Read Mark 16:9-20

Unfinished Story

Wonder what happened to the last chapter of Mark?

Somehow this is typical of the kind of thing you would expect to happen to Mark. Always hurried, maybe he wrote an ending, meant to copy it, didn’t get to it, then the end of the scroll got torn off. Who knows? Anybody who has had text disappear into a computer can sympathize.

Anyhow, scholars tell us that verses 9-20 are not in two of the best ancient manuscripts. But someone, maybe Mark, maybe another hand, did give us a wonderful ending, fully consistent with the other three gospel stories.

Like so many passages in Mark’s gospel, this ending covers more ground in a few verses than Matthew, Luke, and John cover in pages. Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene. Mark tells it in three verses; John takes half a column (John 20:10-18). The closing sentences describe two more of Jesus’ appearances. Mark records Jesus’ great commission to tell the good news to all creation. In one verse he records the ascension and Jesus’ present position at the right hand of God. In the closing verse, we find the disciples have turned completely around. From disbelief in Jesus’ physical resurrection (v. 11), they begin to shout the good news (v. 20). Mark’s book closes with them fulfilling His command to preach everywhere.

The rest, as we say, is history.

Read Mark 16:1-8

Vanished Problem

The women had a problem. They discussed it as they walked: the huge stone Joseph of Arimathea had rolled over the mouth of Jesus’ tomb (15:46).

            Why did they make the effort to go to the tomb, knowing they probably couldn’t get in? Did they think they could charm the Roman soldiers guarding it to help them move the stone? Fat chance.

But they had to try. They just had to pay Jesus’ body full respect. They spent a lot of money for the spices on Friday after they knew He was dead. At first light on Sunday morning the women were on their way to the tomb.

Like some of our worries, this one dissolved. Not only was the stone rolled away, there was no body to anoint. The young man’s words are the foundation of our Christian faith: “He has risen! He is not here” (v. 6).

Did you ever wonder what they did with the unneeded spices? Fleeing the tomb, “trembling and bewildered” perhaps they dropped the containers and ran. Maybe they hung on to them and, later, when they had settled down a bit, they gave them to some poor family who could not afford proper anointing for their dead loved one. That’s a little fanciful. But it could have happened. The spices intended for Jesus could have become one of the first charitable gifts done in Jesus’ name.

Read Mark 15:21-41

Available God

A lot of things did not happen when Christ was crucified.

He didn’t carry His own cross. He did not accept the wine and myrrh, which would have deadened the pain at least a little (v. 23). He did not make a public display by coming down from the cross. He did not escape death.

What did happen is that, in spite of no sleep, no food, huge pain and blood loss, He remained rational, addressing God, His Father, in the closing moments of His earthly life (v. 34). God has done what He had to do, turned His back on His only Son, in order to complete redemption. We will never fully understand that.

Something else happened in the moment of Jesus’ death: the curtain of the temple split from top to bottom. That we do understand: The Old Testament ended. The New Covenant began. No longer was the Holy of Holies available only to the high priest. Now anybody could walk into God’s immediate presence at any time. We call it prayer. Notice that the curtain split from the top down. It’s another of those little details for which Mark is famous. The curtain was heavy linen. We would expect it to split from the bottom up. Not this time. The hand of God reached down and opened the way in for us all. (See Exodus 30:10; Lev. 16:2-19; Heb. 9:7; 10:19-23.)