Neaniskos, the "New Guy": The Easter Sermon I Should Have Preached

Every once in a while (too often for me, I'm afraid) preachers get a strong sense--usually after a sermon--that it was not quite the sermon they should have preached on that particular day to this particular people. This Easter Sunday, I must confess, this happened to me.

Partly it was the exhaustion of the Three Days, partly it is the sheer weight of attempting to preach on Easter Sunday, partly it was not enough careful time spent with the text, partly it was an ambitious desire to preach all there was to preach on the "shorter ending" of the Gospel of Mark (i.e., 16:8).

So, in response to this, I offer you these brief reflections on the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark:

During your reading of the Passion According to St. Mark during Palm/Passion Sunday, who else noticed that naked guy in 14:51-52? Upon hearing the Passion according to St. Mark this year during worship I was struck by these strange verses about a guy running around in a linen burial shroud after the disciples deserted Jesus. As quickly as he enters the picture he disappears--or so it seems--for the rest of the Gospel.

What's up with the naked guy?

After these verses in chapter 14 we hear the moving story of the Passion, a narrative squarely focused on one Jew from Nazareth named Jesus. He suffers, is crucified, dies, is acclaimed "Son of God" by the centurion at the foot of the cross--and then is raised on the third day.

And who gets to announce the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Mark but the naked guy! Well, actually, it's "the new guy" (Greek neaniskos).

There is speculation that the entire Gospel of Mark was meant and written to be performed as a drama at the early Church's Easter Vigil rites. If so, this neaniskos plays a prominent role in the liturgy and the church. It is he who loses his burial shroud and runs away while Jesus Christ completes the work of his Passion and Resurrection. But it is this very same guy who, dressed in new digs (baptismal garments?) gets to announce our Lord's Resurrection: not the most faithful members, not the disciples, not even the women at the tomb, but neaniskos, the "new guy."

May all those new to the faith proclaim with Easter joy the triumph of Christ's death and resurrection to the faithful and to the rest of the world: ""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. But 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" (Mark 16:6-8).

[Note: Dr. Frederick A. Niedner of Valparaiso University was the first to point out this connection to me. I am thankful for this further explication at our synod assembly this past May.]