First
Presbyterian Church
of Twin Falls

Reverend Phil Price  
the pastor's BLOG      
Do you need me to help with prayers or Spritual guidance?

Worship Service each Sunday at 10:00 a.m.

“The Big Empty”

Mark 16:1-8
1 Cor. 15:1-11
April 12, 2009   

          This morning’s Gospel account of God raising Jesus from the tomb on that first Easter is at the same time the shortest and most abrupt of the four Gospel accounts.  It may be so because of God’s intention of reminding us that sometimes in life we have to pass through emptiness on the way to resurrection life.

         Please listen for how the Spirit is addressing us this day through God’s Word found on page 51 of your pew Bibles from the Gospel of Mark chapter sixteen verses one through eight….

          When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

 This is God’s word to us…

          Astronomers have recently discovered a big empty place in the universe; a massive void.  This hole is gigantic, nearly a billion light-years across.  Inside of it there are no planets, no stars, no galaxies, no gases.  It is just a huge cold spot—a whole lotta nothing.

          If you’ve ever taken the time to think about the expanse of outer-space it can stretch and even boggle your mind to think of the incredible distances between the stars in the sky.  For instance, you might already know this, but a light-year is a unit of distance—the distance that light can travel in one year, which equals about six trillion miles.

          So how far away are the stars in the sky?  Our nearest neighbor is a star called Proxima Centauri and it is about four light-years away or twenty-five trillion miles.  And how about that massive void, that huge cold spot in the universe; well it’s between six and ten billion light-years away from us.  I don’t know about you, but it is pretty hard to comprehend something that gigantic, especially when talking about a massive void of no planets, no galaxies, no gases; absolutely nothing!

          Now the apostle Paul was no astronomer, but he knew the story of an empty place that had cosmic consequences.  He had heard that on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene and two other women encountered a massive void when they showed up at the tomb of Jesus, an empty expanse that was as mind-boggling as anything at the edge of the universe.  It was early when they arrived, and after meeting a young man and hearing about the resurrection, “they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8).

          Can you imagine how empty Mary felt upon coming face to face with the empty tomb?  She had already endured the crucifixion of her friend and teacher Jesus, and she had been in mourning ever since.   And then when she and her friends went to pay their respects at Jesus’ tomb, what did they find; nothing, just a huge cold spot.  Even after having sat at the feet of Jesus she couldn’t quite comprehend the truth that sometimes you’ve got to pass through some empty tombs on the way to resurrection life.

          We have some idea what she was feeling, though, don’t we?  Each of us, at some point in life, has come face to face with a massive void, a big empty place:

          It happens…when you give your heart to someone who doesn’t accept the gift.

          It happens…when you learn a sport, practice hard and still don’t make the team.

          It happens…when you create something beautiful, only to discover that no one else is interested.

          It happens…when you put money into a home, only to see your equity disappear.

          It happens…when you retire from a long career, and wake up the next morning with nothing to do.

          It happens…when you lose a spouse, friend, or family member through the veil of death, and find yourself feeling alone.

          All of these are examples of the massive voids, huge cold spots that we experience in life.  And how do Mary and her companions respond to their own void at the empty tomb; they were seized by terror and amazement, and they retreated into silence, saying nothing to anyone.  Their world felt like a billion light-years of empty space.  But it is to their everlasting credit that they took some time to ponder that strange set of events, and let the disappearance of Jesus’ body sink in.

          Yes, it’s true that the mysterious young man in the tomb said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has been raised; he is not here” (Mark 16:6).  His message was one of wonderfully powerful good news—the Easter morning good news of resurrection life.  Even still, the women who had gone to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body were not quite prepared to grasp fully what that message really meant.

          At first all they could imagine was terror, amazement, and fear.  How could they not be alarmed, when they were standing face to face with an empty tomb?

          Too often we try to pretend that there are no massive voids in our lives, no empty places.  But one sociologist observes that young adults in particular have been told things such as “believe in yourself and you can do anything”—which, it turns out is not always the best advice.  The truth is, bad things do happen to good people and not every goal is realistic.

          You may believe that you’re going to earn a graduate degree and get a great job, along with a perfect family and live in a beautifully decorated home, but life doesn’t always turn out the way you had hoped, does it?  This same sociologist thinks that overblown expectations are largely to blame for the recent rise in anxiety and depression in young adults.  She says, “It’s depressing to realize that your unrealistic dreams are never going to come true.”

