Fear Factor
Dr. Larry Thorson
Mark 16:1-8
1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James,
and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. 2 Very
early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way
to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away
from the entrance of the tomb?"
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone,
which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they
saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they
were alarmed.
6 "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You
are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not
here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and
Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and
fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Today’s New
International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
“Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and
fled from the tomb.” Have you ever been afraid? I mean, really
afraid? USA Weekend Magazine once ran a story on the things Americans fear
most. They said 54% of Americans are afraid of being in a car crash. 53% are
afraid of getting cancer. 50% are afraid
that Social Security benefits won’t be adequate to cover their retirement. 35%
are afraid of getting Alzheimer’s Disease.
33%
are afraid of being the victim of a violent crime. And 28% are afraid of getting AIDS. 9 out of
10 people interviewed thought the world is a more dangerous place now than when
they were growing up. And, “4 in 10” – almost half – feel unsafe walking alone
at night!
Other surveys have said that people fear never
being able to find any real intimacy in their lives. Someone to love them!
While
others were afraid they wouldn’t know how to react if they did. People fear losing a loved one and being
alone. They fear that the Middle Class
is shrinking and they’ll be unable to provide for themselves and their
families. They fear terrorism and getting audited by the IRS. And, more and
more people are afraid of getting to the end of their lives and discovering
their lives have been meaningless and haven’t counted for anything truly
significant.
Sometimes we let our fears get the best of us.
The
great theologian and reformer, John Calvin, once said, “The human mind is a
factory of fears.” There was a student
at Eagle Rock Junior High who won first prize at the Idaho Falls Science Fair
some years back. This student was attempting to demonstrate how conditioned
we’ve become to our fears. So, he began a petition urging people to demand
stricter control or the total elimination of the chemical “dihydrogen
monoxide.”
He had plenty of good reasons for his concern. He
said dihydrogen monoxide can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.
He
noted that it’s a major component in acid rain. It can cause severe burns in a
gaseous form. Accidental inhalation of it can kill you. And, it’s been found in
the tumors of terminal cancer patients.
Of the 50 people he asked to sign his petition, 43
agreed to support a total ban on dihydrogen monoxide. That’s 86%! Five or six were undecided. Only one knew that dihydrogen monoxide was
the chemical name of water. Just plain `ole simple water!
So, our fears may be rational. They may be irrational.
They
may even be silly! I like the story of the little boy who was being tucked into
bed one evening by his mother during a fierce thunderstorm. The boy’s mother
was about to turn off the light and leave the room, when he asked in a
trembling voice: “Mommy, will you stay with me all night?” The boy’s mom gave him a warm and reassuring
hug and tenderly said, “I can’t stay with you, honey. I have to sleep with
Daddy.” Well, the boy thought for a
second and looked up at his mom. Then, in a shaky voice he said, “The big
sissy!”
So, we’re no strangers to fear and neither were
they in the Bible. In fact, the resurrection story is one that’s steeped in
fear. Especially as it’s portrayed in the Gospel of Mark!
Mark’s Gospel is not overly triumphant like the
other Gospels. No violent earthquake shakes the tomb. Roman guards don’t quake
in their boots and faint away like they do in Matthew.
There’s
no
Mark is bare bones! Its ending leaves us a little uncomfortable. “Trembling
and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.” They said nothing to anyone, because they
were afraid.”
Now, scholars believe this is where Mark actually
ends his Gospel. Or, at least, that’s the way the earliest and most reliable
Greek manuscripts have it. The verses
afterward; 9-20, are no doubt an addition by someone wanting to “clean it up a
bit!” or to make the story more palatable.
It’s been said that if Mark’s ending creates
discomfort and uncertainty, it is partly due to our knowledge of how the Easter
story is told in the other Gospels. Easter is supposed to have
post-resurrection appearances – joyous seaside meals –
scenes
of reconciliation and forgiveness – garden embraces of the Risen Lord – and the
disciples’ excited shout, ‘He is Risen!’ But Mark offers us none of these,
choosing instead to end his story with frightened women fleeing a cemetery in silence.
That’s no way to run a Resurrection. And yet, that’s exactly how Mark leaves
it! With fear and uncertainty!
New Testament scholar Don Juel tells of one of his
students who became fascinated by the Gospel of Mark. He decided to memorize the entire Gospel and
recite it orally at public performances. He worked for several years, carefully
studying the text, mapping the dramatic structure, grappling with the multiple
characterizations, and memorizing his lines.
The first performance he gave was held in a large
church. And the student stood there in front of the communion table and gave a
moving rendition. However, when he delivered the last line, “…and they said
nothing to anyone, for they were afraid,” the audience sat there waiting in
breathless anticipation, as if to say, “Yes, go on – go on!”
The student, for all his preparation, hadn’t
completely thought this through. He was unsettled by the audience’s impatient
gaze, and unsure how to make a graceful exit so he shifted nervously from one
foot to the other. Finally, after several seconds of awkward silence, he
brightened up and said, “Amen!” And the relived audience burst into
enthusiastic applause.
