Have you ever been watching a movie when it just suddenly ends? That is there is no resolution, or perhaps you want to know a lot more information then was presented, and you’re like, wait, what? You can’t end it like that. There has to be more story there, what happened after that? I need more; give me more. The gospel of Mark is just like that. Our earliest and best manuscripts end at verse 8a with the women fleeing from the tomb in fear and not telling anyone. And so our desire to wonder if that is it and expect a little more, is nothing new, because at some point later scribed or editors added in more stories to make it match closer to what the other gospels contain. To have post resurrection appearances and to have Mary tell others of the resurrection. And so if you open up the pew Bible, for those in the sanctuary, to page 55 in the New Testament and those watching online I encourage you to open your Bible to the end of Mark in chapter 16, and you will see there that you have what is called the shorter ending starting at verse 8b, and then the longer ending starting at verse 9. You will also see they are in brackets and there is a footnote saying that these ending are not original to Mark, although they are part of the tradition and so the translators are not removing them, at least not yet. Now part of the problem is that the Greek actually ends very strangely, as it there might have originally been more. That has led to speculation that perhaps Mark was arrested or otherwise stopped from being able to finish, or perhaps the last page of the manuscript was lost, although those seem extremely unlikely. And the other theory, and the one I subscribe to, is that it ends exactly the way that Mark intended it to end. Because, in my opinion, if you pay attention to the story Mark tells, and why he is telling it, his abrupt ending makes total sense, and I’ll tell you why, although not quite yet.
Last week when we looked at chapter 13 and the little Apocalypse, I said that it is believed by most scholars that Mark was written sometime around the year 70 during the time of the Jewish revolt, and is the first of the gospels to be written. It’s also speculated that it was perhaps written in Rome, although there is not a consensus on that, where the church had also been facing persecution under the emperor Nero and his fiddling. Perhaps it was the fiddling that was the torture. And while the gospel has also traditionally been attributed to Mark, a partner of Peter, there is nothing in the gospel supporting that attribution and it does not claim to be written by Mark. I say all that first to note that the reason the gospels were even begun to be written down was because the second coming had not yet happened, as the early church it would come shortly, and therefore there was no reason to record the stories, but when it didn’t happen, they didn’t want to lose the story. And so these stories are being recorded to start around 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and so the community first hearing Mark would have known about the resurrection, and later appearances, which gave Mark, as I have argued, greater latitude in telling his story. He didn’t really need to tell us about Mary passing on the story to the disciples because people already knew that she had done that. They had heard Paul’s stories of post resurrection appearances, including to him. And so as I said in the first week, Mark is not writing history or a biography, he’s writing a gospel, which is theological, and Mark can leave out some stories because they are not crucial to his particular story.
But let’s jump back in time again just for a moment, and
look at Mark’s account of the transfiguration, which plays heavily into how we
should see and understand his Easter account. Found in chapter 9, Jesus takes
Peter, James and John up on a mountain, and while they are there, Jesus becomes
transfigured and his clothes become dazzling white, and he is seen talking with
Moses and Elijah. And as they witness this event, we are told not just that
Peter, James and John are not just afraid, but they are terrified. But, as they
are walking back down the mountain, Jesus tells them not to tell anyone about
this event until after he has been resurrected. And so of course what do they
not do? Tell anyone about it. But with the number of times that Jesus has
already mentioned it, and will do so again, you would begin to think that maybe
they would start to get this whole resurrection thing. But they don’t. And they don’t tell anyone, at least at the time,
what they have seen, although again you would think that would be a pretty hard
thing to be able to keep to yourself. And so there are some key elements in
that story that help us understand the story as the women make their way to the
tomb, including the fact that the disciples seem really terrible about the
whole following Jesus and discipleship thing.
