by Unvirtuous Abbey
Gospel Reading: Mark 16: 1-8
For Sunday, April 9, 2012: Year B – Easter Sunday
The most hopeful woman I know has a head full of brain tumours. Yet, naturally, she is filled with fear. It’s a dual existence for her: anticipating the wedding of her first born child in July, while not being sure that she will live long enough to see it.
Anointing the Body
Mark’s Gospel records that Mary Magdalene and Salome (meaning, “peace.” In the Secret Gospel of Mark, Salome is named as a disciple of Jesus) went to the tomb of Jesus, where his body rested, to anoint him with spices.
In today’s culture, in which we often “celebrate the life of” rather than “mourn the death of” a person, we have little or no concept of anointing a body. Or do we?
Acts of Mourning
Before her radiation treatments began, my friend shaved her head. Because the treatments, though palliative, cause minor burns to her skin, a nurse covers the affected area with cream to ease the irritation. Because she objects to narcotics, her doctor has prescribed medicinal marijuana and Extra Strength Tylenol to ease the pain in her system.
Sometimes anointing happens before we die. It’s about our care for, and respect of, the body so that the soul may still rest there for a time. Anointing is an act of mourning, but it is also an act of love in the face of the fear of death and dying.
Don’t be Afraid?
Rabbi Harold Kushner says that the most repeated phrase in the Bible are the words, “Don’t be afraid!” sometimes translated as “Fear not!” They are the words spoken to Mary by an angel about Jesus’ conception; they are the words spoken to shepherds by an angel about Jesus’ birth. And now, these words are spoken to the women at the tomb about Jesus’ death and resurrection.
That’s easy to say if you’re an angel; however, it’s not so easy to do for a human. So often we are incapacitated by our fear. So often ministry is about going where angels fear to tread. It becomes a mantra as a person walks down the hall in a hospital, or walks into a home where people are in unspeakable pain: “Don’t be afraid.” Throughout his ministry, Jesus challenged those around him to have faith instead of fear.
Ending on Fear
Yet, Mark’s incredible Gospel ends on a note of fear, not faith. Aída Besançon Spencer argues that in the Gospels, “amazed and trembling” are positive terms in which someone reacts to physical healing in which a “person throws their mind out of its normal state” but here they seem negative. It results in Mary and Salome fleeing from the tomb. They are devastated, and the words spoken by the angel has left them with a choice. She writes that, “hearing that Jesus is the Son of God is one thing…but experiencing Jesus as the Son of God is another matter.”
“Go…and See!”
The angel’s words seek a response: he gives an antidote for their fear. “Go…and see!” For many of us, faith is a verb: Go, see, do, lift up, put down, heal, cast out, bring in, give, and receive. All this we must do at the request of the angel, but what about the anointing?
There are some who believe that no one should preach on Easter Sunday because watching the speaker try to explain Easter is uncomfortable at best. The angel’s sermon, preached from the heart of Jesus’ tomb, is beautiful and could be preached in any church: “He was crucified. He has risen! He is not here.”
The Hardest Question
Is Easter the end of anointing? Is it the beginning of fear? What are we to hear in the angelic “Look” (but don’t touch?) versus the “Go…and see?” Is Easter a place we arrive to or are sent from?