          The difficult truth is that we are all going to face some empty places in our life, and we need to take them seriously.   It isn’t altogether reasonable to expect to step from college to a dream job.   Most of us have had to endure or are going to endure a lot of heartbreak before we find or realize we have found a partner for life.  It turns out that loss and rejection are part of just about every life-story you can imagine.  All of us have to pass through some empty tombs on the way to resurrection life.

          Mary and her companions experienced this very kind of journey as they fled from the empty tomb.  They did not fall into the trap of thinking that if they just believed in themselves they could do anything.   Instead, they felt a blast of alarm, terror, amazement and fear—and it is precisely those emotions that set them up for the surprising reality of the resurrection.

          They quickly discovered that Easter was not about them—instead it is about God.  In particular, Easter is about God filling the empty places in our lives with new and unexpected life.

          The apostle Paul picks up this thread in his first letter to the Corinthians, when he reminds the Christians in Corinth of the good news that he proclaimed to them.  “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received,” he writes: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time….  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor. 15:3-8).

          The various appearances of the resurrected-Jesus are of central importance to Paul and he sees the new life of Christ as being at the heart of the vitality of the church.  In fact, just a few verses after what I just read from 1st Corinthians, Paul says that if Christ has not been raised, “then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (v. 14).

          Through the resurrection, God fills the empty places in our lives.  God did this for the first followers of Jesus, for the apostle Paul, for the Christians of Corinth … and God continues to fill our empty places through our faith in the wondrous mystery of Jesus’ Resurrection.

          The good news is that we don’t have to earn or deserve this gift of new life.  What we have to do is believe and in response to such faith follow Jesus into the future that he is laying out in front of us.   Although the apostle Paul said of himself that he was “unfit to be called an apostle,” he believed in the resurrection.  The result was that God’s grace was not in vain and he was able to spread the gospel throughout the vast Roman Empire (vv. 9-10).

          Mary and her companions felt a disorienting mixture of amazement and fear on that first Easter and still they responded when the young man gave the command to “[G]o, tell [Jesus’] disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you” (Mark 16:7).

          Those first followers of Jesus believed in the resurrection and they followed Jesus into the future.  These are responses we too can make, responses that can fill our massive voids whatever they may be.

          Think again about that enormous empty place that was recently discovered by astronomers: a gigantic hole, nearly a billion light-years across; no planets, no stars, no galaxies, no gases—just a huge cold spot.  Now think of how that space … is not nearly … as cavernous … as a human heart … without God.

          About 350 years ago, Blaise Pascal, mathematician, philosopher and physicist, observed that the human heart is like an “infinite abyss.”  He observed that we try in vain to fill our hearts with everything around us—education, jobs, homes, money, friends, family.  But none of these earthly things can help, “since this infinite abyss [in our hearts] can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.”  In spite of his brilliance and his contributions to science, Blaise Pascal realized that life apart from God is empty: that refuge is possible through Jesus Christ.

          If you are feeling a massive void in your life, the very same will be true for you as it was for Blaise Pascal so long ago.   Your emptiness will not be eliminated by a new career, a new spouse, a new car, a new house, or a better salary.  Instead, the hole in your life can be filled only through faith in the resurrection of Jesus and following him into the future.

          The good news of Easter is that Christ is risen!  He has been raised from the dead, and is waiting for us all, beyond both the Big Empty and beyond the empty tomb.

Amen.

 

SOURCES:

Kaufman, Mark.   “Astronomers find massive void.”   The Washington Post, August 27, 2007, A6

Oldham, Roger S.  “Resurrection—‘heart’ of gospel.”  Baptist Press, March 20, 2008.  www.bpnews.net.

Vencat, Emily Flynn.  “Narcissists in neverland.”  Newsweek Web Exclusive, October 16, 2007.  Newsweek.com

 

 

Home     Our Staff and Officers     Contact Us    Location & Directions    PCUSA

© 2008, 2009, First Presbyterian Church in Twin Falls, Idaho All rights reserved.
For comments regarding this site, please contact webmaster@twinfallsfpc.org
Photos by Ginny Riffle, Kathy Price, Jerry Green and others (anon)