More and more I find myself reflecting on, as Paul Harvey used to say, “The rest of the story.” Consider the Gospel lesson to be read in many churches on Sunday. Jesus told His disciples, “’The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.’ But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him” (Mark 9:31-32).
It’s easy to target those old disciples for not getting it, and when you read the Gospel of Mark the first disciples never did understand until the resurrected Jesus appeared to them. That said, I’m not sure we get it either. Come Sunday, if our pastors preach on this text, they will talk about the resurrection of Jesus. It happened. History. Jesus’ word was proven true. “The rest of the story” I think we are missing, and I say this reflecting on this failure in the thousands of sermons I’ve preached, is stressing that Jesus is now alive, now at the right hand of God, and soon to return in glory as the Judge of all. Of course, we don’t deny that. We recite it in the creed almost every Sunday, but how often do we leave worship thinking, Jesus is living, His Spirit is in my life, and maybe today I’ll see Him on the clouds of heaven?
Scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark was influenced by Peter. Peter’s first epistle is known for encouraging hope in suffering. Often that is interpreted as hope in this problem, hope in that challenge, hope in whatever is facing me here and now. Yes, we should always have hope but Peter was not encouraging us to have generic hope. Biblical hope goes hand-in-hand with faith in God and Father of Jesus. “God…raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:20). That focus is not only history but because of history is future expectation. “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). Maybe I’m losing my filter, but I’m not sure we are stressing “the rest of the story.”
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