In
We began at the beginning, and we have come to the end of Mark’s gospel, so I guess we should stop… Except that most scholars agree that what we have here is not the original ending of Mark’s gospel. Most contemporary translations of the Bible have a little line in the text after verse 8 and a note saying something like, “The oldest and most reliable manuscripts do not have Mark 16.9-20.” What probably happened was that the last page of the original was lost some time in the first century and someone filled in the blank.
So, how did he (or she) decide what to write? I think if Shakespeare had been given the task of finishing Mark’s gospel he might have used one of his two favourite endings. Most of Shakespeare’s plays end in one of two ways. (Not all of them, but many of them.) In his tragedies everyone dies. Actually, usually everybody kills everybody else, so by the end of the play the stage is littered with dead bodies. So, a possible ending to the story would have been that the Romans and the Jewish authorities succeeded in putting down this new movement by the most efficient method possible, killing all the followers. This is in fact what has happened to the church at various places and times in history. It is true that you can’t kill an idea, but you can kill everybody that holds it.
However, if that had happened, we wouldn’t be sitting here today, because no-one would have been alive to write any of this.
Shakespeare’s other major ending is that everybody lives happily ever after and, rather than killing each other, everybody marries each other. But wait! Someone has already written a book with that story line. It was called the “daVinci Code.”
Either one of those endings, or any number of variations on them, would have worked; if Mark’s gospel had just been the story of a humble teacher who came from Galilee, who taught us all how to be better people, and who ticked off the authorities so much that they killed him. If Mark’s gospel had ended at 15.46, “Then he [Joseph of Arimethea] rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb,” any number of nice clean endings would have worked.
Except that Mark’s gospel doesn’t end there. We have eight more verses, and those verses mean that “normal” endings just won’t do.
Jesus died about 3 o’clock on Friday afternoon. By the time that Joseph had gotten permission from Pilate to bury Jesus’ body, bought the linen to wrap it, taken him down off the cross and placed the body in the tomb it would have been close to sunset, the time when the Sabbath starts, and the women, who had been watching all this, would have had to rush back to where they were staying to spend the Sabbath there.
It couldn’t have been an easy 24 hours for them. Imagine going to church after just seeing the man you have followed for three years, the one that you thought was God’s chosen one, executed on a Roman cross. I imagine that their prayers that Sabbath had a lot of “Why Lord?” in them.
Why Lord… Why did Jesus have to die? And why did he have to die like that; on a cross?
Why Lord… Why did we spend the last three years of our lives following this man? We gave up everything to follow him, and what do we have to show for it? Nothing!
Why Lord… Why didn’t you step in and save him, and us, and set up your kingdom on earth?
I imagine it was a long day of prayers, tears and questions.
Then, When the Sabbath was over,
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they
might go to anoint Jesus’ body.
The Sabbath ended at about 6 o’clock on Saturday evening. At that point the stores would reopen for a few hours in the twilight and the women could go out to the bazaar and buy the spices they would need to finish off the process of giving Jesus a proper burial.
Jewish burial rites were quite different from ours. For one thing the body had to be buried the same day. So the body would be washed and wrapped in linen with spices placed in the folds. Then the body would be laid out on a stone slab in a rock tomb. A year later, once all the flesh had gone from the body, the family would return and collect the bones up into a little box, called an ossuary, which would then be buried more permanently in the tomb with those of other family members who had passed on.
These women were not expecting anything unusual. Jesus had spoken a number of times about rising from the dead, but obviously it had gone right over their heads. You don’t buy burial spices to anoint a dead body if you’re expecting the person to rise from the dead. These were sad, perhaps disillusioned, women who wanted to do one last act of service for Jesus.
They went out to the bazaar on Saturday evening, bought some burial spices and went home. They probably went to bed early so they could get an early start for the tomb the next morning.
So, Very early on the first day
of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they
asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
Three women, on their way to perform the burial rites for Jesus’ body, and, as they’re on their way, they realise that they have no way to actually get into the tomb. What they needed were a couple of those big, strong fisherman-disciples that had been following Jesus for the last three years. Where were they? Luke tells us that they were actually back at the house where the women had started out from. Wherever they were, they weren’t around. They had all run off on Thursday evening, and they were still keeping their heads down; just in case the authorities come looking for them.
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone,
which was very large, had been rolled away.
