The End of the Story?

Mark 16:1–8 NET

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought aromatic spices so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, at sunrise, they went to the tomb. They had been asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled back. Then as they went into the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been raised! He is not here. Look, there is the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples, even Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.” Then they went out and ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Most people that I know enjoy a good book. And sometimes they enjoy a certain author more than others. Now, sometimes an author does not finish a book due to the inconvenient fact of death. There have been several of these over the years: Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Michael Crichton, Truman Capote and others that are both well known and obscure. One of those who is not so well known is Jaroslav Hasak who wrote The Good Soldier Schvek. I listened to this story on an audio book and was intrigued by it. I really was interested to see how it ended. Then it ended abruptly. I mean it cut off right in the middle of a thought. I was outraged. How could the author have done such a thing? I read that he had died before finishing the novel, which answered all my questions. But I was still wondering is this the end?

There are other books that I read in the past which made me ask the question “is this the end of the story? If so, I don’t like this ending.”

It appears that we have this in the Gospel according to Mark. We have a great story throughout the book about Jesus and his ministry. The story of his passion takes up about one third of the book. And then comes the ending of the Gospel and one has to scratch their head and wonder if something is wrong here. Why would Mark end this story on such an in such an abrupt manner? Is this the end of the story?

To understand what is happening we need to have a little bit of context. What has occurred before this is the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus. The disciples all fled. They saw their hopes and dreams dashed. Why stay around for the hammer to come down on them as well? There were some women who watched from a little distance as the one whom they followed was crucified and then buried. They knew where to go when the whole thing was over. They knew that there had not been the anointing of the body to cover the smell of decomposition. They knew what they had to do.

It is hard to imagine what these women and disciples went through on that Sabbath day. Surely it was the darkest day of their lives. The man whom they had followed was dead. He mentioned earlier something about being raised from the dead, but that only occurred in the end times. Now, all of the things that they thought they hoped for were never to come to fruition. It seemed as if the sun would never rise again.

Then the Sabbath ended. The women went and bought spices to anoint the body, the body of the one whom they loved. They got up when they normally did which would have been early, usually before sunrise or right at sunrise. They traveled toward the tomb that they knew held the body. Along the way they are wondering who will help them to roll back the stone. It is interesting that they are just now thinking about this rather than before they left on their mission of love. This should have been on their minds before they left.

But when they reach the tomb it is open. The stone had been rolled back. This passive voice is what in the Greek is called a divine passive. No one else is around to roll the stone away, so who could have done this deed? God of course.

As they enter the tomb, they are met by a young man who tells them that the one whom they seek, Jesus of Nazareth, is not there. He has been raised. Another divine passive. This proves to all who are reading that the human being Jesus was dead and that it is God who moved to raise him from the dead. Jesus did not raise himself from the dead. It comes only from God the Father. This fact is so important that it is part of 7 of the 11 confessions in our Book of Confessions. And it is the news that is told to the women.

As they stand there in shock, they are told what Jesus had told the disciples (and possibly them), that he would meet them in Galilee after he had been raised. How can they remember such a detail after the trauma that they had experienced? Now think about this. Here they are, finding that Jesus is not there, being told that he has been raised from the dead. It is almost a miracle that they were able to remember who they were at that point.

Here is where we begin to wonder if this is the end of the story. The women are told to tell the disciples, and especially Peter, the news and that Jesus will meet them in Galilee. This is good news, Jesus is alive and wants to meet them all in the place where he did most of his ministry, where his base was, where he called home. There he is going to meet them.

But the women go running. They are terrified as most of us would have been as well. They just saw and talked to what could only be an angel. Of course, they are filled with amazement and trembling. But the real kicker is that they run off and do not tell anyone. Here they have the best news that they would have ever been able to tell and they don’t go out shouting it. But think for just a minute and put ourselves in their shoes. There would have been many questions to answer. Where did this young man come from? Are they sure they had the right tomb? Did they see Jesus? Why should we believe you women? Would be have done anything any different if we were those women?

They did not tell the news because they were afraid. And that is how the story ends in Mark. In the Greek text it ends with the word “for”. And we have to ask is this the end of the story? Is this how Mark ended his great story that begins with the “Good News of Jesus Christ”? We would have to say no. Someone had to tell the story because otherwise how would Mark know the story to tell? How would Paul have known about the resurrection had someone not told the story? We know that the death of Jesus is not the end of the story. We know that Jesus lives because someone told the rest of the story that they had discovered for themselves. And because we know that this is not the end of the story, we can live lives that are victorious over death.

We live in the time of now and not yet. The story did not end with Good Friday. It is still awaiting the end. At this time, we live in the moment of the Saturday between the Friday and the Sunday. The time we live in is waiting for the coming of Jesus to establish the reign of God on this earth. But we know that the end is coming. Because of our knowledge we ought to not be like the women at the tomb, to be silent because of fear. We know what happened and we should be out there proclaiming that the end of the story is not in death but in life. Lamar Williamson Jr. says this about the ending of Mark: “When is an ending not the end? When a dead man rises from the tomb-and when a Gospel ends in the middle of a sentence.” (Williamson, Lamar. Mark, Interpretation series. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, 2009. 283) Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Amen.