One of my favourite editions of the Bible isn’t really a bible at all but a book of cartoons by Graham Jeffry entitled, ‘The Barnabas Bible’.  In one of the cartoons, our Lord stands next to Mr Sherlock Holmes, who with pipe between his teeth and magnifying glass in hand, passes him by with the words: “Quiet please while I begin my investigations.” Sherlock Holmes then goes to the tomb. “First” he says, “I must examine the stone.” Then he goes inside. “Now to study the grave clothes, yes, just as I thought,” and then he returns to our Lord to whom he says, “I have come to the conclusion, Lord, You have definitely risen from the dead. The position of the stone gives it away.”  Jesus then speaks the punch line, “How would you like people to believe in you because of the position of a stone?”

That is exactly what the gospel according to St. Mark would have us believe for he ends his Gospel with the Empty Tomb with its rolled-away stone.

Mark’s account differs greatly from that of the other Gospels which use the empty tomb as a sign which leads on to the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ.  For Mark, it is the empty tomb itself which is the proof of resurrection. ‘ the position of the stone gives it away’!  The story itself is told simply.

Three of our Lord’s followers – women who had ministered to him and enjoyed his friendship in Galilee and who had witnessed the Crucifixion ‘ from a distance’ (Chapter 15 verse 40) – decided that they would complete the burial process by anointing the body of Jesus.

In the confusion and panic of the final hours of our Lord’s life there had been no time to do this. Joseph of Arimathea had taken the body and done the decent thing of entombing him but there had been no time to  carry out all the burial rituals because the Sabbath arrived with all its restrictions on human activity.

So, as soon as the Sabbath was over, the three women bought spices and hurried to the tomb. Only on the way did it occur to them that the stone which sealed the tomb would have to be rolled away and as it was ‘very large’ they wondered how to do it.  As they arrived, however, the problem was solved for them. The stone no longer sealed the tomb.  This didn’t seem to alarm them because they went straight in. The alarm came when they saw a young man dressed in white sitting on the right side of the tomb.  ‘A young man dressed in white’ is a classic biblical description of an angel.  The women, quite naturally, were ‘alarmed’ as indeed they might be. What they expected to see – the body of Jesus – they did not see and, instead they were confronted with the unexpected. The angel proclaimed his message of Resurrection and then commanded them  to go and tell Peter and the other disciples to go back to Galilee where they would meet up with their risen Lord.  Far from being glad at this stupendous and joyful news,  the women then fled from the tomb in terror and amazement -  already determined to keep quiet about their experience – for they were afraid.

And there Mark lays down his pen.

Such a curious ending to a Gospel,  which began with a strident proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ, that it led others to add eleven more verses giving an account of traditional resurrection appearances to the disciples – but these verses were certainly added much later by an unknown hand to make the Gospel  conform to the other three accounts.  The early Church, then, thought it was as much a strange ending as we perhaps do and this has led to all sorts of theories being raised – including the obvious one that somehow a page has been lost. None of these theories have stood the test of authenticity.

In truth – it is a very powerful ending.

The Resurrection has been announced not by an appearance of the Risen Lord but by a pronouncement by an angel. The effect of that announcement is not unbounded joy but rather amazement and fear, both very understandable reactions in the circumstance.  If you had been in their place and had watched the horror of Crucifixion which took away their dearest friend, an event which had sent our Lord’s closest followers into hiding, you might be a little surprised if, on visiting his grave, you found it opened and the body removed. Add to that the supernatural encounter with a strange being dressed in white who told you things that were humanly impossible, then being afraid is probably the least of your emotions! After all, the women had come to mourn and they were told to rejoice. This demanded a complete reversal of what they were feeling. That they were unable to do that immediately is something entirely believable.  The decision not to tell anyone about this experience is also entirely plausible. Who would believe you?

The fact is, of course, that these women did not keep to that decision. If they had, we might not be celebrating Easter here this morning. As the stupendous truth of what they had experienced and been told sank in, their fear did turn to joy – a joy confirmed in the Resurrection appearances to the disciples which we find in the other Gospel accounts. Appearances which carry the story forward telling  us that Jesus had indeed Risen, had appeared to his followers  and that the new age of God had dawned.

