Mark 16:1-8
I saw this painting, entitled Flowered Doorway by Cyrus Afsary a year or two ago, and became entranced with it. Recently I found this print of it on sale and purchased it to place in my office. What fascinates me is that I want to know what it’s like on the other side of the wall. There is a way through, i.e., the flowered doorway. We get a glimpse of it, so we simply imagine the rest. I want to go there.
I know what it looks like on this side of the wall with the doorway. I live here. I see it everyday. I appreciate it, enjoy it, and I take it for granted. But there’s something unknown and intriguing about the other side of that doorway.
I think Mary, Mary, and Salome saw the other side of the doorway – and Mark says they were seized by terror and amazement. They went to the tomb, assuming that all of life in this world was lived on this side of that wall. They went to anoint a dead body; they went trying to figure how to roll away the stone sealing the grave. Not happy, but at least they know what to expect. That’s life on this side of the doorway. But they saw the other side of the doorway, and they were seized by terror and amazement, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
We see the other side of the doorway too. And like them, we’re amazed and terrified. Because it reveals that not everything is known to us, or understood by us, or is familiar to us. There are some things that are simply beyond our control. And we’re amazed by that. And it is terrifying.
Here’s what we do: we go along, assuming all of life is on this side of the wall. We try to improve ourselves, we look for better solutions to our life/world problems, work at making the world a better place to live, pick up litter, mow the lawn, go to work/school, assuring ourselves that our whole lives are on this side of the wall, where everything can be explained, and where we’re not afraid. May or may not be happy, but at least we know what to expect.
But then, like Mary, Mary, and Salome, we get a glimpse through the doorway to the other side of the wall – life that isn’t familiar, can’t be explained. We see people doing stupid things: like working for free on behalf of someone who doesn’t deserve it; giving obscene amounts of money away; forgiving a relative who bilked them out their rightful inheritance; spending otherwise productive time at the Jeffco Action Center; standing up for people on the margins of society they’ll never meet; giving their lives to a man who they claim is risen from the dead. We’re seized with terror and amazement – because it doesn’t always make sense, and can’t always be explained. We catch a glimpse of what it’s like on the other side of the doorway. And terror and amazement seizes us, and we say nothing to anyone, for we’re afraid.
On this day we celebrate, acknowledge, and marvel at the reality of life that is more than we’ve come to expect. God the Son has entered our world on this side of the doorway. Jesus lived here, died here, and was raised from the dead. Life on the other side of the doorway is real. And it is available to us. New life, real life, more than you can imagine life. Jesus makes it possible. He is the living proof. He is the glimpse through the doorway.
This congregation exists here to bear witness to that. There is new life, it comes in the person of Jesus, and it for all people. The people who are part of this congregation are people who’ve not only caught a glimpse of new life through the doorway, but are experiencing it every day. We don’t do it perfectly, nor do we claim to. But in the go-to-work, get-good-grades, improve-yourself, mow-your-lawn life that we live day by day, this congregation is here to tell you with certainty that life on the other side of the doorway is real, it is now, and it is good. God makes it available through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God the Son, and it is for you.
The possibility of a reality so far beyond our ability to explain can seize you with terror and amazement. But that doesn’t change the reality. The difficulties of life lived on this side of the doorway can be overwhelming at times – but that doesn’t change the reality. We gather together constantly to be reminded by God of new life. And we support each other continuously as we struggle to live it.
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. The door is open. New life is waiting.