Sermon Talkback 4 12 2009
Our Continuing Ending Story—Mark 16:1-8
Abrupt Ending
The most likely original ending of Mark is 16:8 which is one of the most perplexing things about the Second Gospel. The church has long preferred the Easter stories from Matthew, Luke and John, where the resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples, commissioning them to tell their stories abroad. Mark’s ending was so dissatisfying to ancient readers that two separate endings were supplied by scribes who copied the manuscript. The longer of these became widely accepted as a part of the Gospel and appeared in many translations as verse 9-20. However, the best ancient manuscripts do not contain either the short or the long ending. Eusebius, a church historian of the fourth century, testified that in his day, the most accurate copies concluded with verse 8.
Did Mark intend to end his Gospel this way?
1. Many scholars insist that Mark must have included a fulfillment of the prediction of 14:28 which is emphasized in 16:7: “But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” The last page of the Gospel, it is argued, must have broken off the scroll before further copies were made, but probably after Matthew used Mark as the source of his stories about the appearance of Jesus to the women in Jerusalem and to the disciples in Galilee (Matt. 28:9-10, 16-20).
2. Other scholars urge that Mark had good reasons for ending the Gospel with the fear of the women. There was no need to supply stories about the risen Christ, because such stories were well known to his Christian readers. Furthermore, the theological reason is that Mark was convinced that some Christians were focusing so much attention on the glory of the resurrected Christ that they were forgetting that discipleship means following the crucified Jesus. It is not from Easter but from the humiliating defeat of the Crucified that we learn to humble ourselves, deny ourselves, and consider the needs of others above our own (8:31-37).
3. Mark’s Gospel is a passion Gospel. The resurrection narratives, however powerful in themselves, would not erase the profound impression made on the reader by the persistent emphasis on Jesus’ dying, which dominates the narrative from 8:31 on.
Seeing and Believing
Our faith in the resurrection is one of not seeing and believing, of failed discipleship and redemption, of impossibility and paradox. In short, the resurrection narrative in Mark is an account of an absence and the promise of a presence. Resurrection narratives in the gospels have never been stories based on sight. In fact, the theme of many of these stories is that perception is deceiving; people only see what they are expecting, which is not the resurrected Christ: Mary Magdalene see the gardener (John 20:14-15); the travelers on the road to Emmaus believe Jesus to be a stranger (Luke 24:13-30). Faith operates independently from physical sight.
Physical sight does not guarantee spiritual insight. It is those who deride Jesus on the cross who make the connection between sight and faith most clearly: “Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:32). While they proclaim a spiritual truth, they do not realize that it is in his humiliating death that his kingship is present. Coming down from the cross would have disrupted God’s purpose rather than encouraging their belief.
The story of Jesus’ resurrection depicts no visible proof. An empty tomb in itself is not confirmation of a resurrection. Nevertheless, the women are asked to believe what Jesus has told them, that on the third day, he would rise again (Mark 8:31, 10:34; 9:31). They must put their faith in a revelation that remains hidden to their sight (“he is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him.” [16:7]).
Impossibility and Paradox
Mark does not proclaim a faith set in stone, supported by sights seen. Mark proclaims a paradox: Jesus life and death point to a hidden God who is revealed in Jesus’ ministry, and ultimately, in his resurrection. Even though all calls to discipleship in Mark are left unfulfilled by everyone except for Jesus, who does the will of God, these calls for discipleship remain open. Thus, it is up to us to “continue ending the story.”
Ultimately, Easter is not about the faithfulness of the disciples (or for that matter our faithfulness). Easter is about the mercy and faithfulness of God, for whom the impossible is possible, and with whom human fear and silence do not have the last word. The current paradoxes of presence in absence will one day be resolved as this resurrection means new life from the “ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (13:27).
Happy Easter and may your faith in Jesus Christ grow by continuing to fulfill your call to discipleship!