EASTER
Psalm 30:1-5
Mark 16:1-8
April 12, 2009
Before you close your Bibles this morning I want you to pay special attention to two items. First, memorize the last sentence of the reading, “Because they were afraid.” Secondly, notice the notation about the oldest manuscripts not containing verses 9 through 20. We’re going to talk about this later.
Reading Mark’s Gospel is always a challenge, because Mark takes for granted that we are familiar with the traditions of his day, and the nuances of his language. For example, although verses one and two look like a single event, they are actually talking about two different days. Verse one says that after the Sabbath was over the women bought spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body. The Sabbath ended around 6:00 pm on Saturday night. At that time it was acceptable to leave your home and do some shopping, like buying spices, but it still would not be appropriate to visit a grave and touch a dead body.
Verse two takes place just after sunrise on the first day of the week; or Sunday morning. Now it is OK to travel to the tomb and anoint Jesus. The stores would be open to buy the spices on Saturday night, but you couldn’t touch the dead body. The stores would not be open before sunrise on Sunday, but you could touch the dead body. So, we’re looking at the women on two different days. Which brings up Mark’s next ambiguity; who were the women?
Mark says the women are Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. Mary Magdalene is pretty straightforward. She is a woman Jesus had exorcised, who then became a part of his entourage and provided him with financial support (Luke 8:1-3). Salome is also an easy one. She is the mother of the Apostles James and John; the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40).
It is the next Mary who is so confusing. Mark calls her Mary the mother of James. During the crucifixion Mark identifies a Mary, the mother of James and Joses. We know that Jesus’ mother Mary was present at his crucifixion (John 19:25); and that Jesus had younger brothers named James and Joses (Mark 6:3). So, he might be talking about Mary the mother of Jesus. But, there was another woman at the crucifixion called Mary the wife of Clopas who may have been the mother of the Apostle James son of Alphaeus (Mark 3:18). That makes her Mary, the mother of James. Mark just assumes we know which Mary he is talking about.
The women are traveling to the tomb, and clearly there is no expectation of a miracle. It never crosses their minds that Jesus might be alive. Their overriding concern is how to move that big stone out of the way and get to the body. The stones used to block the entrance to a tomb weighed anywhere from one to three tons. Mark says the stone was very large, so we assume he meant one of the three ton variety. What is more, these stones were usually rolled into place on a sloping ramp, so the stone had to be rolled uphill to move it. And, at this point, it appears the women are completely unaware that the authorities have posted guards at the tomb with orders to kill anyone who disturbs the body (Matthew 27:65-66).
When they arrive the stone has been rolled away. They enter the tomb and find a young man dressed in white. Again, Mark assumes we will recognize that this is an angel, the white clothing is supposed to be our clue (Matthew 28:2). Our other clue is that the young man’s first words are, “Don’t be alarmed”, or don’t be afraid. We talked about this several weeks ago when the topic was fear. They are in the tomb of the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea. The tombs of the wealthy had a large gathering area with little niches carved into the walls; just large enough for a body. The angel confirms for the women they are at the right tomb, looking at the right niche, for the right body – Jesus of Nazareth. This is Mark’s oblique way of saying, “Do not accuse the women of going to the wrong place. They were right where they should have been.”
The angel delivers the good news of Easter morning, “He is risen!” Jesus has defeated death exactly as he said he would! The Christ is alive! And then, the angel gives the women a mission. This is a mission from God. Go and tell the disciples, and especially Peter, that Jesus will meet them in Galilee. Mark is the only Gospel that singles out Peter to be told the good news. Remember that the Apostle Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew, and the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John. The early church believed that Mark learned the story directly from Peter’s lips, and that this is the Gospel of Peter. It seems reasonable. For example, Peter is the first, and the last, Apostle mentioned in this Gospel (1:16; 16:7).
Peter is making a big statement here. I am the most heinous of the Apostles, I am the one who denied Jesus three times in a row at his trial (Mark 14:66-72). Yet, there is forgiveness – even for me! In fact, especially for me! Everyone in this room needs to know; the sins of your past do not matter. There is complete and total forgiveness for you. Because Christ is risen, your sin does not exist (Psalm 103:12). Mark assumes that we get it.
Because of that great good news it might be surprising then that the women go and tell no one, they abandon their mission from God – because they were afraid. Remember I asked you to memorize that sentence? Virtually every scholar agrees that for the first fifty to one hundred years after Mark was written, this is where the Gospel ended. Because they were afraid. All of our oldest manuscripts end there.
After fifty years or so, two new and different endings began to circulate. One is called the shorter ending, and is taken directly from 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” That ending was tacked on so you would understand how the Gospel message got around since those wicked women never did tell anyone.