Jewish tombs were usually cut out of a rock face then a rock was either rolled or slid across in front of the opening to seal them. The tombs of poor people were sealed with smaller, squarish blocks while those of richer people, like Joseph of Arimethea, had slabs that had been cut to a wheel shape so they rolled. Either way, the stone was heavy and the last thing they expected was to come round the corner and see the tomb open.
So, probably a little frightened about what they might find, they bent down and went into the tomb.
5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man
dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
[man falling into open grave in the dark]
You bet they were alarmed. This morning is getting weirder and weirder. First the tomb is open. Then, when they go inside, instead of a body, they find a person in white.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for
Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the
place where they laid him.
It’s just as well he told them not to be alarmed! Otherwise they would have been hightailing it for home before he got his message across. And that would have been a shame because it’s an important message.
“You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was
crucified… See the place where they laid him.
You’re in the right place, looking for the right person.
He has risen! He is not here.
But he’s not here, because he has risen from the dead.
You’ll hear all kind of theories to explain why Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead. But the angel’s message is clear. The women have come to the right place. This is the tomb where Jesus was laid. They haven’t gotten confused.
But he is gone. Over the next few
days a number of people are going to see Jesus. In fact, the angel gives the
women a message for the disciples, But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He
is going ahead of you into
Seeing people after they’re dead isn’t
unheard of. It’s unusual, but not unknown. Whether it’s psychological or not, I
don’t know, but people do see ghosts. And it is quite possible that the
experiences that the disciples had would have been seen as nothing more than
ghost stories – except for one thing. Jesus’ body was gone.
And you don’t have to be a Christian to believe that. There are Jewish scholars and agnostic scholars who agree that Jesus’ body was gone and that the disciples saw him afterwards. There’s at least one Jewish scholar who agrees that Jesus rose from the dead. He’s just not sure that makes him the Messiah.
So you can see, that makes any “normal” ending to Mark’s gospel just not an option.
In fact, none of the gospels really “end.”
The closest you get to a normal “end” is
John’s gospel, which is kind of an apology for not writing more. 25 Jesus did many
other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that
even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
Matthew’s gospel ends with what has been
called the “Great Commission.” 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Luke’s gospel is actually the first part of a two part series, Luke and Acts. Luke’s gospel ends with the story of Jesus’ ascension to heaven and Acts begins by repeating that event and moving on to what happened next.
All of the gospels are open-ended. They
point on beyond the end of the story to something more, because the end of the
book is not the end of the story. To borrow a line from Winston Churchill “This
is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps, the
end of the beginning.” Luke says as much at the beginning of Acts. Acts chapter
1 verse 1, In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about
all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he
was taken up to heaven…
You see, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection aren’t the whole story. As Luke says, they’re just the beginning of the story. Jesus may have been taken up into heaven but he is alive. He’s alive today. And he continues his work of reconciliation and salvation. He’s alive in his people, the church. That’s why the New Testament begins with the gospels, but doesn’t end there. It goes on to include the story of the new-born church, in Acts, and some of the issues the church had to face, in the epistles.
And we’re part of that story too. Whoever filled in the end of Mark’s gospel gives us a little précis of the next few weeks.
9 When Jesus rose early on the
first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had
driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with
him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus
was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they
were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to
the rest; but they did not believe them either.
14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them
for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had
seen him after he had risen.
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all
creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but
whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will
accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will
speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands;
and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will
place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and
he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and
preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by
the signs that accompanied it.
But we can add more to the story… And the
gospel spread across the
Two thousand years later the end of the story is still not written. The power that raised Jesus from the dead continues to empower his people.
As we read through Mark we saw how people responded to Jesus. Some, like Bartimaeus, followed him. Others, like the rich young ruler, found the cost too great. That story still continues. Jesus is still calling people today. He’s calling us to follow him and to serve him.
We are part of this story. Jesus lives in us and he wants to work through your life, and mine, to change the world for good, for justice, for compassion.
You may think that you’re insignificant.
Those around you may think that you’re insignificant. But the truth is that you
are part of this amazing story. This story of how God stepped into the world to
bring us back to himself. And that story continues through your life, and my
life, and our lives together, because Jesus promises, anyone who has
faith in me will do what I have been doing. [They] will do even greater things
than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14.12)