don’t thunder there’s nothin’ to plunder I’m an over forty victim of fate; arriving too late Arriving too late.”
I think that an unfinished Gospel of Mark suggests to us that we, like Paul, have not arrived too late. Jesus has gone ahead of us so that we might first follow – and then be sent. The 12 went to Galilee where they were sent to all the corners of the world. Paul went to Damascus where he was sent to the gentile world.
Perhaps some of us in this room have gone to places where we have had a close encounter with the risen Christ. We may have been moved by God’s spirit working in our hearts. Or we may have been caught fully off guard like Paul was. But the way we know that we have had an encounter with the risen Christ is that feeling of being sent.
We, like so many, may not recognize Jesus when we see him, but we feel his call nevertheless.
This Easter offers us a fresh opportunity to seek the risen Jesus Christ. Being a disciple means studying and following the ways of Jesus so we can recognize his call. Those witness who walked with him to Emmaus did not recognize him until he broke bread with them. As disciples we become familiar enough that we literally begin to recognize the attributes of the ‘Man who was One with God.’
As we seek the risen Christ, we find Jesus who sends us into the world as Christians. Yes I’m a disciple
Two thousand years is not too late
It’s never too late,
It’s never too late.