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Reading: Mark 16
“The Empty Tomb on Good Friday” by Jeff Christian

We go to the cross knowing how this is going to turn out, knowing that the empty tomb is only days away. No one anymore feels the disappointment and shock of the cross that they felt on that original Good Friday. And that is where Mark 16:1-8 gives us a clear sense of direction, a story about the resurrection of Jesus, even on Good Friday.

Mark originally ended at 16:8 with visitors to the tomb running away, bewildered at what they can only imagine happened to the body of Jesus. Little did they know that the living Jesus would soon give them a brand new mission. But with Mark ending his Gospel with such open-ended uncertainty, it reminds us that both the cross and empty tomb shape our lives of good news in Christ.

We are not mere spectators at the cross. Jesus did not die “for us” in the sense that we are uninvolved recipients. No, Jesus at the cross modeled how we take up our own crosses and die to ourselves. This visit to the empty tomb in Mark 16:1-8 on Good Friday links the death and resurrection of Jesus to that model, not only showing us how to die to ourselves, but how to live the full and abundant life Jesus promised in so many of his teachings, healings, and his very life that continues to this day.

And immediately, we run with the women today from the empty tomb, even on Good Friday, to once again begin this good life in Jesus.

Reading: Mark 15
“A Prayer of Lament based on Mark 15” by Lindsay Marolf

Where are you, oh God?
Why does it feel so dark here?
Don’t you remember when triumphal shouts filled the streets?
Don’t you remember when healings happened?
Don’t you remember when sharing a meal together was meaningful?

Well, where are you now, Father?
Where have you gone?
Hour by hour my pain increases.
Hour by hour my strength decreases.
Hour by hour…until at last I am completely drained.

Oh God, where are you?
What wrong have I done?
Nothing seems good anymore.
Food isn’t even an option-
And drink tastes like vinegar.

So where are you, God?
Why have you forsaken me?
Please come back- please don’t leave me hanging.
I feel insulted, laughed at.
I have nothing left to say.

Are you gone now, God?
Did the darkness drive you away?
God… my body can’t take it anymore.
My lips are full of helpless cries.
I have to let go.

And yet…

As I feel torn into two- from top to bottom,
I realize that you are in fact who you said you are.

As I come down from the heights of pain,
I realize it is you who wraps me tightly and lays me down to rest.

As I curl up and am placed in my dark hole,
I realize that you see where I am hidden.

And I realize…

Maybe you yourself were present in the darkness.
Maybe you yourself were also left hanging.

Maybe as I was torn apart,
you were too.

Maybe as I let go,
you let me fall into you – darkness and all.

Maybe as I yelled in anguish about your absence, you heard.
And you stayed near me.

Maybe as I remain and wait in the darkness,
you remain and wait with me.

And maybe, just maybe, you are setting me up for resurrection after all.

Reading: Mark 14
Thoughts on Mark 14 by Rachel Held Evans

I’ve always felt the strongest connection to Jesus’ first disciples when I read about their various responses to the events of Passion Week—the confidence following Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the fear after his arrest, the doubt and despair in the shadow of the cross, the surprising joy of meeting the resurrected Lord.

Little details remind me of the ups and downs of my own faith journey, like how Peter, James, and John slept through their rabbi’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, how Peter tried to take matters into his own hands by cutting off the Roman soldier’s ear, how the men didn’t believe Mary, Joanna, and Mary when they first reported the resurrection, how Thomas needed more proof.

I think Mark’s description of the Apostle Peter after the arrest of Jesus best summarizes my own experience of doubt. As Jesus faced trial, and as the disciples began to fear that Jesus was just another man and their ministry with him just a waste of time, the Gospel reports that Peter “followed Him at a distance.” (Mark 14:54)

Most Christ-followers have experienced some form of Good Friday doubt—that overwhelming fear that maybe we’ve gotten it all wrong, maybe we’ve wasted our time, maybe all we’ve worked for and believed in is meaningless. Most have been through a time or two when we’ve cautiously followed Jesus at a distance.

The good news is that Easter is just a few days away. The good news is that, like Peter, we are always given another chance to tell Jesus that we love him.

Reading: Mark 13
“Be Faithful, Endure, and Keep Awake” by Paul Riddle

I have heard integrity defined as “doing the right thing when no one is looking.” That phrase comes to mind as I consider Jesus’ words to his disciples in Mark 13.

Tensions were high in Jerusalem. The conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authorities was accelerating toward its climax. Jesus was doing his best to prepare his disciples for his impending betrayal, death, and resurrection, and to prepare them for the persecution they themselves would face because of their association with him.

Their training was just about complete, and their commitment to Jesus would soon be tested in the crucible of extreme adversity. The foundations of all they had known would be shaken. How would they respond?

Jesus left the disciples with three charges: 1) Keep the faith. Be the people I have formed you to be. Live the way I have taught you to live. Be people of mercy and compassion; stand with those who have no one to stand with them. 2) Endure. Whatever hardships may come, for however long they may last. Remember I have gone before you. Follow my lead. 3) Be alert. Don’t get caught napping. Be ready for What Comes Next.

These three charges sustained the first disciples through the trials that soon confronted them; they sustained the first readers and hearers of Mark’s gospel, facing persecution later in the first century, and they have sustained followers of Jesus through good times and bad for over two millennia, down to our own time.

And now it’s our turn. How will we respond? It is up to us.

Reading: Mark 11
An Invocation to the Holy Spirit by Saint Symeon

Come, true light.
Come, life eternal.
Come, hidden mystery.
Come, treasure without name.
Come, reality beyond all words.
Come, person beyond all understanding.
Come, rejoicing without end.
Come, light that knows no evening.
Come, unfailing expectation of the saved.
Come, raising of the fallen.
Come, resurrection of the dead.
Come, all-powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion and change all things by your will alone.
Come, invisible whom none may touch and handle.
Come, for you continue always unmoved, yet at every instant you are wholly in movement; you draw near to us who lie in hell, yet you remain higher than the heavens.
Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips; yet who you are and what your nature is, we cannot say or know.
Come, Alone to the alone.
Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me.
Come, my breath and my life.
Come, the consolation of my humble soul.
Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight.