Pilgrim Uniting Church, Adelaide SA SUN 04-APR-2021 - 9.30 AM Sermon Rev Dr Greg Elsdon Easter Day – Story beginnings and endings are important, and in a carefully crafted story a lot of inferences can be drawn from the opening and closing scenes. But Mark's story of Jesus ends with a thud. He tells us that a few days after the crucifixion three women set out to tend to the body of the recently deceased Jesus, and they found the tomb already opened, with a young white-clad man inside telling them that Jesus was alive and heading towards Galilee. Would they please advise his disciples to travel to Galilee themselves, to meet up with the risen Jesus? The terrified women fled from the tomb, and they couldn't tell anyone what had happened. That's how Mark's story finishes – there's no follow-up. Throughout Mark's story, Jesus had been making it clear to his followers that if they stayed with him they would encounter opposition and rejection, but they simply didn't get it. He told them several times that his death would not be the end of the story but the beginning, and that after three days he would rise again. Jesus' resurrection is God's affirmation of Jesus' way of life, a life that involved costly sacrifice in the service of others. It is suggested that Mark wanted us, his readers, to experience the risen Christ for ourselves, to walk through life with Jesus, and to write the story of his resurrection in our own lives and our lives with others. We cannot remain mere spectators. Isaiah 25: 6-9; Mark 16: 1-8 Playing Time   –   20:22