And that becomes very clear when we contrast them against
others in the story, and it appears that the women followers are positive
examples. Because at the very least they are there at the cross. The disciples
have betrayed and denied and fled into the darkness, thinking again of the
parable of the sower, when the persecution and hardship appear it turns out
their roots are not very deep, and so their faith withers and dies and they
fall away. And so perhaps the women are the example of the good soil, and yet
we are told that they watch the crucifixion from a distance. It’s not clear
why, but perhaps so that they too are not identified as followers and
potentially punished by the authorities, but at least they are there. But if
90% of success is just showing up, then they are at least on the right path. But
then we again see that they too didn’t understand. While it’s not clear what
they may, or may not have heard about the passion predictions, we are told that
Jesus said all these things quite openly, so presumably they had heard about
his death and then also about his being raised on the third day, just as the
disciples had, but it’s clear they too didn’t believe it.
And that’s clear because we are told that they spend the
Sabbath, which had begun at sunset on Friday, sitting and waiting, and that
sometime on Saturday evening they go and buy some spices, and luckily they are
in a big town so they can find a store that sells spices open on a Saturday
night, and then they wait until sunrise on Sunday. Mark actually has what’s
known as a doubling in order to emphasize this, that they go very early, when
the sun had risen. But are they expecting to find Jesus gone? No! They are
expecting to find a dead body, that’s why they bought the spices so that they
can anoint the body properly for burial, which had not been done on Friday.
They are not expecting to find life; they are expecting to find death. And to
make that even more clear, as if the spices didn’t do it, what is the biggest
concern they have as they make their way to the tomb? Who is going to roll away
the stone from the entrance? And it’s not just one person who asks this, we are
told that they all were talking about this. We talk about the upcoming
scripture readings in our staff meeting each week, and Phillip this week said
that he sees this as their concerns about the affairs of the world, that Jesus
has been talking to them against, again think of the parable of the sower and
the types of soil. Their concerns are those of the practical things of the
world, the mundane tasks that have to be done, and we might ask where that
falls in a life of faith. And I know all the Martha’s of the world will say
“well, someone has to worry about it. Someone has to do all the things that
have to be done.” And it’s true, but where does that help and where does that
hurt our faith lives and our trust in God.
Because as it turns out the thing they were so worried
about, the thing that is occupying their conversation and time and thoughts on
the way to the tomb is not a concern at all, because when they get there the
stone has already been moved away. Their worrying turns out not to have been necessary
because God has solved the problem. And so they enter the tomb, and they see a
young man there in a white robe, think of the transfiguration and so we should
identify this man as a heavenly figure, and where is he sitting? On the right
side, think of the story of James and John wanting seats of power. And we are
told that they women are alarmed, and what does the man say? “Don’t be
alarmed.” This is a common phrase from divine figures, especially in the New
Testament for people who are terrified, “don’t be afraid,” although it occurs
only twice in Mark, here and then in the little apocalypse. And he continues,
you’re seeking Jesus, who is dead, but he’s not here. A rephrasing of that is
found in Luke when the angel says, “Why are you looking for the living amongst
the dead?” and then he says, and pay attention to the words, “Go and tell his
disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will
see him just as he told you.” And they flee from the tomb and tell no one what
they have heard or seen because they were afraid. Oh so much to do and so
little time.
Fear is a barrier to faith. And we see that throughout Mark.
Fear is one of the driving forces for the disciples and helps them not to be
able to see. They are fearful during the storm at sea, even though they’ve
already seen Jesus do some amazing things, and Jesu says to them “Why are you
afraid? Have you still no faith?” When they see him walking on the water, they
are afraid. They don’t understand the teachings and they are afraid to ask him
for explanation, and of course on Jesus’ last night they fear for their lives
and flee. And then it all comes to its logical conclusion with the story of
Easter morning, and who is not there? None of the disciples. But they are not
the only ones who fear, there are the women here, and when Jairus’ daughter
dies, and he thinks it’s too late to do anything Jesus says, “Do not fear, only
believe.” Fear is a stumbling block to faith and the women had a choice to make
because they were both afraid and amazed. Their amazement could have become
their driving force and overcome their fear leading them to do what the man had
told them, but instead fear drove them, and it drove them to be silent. And
we’ll come back to the idea of not fearing in Advent.