Later, the student admitted to Professor Juel, in
that moment he had felt the same pressure of incompleteness that some of the
early editors of Mark’s Gospel must have felt. And, he understood what
motivated them to add few more verses to the chapter, in order to provide some
kind of ending other than fear and silence.
Well, the next time the student performed the
Gospel of Mark, he resisted the temptation to resolve the dangling ending.
After
saying the last line, “…and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid,”
he paused for a few seconds and then silently exited. But, this time there was no applause. No cheering!
Instead,
there was a lot of discomfort and uncertainty. And, as people left the
sanctuary, the buzz of conversation was dominated by the experience of the
non-ending.
It’s this “non-ending” -- this fear and
uncertainty as the women flee the empty tomb that has an important message for
us today! You see, fear and uncertainty dominate the Gospel of Mark. It
dominates from start to finish! We find
it early on in Mark 4, when Jesus was with His disciples on a boat and calms a
raging storm. The Bible says Jesus was sleeping and the disciples woke Him up.
They were afraid the waves were going to overwhelm the boat and they were going
to drown. But, Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves and the sea becomes
completely calm. And the disciples’ reaction? Grateful thanks? Hardly!
It
says they were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and
waves obey Him!”
We find fear and uncertainty in Mark 5 when Jesus
heals the bleeding woman and then raises Jairus’ daughter. The woman trembles
with fear and shame until Jesus tells her that her faith has healed her. And,
then, when messengers arrive announcing that Jairus’ daughter had already died,
Jesus tells them, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
We find it in Mark 6 when Jesus walks on water and
His disciples are terrified thinking they were seeing a ghost…
We find it in Mark 9 when Peter, James and John
are frightened at the unveiling of Jesus’ glory at the Transfiguration.
We find it in Mark 10 when Jesus is on His way to
But, each time – each and every time -- we find
fear being challenged by faith! And, this is exactly what Mark wants us to see!
You see, it’s true the women ran out of that tomb terrified and said nothing to
anyone, “…because they were afraid.”
But,
we know eventually they found their courage and began talking up a storm? How do we know? Because, we wouldn’t have a
Gospel if they didn’t!
They had to have talked! Or else the story would
have ended right there with Jesus in a tomb. End of story! But, eventually fear gave way to faith. And
they began boldly proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ had risen!
But, the question is, “What did it?” “How did
their fears eventually give way to faith?” That the Resurrection is Jesus’ way
of saying, “God really loves you, you know!” That He wasn’t going to let sin
win! He wasn’t going to let death have the last word!
What kind of confidence does that inspire?
How
does it make you reevaluate your fears? You
see, much like the women at the tomb, we live with a lot of fears and
uncertainties. I don’t have to spell them all out for you. You know what they
are. And, like the women at the tomb all we have to counter these fears is the
Easter Message that -- HE IS RISEN!
We don’t get to “see” Jesus face to face – at
least in the way the other Gospels portray Him. We have to take it on faith!
Mark’s
Gospel simply leaves us with the “Message of Faith” to challenge our fears. But, through that message, we begin to
understand the kind of love God has for us. And fear gives way to faith because
we realize -- in the words of Frederick Buechner -- that “…the worst thing we
fear is never the last thing.”
Because
Jesus Christ is Risen!
A man tells a story about a friend of his who
served as a counselor at a summer church camp in
It
was the first summer that an African American child would be attending the
camp. A little girl named
Though, there were some minor incidents with the
other camper’s attitudes towards Lydia’s race through the week, overall things
went a lot smoother than the camp counselors had anticipated. That was, until the last night.
As they were gathered around the campfire their
final night together, this camp counselor decided to start up an old game where
you tell a story round a circle with each person supplying the next line and
adding a piece to the story.
So, he started the story by saying, “There was
once a summer camper…” And, then he
passed it on to his left.
The
child next to him added to the story, saying, “The camper was a girl…” The next
one said, “And one night she sneaked out of her cabin…”
And, the story began to grow. “She climbed over a fence to the swimming
pool…” another added. “She fell into the pool – but couldn’t swim…” someone
else said. “There was nobody there to pull her out of the pool…”added another. “She drowned…”
“The
next morning they found her…” “They pulled her out of the pool…” “They tried to
revive her, but it was too late…” “The little girl was dead…”
Well, about halfway through the story, the camp
counselor could sense something sinister was going on. That’s also when he realized that to his
right was
Then, when it came time for the next-to-last child
to add their line to the story, the camp counselor’s worst fears came true. The
child said, “Her name was
Then, it was
So, what are you afraid of? And what do you really
have to fear? Especially knowing that
the “One Thing” in life we ultimately don’t have control over…God does! And God always will!
Jesus
Christ is Risen. He is Risen, indeed! Amen.
This sermon was based on a sermon preach by the Rev. John C. Minihan, First Presbyterian Church, Newark, Ohio April 8, 2007. Used with permission.