As a Gospel for Easter Day, St. Mark’s account of the Empty Tomb is sufficient for us because we stand on this side of Easter and the rest of the story is known to us as indeed it was to those early Christians for whom Mark wrote His Gospel.  For them, Mark supplied the earliest Gospel narrative, later used by the others. His concern was to set down the account of our Lord’s Life for people who were already living in the joy of Resurrection life. They already knew that Jesus had Risen from the dead  and that it had transformed their lives – what they wanted from Mark was how God’s salvation had come about.

The Empty Tomb was an important part of that story and when Mark reached it he had nothing further to say. Nothing else was needed. The early Church did not rely simply on an empty tomb to prove the Resurrection – they were already living in Easter faith.

We don’t just believe in Easter and the Resurrection because of it. It isn’t the position of the stone that gives it away – it’s the changed lives of his followers and those, including ourselves, who came to believe in the Resurrection because of their witness. For us, the empty tomb is, as it was for the women, a stage in the journey to a more joyful belief and it is Mark, himself, who pushes it on – He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him as he told you.

Mark invites us to leave Jerusalem that battle ground in the struggle of Good over evil (as indeed it still is) and go to that place where the Kingdom of God, through the ministry of Jesus, was proclaimed and where it will find its joyful fulfilment in the Resurrection appearances of Jesus the Risen Lord.  Today as we begin to celebrate Eastertide once again we might begin at the empty Tomb, symbolised for us in the Easter Garden under the Lady Chapel Altar but that is simply the beginning.

We can’t stay there. As with those women we have to move on. Hanging around the empty tomb won’t move us on but it’s meaning will. That meaning is that Jesus is Risen and He is glorified. He is glorified in the lives of all who claim his unconditional and never ending  love which has the capacity to change and transform all our lives.  The world – and those in it who do not yet know the Lord Jesus – ought to find proof of the Resurrection in our own lives transformed by the love which God pours out on us from the Cross and which is sealed by the Resurrection.

This is the real challenge of Easter Day – that we  become this living proof of the Resurrection by the way we live our lives – by the way we allow the Risen Christ to shape those lives and by the way we respond in thankfulness to our Lord’s great love for us who claimed us for his own through his Sacrifice on the Cross and through his Glorious Resurrection.

Yet, far too often we Christians behave like those women initially did – afraid to tell the Easter story and afraid to show that it makes any real difference to our lives.  Each year, as I go through the Holy Week I find different things speak to me in the depths of my heart. That is one of the great joys of keeping this solemn week with the Church. Faith is enlivened in different ways. God never ceases to amaze me and the ways he speaks to us through the liturgy of the Church are many and varied. For those who are prepared to listen, to be attentive to his constant attempts to show his love for us – there is always something new to learn and experience.  Amongst the things this year, one of the most moving and profound experiences for me was the Ecumenical walk of Witness on Friday.

Helped by the reflective drama I prepared to move off from the Water Fountain when Carole Goddard struck up with a steady drum beat and we began to follow the Cross along the public highway. I was reduced to total silence as I fixed my eyes on the Cross ahead. The drum beat became like the beating of Christ’s heart and I knew that, I and my fellow Christians were witnessing to Christ and proclaiming to an otherwise heedless world that there are values which are greater than those by which the world tends to live by, and visions for life  greater than many conceive.  No doubt the cars held up behind us thought us a great nuisance but any who saw that cross and those strange people could not surely fail to wonder – perhaps at our madness – but perhaps also they saw the Cross and for a brief moment may have paused to ask its meaning.

We cannot know the effect of our witness but most of us are here today because somewhere in our lives that witness took seed in our souls. Through some, perhaps seemingly insignificant event or conversation or act of love and kindness, we fell to wondering about God and the moment we open our heart to him, just a little, he slips in and he fills us with resurrection love. If we can be the instruments for others to experience that in their lives we shall indeed be Easter people.