Mark 16:1-8, CEB - When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ dead body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb. They were saying to each other, “Who’s going to roll the stone away from the entrance for us?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away. (And it was a very large stone!) Going into the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right side; and they were startled. But he said to them, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.” Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Today, after
a long and painful journey through the extensive suffering, death, and burial of
Jesus, we finally get to celebrate the resurrection. Just as He said multiple times, the news has
finally been shared with the same women who witnessed Jesus crucifixion and death. Notice, however, that even though they have
been told over sand over Jesus will be raised, their expectation that morning
was that they would be anointing a dead body with prepared spices. They expect that this will be their last
service and kindness to Jesus. The
message that Jesus’s predictions have come true, and He has indeed been raised
apparently completely undoes them.
“Overcome with terror and dread,
they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”
The original Gospel of Mark ends with the above
sentence. Mark 16:9-20 were all added later
out probably because this ending was so unsatisfactory. The women flee out of terror and dread and
tell no one what they have seen and heard.
The original gospel ends with fear, not celebration.
The
other obvious difference between Mark and other three gospels in the New Testament
is that there is no appearance of the resurrected Christ. There is only the news that He has raised
given by a divine messenger. This too
was unsatisfactory to later readers of Mark, so the added ending in vs. 16:9-20
also list multiple encounters with the risen Christ. Because these endings are found in the
current version of the gospel, we will work through them in coming reflections. But for now, let’s continue to dwell on the
unsettling original ending.
What I
like about Mark ending his account here is that it matches up with most people’s
original encounter with the resurrection.
It is perhaps the hardest part of the gospel to embrace. Resurrection is an outlier of our experience.
Certainly, we have many modern-day
examples of people being brought back from the dead through heroic medical
interventions and/or rare environmental conditions. However, these events usually occur minutes or,
at the most hours after the heart stops beating and almost never involve the
kind of incredible trauma that cause Jesus’s
death. Jesus is raised after at least
two full 24-hour periods of being dead with no medical intervention. He is lying in a tomb. Just like the women, embracing that kind of
reality requires us to overcome some fear and dread that we are latching on to
false hope. It would be also be
understandable that in this time of uncertainty, we would say nothing to no one.
If
indeed Mark intended to end his account here, it seems we are left, like the
women in the resurrection account, to wrestle with how we can embrace the good
news of the resurrection. It also leaves
open the possibility that we could have our own “encounter” with the risen
Christ.
Question: Do you have
any memory of your first reaction to the news that Jesus was raised from the
dead?
Prayer: Risen Christ,
help us experience for ourselves the reality of Your victory over death. Overcome our fears and doubts, so that we may
become witnesses to the resurrection.
Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray for people you know who do not have a relationship
with Jesus.
Songs: Resurrection
Medley – Willow Creek Community Church
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