And so there are two points that I think Mark is making here
to highlight, although there are many that could be made. But the first is
about failure and redemption. As I said when we talked about the parable of the
sower, the disciples it turns out represent all four types of soil, and I said
that I thought the same was true for us. And that we might even be multiple
types of soil all at the same time, and so we should find some help and hope in
that, as we see with the disciples. Because the man says go and tell the
disciples and Peter, or some manuscripts say go tell the disciples and even
Peter, which I see as a note of forgiveness and understanding and a call to reconciliation.
Peter’s name has always been listed first in a list of the disciples, but here
it is last. But the good news for Peter, the good news for us, is that we are
so much more than the worst thing we have ever done in our lives. That while we
certainly remember Peter’s betrayal, it is not the summation of his faith,
because he will become a leader in the church, he too will be crucified, he
will go forth and proclaim the good news. All of the disciples failed, because
in some ways that is the nature of discipleship, and we will fail too, but it’s
what we do with our failures that matter, because God continues to call us back
into relationship and discipleship. Because of the death and resurrection of
Jesus, we are offered mercy and restoration and healing and wholeness and
forgiveness. We are called back into relationship with God no matter what we
have done. God continues to scatter seed into the soil of lives, the rocky
soil, thorny soil, the hard soil and even the good soil knowing that the word of
God is a powerful thing.
But the second point leads us back to that opening question
of wondering what Mark is doing here? Why does he end the story this way? And
if the disciples have all fled in terror, and the women run away in fear, and
no one tells anyone what they have seen or heard, how is the good news going to
spread? And that is exactly the right question to ask, because it might seem
like there is no one else who knows the story, but there is. We do. We heard
and witnessed Jesus appearing and say come follow me, and we heard and
witnessed Jesus’ teachings, and we heard and witnessed Jesus’ healings, and we
heard and witnessed the transfiguration, and we heard and witnessed the last
night, and we heard and witnessed the desperation of the cross and we heard and
witnessed the empty tomb. We are witnesses to it all, and so the question
becomes, as we have heard throughout Mark, are we going to be quiet or are we
going to tell the world what we have heard and seen? Are we going to be quiet
or are we going to tell the world what Christ has done for us? Are we going to
live lives of fear or are we going to live lives of faithfulness? Because while
I’ve said that Mark is a gospel without a beginning or an end, because it
doesn’t have a birth narrative or resurrection appearances, that is a true
statement only in relation to the other gospels. Mark does have both as it ends
going back to where it begins, it leaves Jerusalem and goes back to Galilee
where it all started, back into the wilderness which as I said in our first
week in looking at chapter one which is where salvation was being found. And so
we have Mark’s first line come back to us: “The beginning of the good
news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” and so we have the good news, what
are we going to do with it?
While some say that Mark doesn’t have an Easter story,
that’s not true. What he doesn’t have is a resurrection appearance. He has an
Easter proclamation, but his difference I think makes it even more powerful and
pertinent to us. Because if Mark had included appearances of Jesus on Easter,
then our call to discipleship comes at a remove, because it’s easy to believe
that the women and later the disciples would tell people that Christ had been
risen when they had actually been face to face with him. But here that is not
the case, and unless some of you have a story you haven’t told me, it’s not the
case for us either. All the women at the tomb in this account have that Jesus
has been raised from the dead is the testimony of the man in the tomb, and all
we have is the testimony of those who have passed the news on to us. And I know
this is redundant, but it’s really important: How will we respond? Are we going
to keep it to ourselves or are we going to tell others? Are we going to run
away in fear or are we going to out and proclaim all that Jesus has done for
us?
But this is not an individual call. This is also a community call, because the gospel was not written for individuals to read for personal enlightenment because few were literate. Instead it was written to be read and heard in community and to be responded to by the community. And so Mark has set out the call to discipleship and also set forth the cost of discipleship, and then says this is the good news. This is where we find our healing and our hope, our grace and our forgiveness, our peace and our comfort, this is where we find the ability and the reason to overcome our fears and the ways of the world, this is where we engage with God and work to bring about the kingdom of God, which has come near through the person of Christ, the son of God, the messiah, so come pick up your cross and follow and be a bearer of the good news to the world. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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