The second ending is called the longer ending, and is the one which appears as verses 9 through 20 in our pew Bibles. This ending is a pastiche; it is a patchwork of different sentences taken from the other three Gospels. With this ending you find out that the women did overcome their fear and spread the Gospel message as the angel had told them to do. But, the big question is why did people feel the need to add a different ending to Mark’s Gospel?
For the answer to that we go back to the Greek in which Mark wrote. Our version ends, “Because they were afraid.” But, in the Greek, ‘because’ isn’t the first word of that sentence, it’s the last. The true ending to Mark goes, “They were afraid because …” And it stops right there! Doesn’t that make you crazy? They were afraid because; because of what? Tell me Mark, what were they afraid of? But, that’s where it ends! Can you see why people were so obsessed that they felt compelled to add a new ending? In our own English version we move the word ‘because’ to the beginning of the sentence because we can’t stand for it to end that way.
Why would Mark stop right there, in the middle of a sentence? We will never know for sure, but there have been a lot of different theories over the years. One version says that he had a heart attack and dropped dead right there; face down in his Gospel. Perhaps he was scared to death by whatever had frightened the women so badly! Another theory proposes that Mark finished the sentence. But, what he wrote so thoroughly offended the early church that they tore the page out of his book and left it to end mid sentence. The next theory says that Mark finished the sentence, and what he wrote was so wonderful, amazing, and incredible, that people kept turning to the ending. They read the ending so much that they wore out the page, which fell out of the book, and was never seen again.
Modern theories seem to be a little more logical. They assume that Mark intentionally ended his Gospel mid sentence. Greek playwriting in the first century had developed the ploy – always leave the people wanting more. Mark may have ended his Gospel here so people wouldn’t read the story then walk away. He wanted them to hunt down members of the church and ask “What happened next? Where did the women go? What were they afraid of?” If Mark’s ending was intentional, it is literary genius. Two thousand years later we are still turning ourselves upside down wanting to know what the women were afraid of.
There are some pretty good guesses about the source of their fear. The dead coming back to life was one of the signs of the Jewish apocalypse – the end of times. You went to the tomb not expecting a miracle. Now, an angel tells you that Jesus is alive. It’s the end of times! At any moment the universe may explode and cease to exist. So, go home and check on your family before you worry about finding the Apostles. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
Another explanation is that the women have just seen a theophany; a physical manifestation of God. They have just become first hand witnesses to the almighty power of the creator Father God. At moments like that it is perfectly normal to be speechless and a little terrified. When Isaiah receives his vision of God on his throne looking for a prophet he is scared to death (Isaiah 6:1-5). When Jeremiah is called to be a prophet he stammers and stutters and tries to use his youth as an excuse to hide (Jeremiah 1:6-8). When Ezekiel sees the fiery angels calling him to ministry he falls face down to the ground and buries his head (Ezekiel 1:28). When God speaks to Peter, James and John during the Transfiguration they are terrified and fall on their faces with their eyes tightly closed (Matthew 17:6). Fear is not an inappropriate response to the awe of God.
Eventually, however, people recover from their fear and they do what they are supposed to do. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all accept their call to become prophets. Samuel is terrified by the voice of God, but eventually he tells Eli what he has heard (1 Samuel 3:15). Daniel is terrified to silence by his vision of evil kingdoms (Daniel 7:28). But, eventually, he works up the courage to go and tell the king. And, it is the same with the women. We have four Gospels in our Bible, and they make it perfectly clear that the women accept their mission and begin to tell the story of an empty tomb.
What is it that scares you, and keeps you from telling the story? Do you fear that God is not real, and Jesus is a myth? Are you afraid the Big Bang and Evolution proponents will laugh at you and call you uneducated? Are you afraid you will lose friends because they think you’re religious and pushy? Are you afraid you don’t know enough about the Bible to answer questions?
There are a hundred different ways to prove that Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true. But, the most powerful proof (for the past two thousand years) has always been in changed lives. The women went from fearful to bold. The Apostles, hiding behind locked doors, went from fearful to bold. In our own time, each of us knows of a person who has pushed beyond the boundaries of suffering, or loneliness, or persecution, or fear, or idolatry – through the power of the person of Jesus Christ. All you have to do, to tell the Gospel story, is to say, “Here is what Jesus has done for me!” When it comes to the good news you get to write the ending. Mark gave you that gift. Your life, your changed life, becomes the perfect ending to the sentence, “They were afraid because …”
J. D. Douglas & Merrill C. Tenney, editors, The New International Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987), 1022.
Kenneth L. Barker & John R. Kohlenberger III, Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, Volume 2: New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 202.
Barbara Brown Taylor, “Easter Sunday 2006: Acts 10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8”, Journal for Preachers 31:3 (Easter 2008), 10-13.
John Dart, “Unfinished Gospel? Mark’s enigmatic ending”, Christian Century 123:8 (April 18, 2006), 28-32.