More Endings to Mark

Mark 16:9-14, CEB - After Jesus rose up early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.  She went and reported to the ones who had been with him, who were mourning and weeping.  But even after they heard the news, they didn’t believe that Jesus was alive and that Mary had seen him.

After that he appeared in a different form to two of them who were walking along in the countryside.  When they returned, they reported it to the others, but they didn’t believe them.  Finally he appeared to the eleven while they were eating. Jesus criticized their unbelief and stubbornness because they didn’t believe those who saw him after he was raised up.

 

                These additions to Mark read like summaries of other works, which is why most scholars believe that they are indeed summaries from other gospel accounts and the book of Acts.  Today’s selection above likely is a combination summary from multiple other sources.  The editor was faithful to themes found earlier in Mark, most notably the highlight of the disciples tendency toward disbelief.  In the Gospel of John, Thomas is the resident skeptic, but here all of the disciples are confronted, eventually by Jesus Himself.  To the extent that we identify with the faltering disciples, we hear the intended message of this editor of Mark.  It is also seems likely that Mark would approve. 

                There have many times in my life where it seemed easy to believe.  In the wake of a miraculous healing, which I have witnessed multiple times, it even seems silly NOT to believe in the power and plan of God.  When everything is going my way, I feel sure that God surely is actively blessing me.  When evil is defeated in dramatic fashion, faith is a natural posture.  Mountain-moving faith is such times seems way more attainable.

                Unfortunately, such times do not represent the whole of our experience.  Relationships fail and it seems God is nowhere to be found.  It’s quite difficult to see the activity of God in earthquakes where tens of thousands of lives are lost and many more have their entire lives torn apart for the foreseeable future.  When the disappointments keep coming one after another. . .when children precede their parents in death. . . when the unthinkable personal tragedy strikes. . . in all these times, even a mustard seed’s amount of faith seems like a tall order. The disciples were having one of those moments.

                Even when they are given the news that what Jesus promised has indeed happened, they are stuck in their fugue state of disbelief.  I have to confess that I can relate.  Part of what happens here is human tendency to want to confirm and justify our current feelings.  Psychologists call this confirmation bias and it can be very powerful.   We want to confirm that we are right to feel the way do, even when we are confronted with evidence to the contrary.  This phenomenon is the reason why conspiracy theorists don’t let go of their false beliefs even when clear facts should convince them to do so.  This has happened to me more times than I can count.  None of us are exempt.

                The disciples are forced out of their disbelieving bias by the resurrected Jesus in the flesh.  It would awesome if Jesus would do the same thing for us, but at least for me, it hasn’t happened yet.  So how do we snap our of it when we find ourselves stuck in unbelief.  One of the practical suggestions from psychology to combat confirmation bias is to develop the habit of questioning your assumptions when you are assuming you are right.  The spiritual term for this is humility.  Further, as followers of Jesus, we should have a strong bias towards hope.  This is why Jesus scolds the disciples for their faithlessness.  They of all people should have had at least a healthy active bias towards belief because Jesus had never let them down before and He promised them that He would be raised. 

                While it may not seem like it sometimes, we have no less reason to have a hopeful bias.  We, the Christian church, stand in a line of two thousand years of God’s faithfulness and kept promises.  Through the severest of persecutions, through long periods of decline and darkness, and through impossible challenges, God keeps delivering the church and its people to new life and vitality.  Empires, dynasties, and seemingly unstoppable tyrants have come and gone, but the church keeps finding itself sustained and renewed.  God is always faithful, so our bias should be hope in all circumstances.  More on this next time.

 

Question:  Have you ever been the victim of confirmation bias?  How does it interplay with your faith?

 

Prayer:  Holy Spirit, install a bias of hope within our souls that persists in all circumstances.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who do jobs we could never see ourselves doing. 

 

Song:  The Blessing – Angelica Bias

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wUlFCe-55A

First Additional Ending to Mark

Mark 16:9a, CEB - They promptly reported all of the young man’s instructions to those who were with Peter. Afterward, through the work of his disciples, Jesus sent out, from the east to the west, the sacred and undying message of eternal salvation. Amen.

 

                In the last reflection, we noted that verse 16:8 was almost certainly the original ending of the Gospel of Mark.  In the church’s current version there are at least two or three additions that were most likely added in the second century AD after the other three gospels (and the book of Acts) were published and distributed.  The support for this claim is that it seems some of the details from those other sources were collected and tacked onto Mark.  Rather than completely dismiss them, we can gratefully receive them as a faithful witness to us from the church of the second century after Jesus’s time on earth.

                This first addition to Mark above seeks to deal with the discomfiting ending of the original gospel, which ends with the witnesses to the resurrection saying nothing to nobody. 

“Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8)

While the women might possibly have remained quiet for a time, the other gospels give testimony to the fact that the primary witnesses of the resurrection were indeed these women.  They eventually told people. 

                The second half of this new short ending echoes the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20:

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you.”

Whoever was responsible for this addition wanted to make sure that the early church was clearly committed to this primary directive of Jesus to share the news of the Gospel with all peoples.  To be clear, this is in keeping with Mark’s concern in chapter 13:10, which states,  “first, the good news must be proclaimed to all the nations.”

                The fact that the editor felt the need to include a reminder of the primary mission of the church at the end of Mark just a couple of generations after the great explosion of the church’s mission in the first century is telling of how quickly the church seems to wander off-mission and begin to focus on less critical matters. 

                In our own day, culture wars, political wrangling, and protection of the status quo have left the church needing to be reminded again of what the main thing should be – the core gospel message that salvation is now accessible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The church is not primarily a social club, holy huddle, or even a philanthropic organization.  The church is the primary vehicle God has chosen to continue the mission of Christ.  Where disciples are not being made, the church is not the actually the church. 

 

Questions:  In the church where you are most associated, what is the most important thing based on the way it spends time and resources?  When was the last time you were witness to a person beginning to follow Jesus for the first time?

 

Prayer:   God, forgive us for all the time, energy, and resources we expend on things that have no eternal significance.  Show us what Your mission looks like in our neighborhood and give us courage, discipline, and wisdom to engage it with our heart and lives. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for churches around the world facing persecution right now.

 

Song: Reach One More – Rich Muchow

This first link is Rick Warren telling the story behind the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud0-7vo6tZE

This is the actual song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeFR4WhEzTY