The Shock of Answered Prayer 24 March 2008

Mark 16:1-8
Monday, 24 March 2008

Answered prayers can be just as scary as unanswered ones. It always seems that God chooses to intervene and turn things around just when you are beginning to accustom yourself to the grief and trauma of a bad situation. When God does that, you don't know what to say; you're shocked silent.

Most scholars regard this section as the Gospel of Mark's original ending. The faithful women who had been following Jesus demonstrated their commitment to their crucified teacher by rising early to perform the last rites and burial preparation for his mangled body. They journeyed with many critical questions, the most pointed of which was "Who will roll the stone away?" But when they arrived, the question was already answered, and more besides. Every time I read this narrative, I am amazed at the women's faithfulness to what they thought was a dead Jesus, especially when I compare it to our sometimes flakiness in serving a Christ we now know is alive. There is no question that their hearts' desire was to have their Lord returned to them and to have his cause, to which they had devoted their lives, vindicated. Still, the announcement that God had disrupted the normal course of human events and had raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead both disturbed and surprised the women. Although the man in white spoke words of peace and told them to go witness to the other disciples, the scene ends not with gleeful witness but with astonished silence. The women have experienced the shock of answered prayer.

Fundamentally, what it means for us to worship and serve God is that we never know how God's purpose will bear fruit, only that it will do so. We never know how our prayers will be answered, only that they will be so. What you can always expect from God is that God's procedures defy human wisdom and logic. Just when you think things are hopeless, God shows up. The funny thing for me is that no matter how many times it happens, I still find myself in shock, speechless, and sometimes even afraid that if I tell it, no one will believe me. The women at the tomb eventually recovered the power of their speech. May we too find the grace and strength to go and tell what great things God has done. Perhaps we might even learn to expect God to do something astonishing.

Sing, "He Rose from the Dead"

Let us pray:
Thank you, Lord, for the faithful witness of the women who ventured to the tomb early on that first Resurrection morning. But thank you even more for the power and even the surprise we ourselves have witnessed in your answers to our prayers. Grant us deliverance from low expectations and from paralyzing fear so that we may fulfill the command to proclaim the good news to our associates and the world, in Jesus' name. Amen.