Text used – Mark 16:1-8

• It is Easter morning, friends! We get to declare to one another and to the world that Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! … Or … has he?
  • Of course, we know that he has because we’ve had the benefit of the other gospels accounts for centuries – stories of the women discovering the empty tomb and encountering first the stranger in white robes to tell them Jesus had been raised and later the resurrected Christ himself → But I want you to imagine for a moment that Mark’s gospel account – the Scripture that we just read – was the only account that we had of the resurrection this morning.
    • Remember, Mk’s gospel was written first – a full 10-20 yrs. before either Matthew or Luke → So for at least a decade, this was the only account that the early church had. And how does it end? – text: Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.[1] → Not exactly the happy ending we’re used to, is it?
• So let’s address the various endings of Mark’s gospel this morning. Because there’s more than one ending. In fact, there are three.
  • Pew bibles: p. 830
    • End of the full paragraph at the top of the p. = what we read today → ends the gospel with the women fleeing the tomb, terrified into silence by their unbelievable encounter → This is where the most ancient surviving versions of Mark’s gospel end.
    • Small bracketed section below that = “The Shorter Ending of Mark” → ends with two short sentences about the women relating their experience to Peter and the oddly cryptic statement: “And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”[2] → Note that even in this ending, there is no mention of a resurrected Jesus appearing to anyone.
    • Larger bracketed section that fills out the rest of Mk’s gospel on p. 830 = “The Longer Ending of Mark” → includes 11 extra verse that encompass Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, Mary going to share the news with the others, Jesus appearing again to the rest of the disciples, Jesus commissioning the disciples to “go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation”[3], and finally Jesus ascension into heaven → It’s an ending much more in line with the rest of the gospels, but some of the oldest versions we have of Mark that do include this section also include marking next to this whole section indicating doubt in its authenticity.
  • Essentially, this means that the oldest, most authentic testimony we have of that first Easter Sunday included silence … and fear … and uncertainty. Why? Well … I’m so glad you asked.
• As odd as it may sound, Mark’s version of the Easter resurrection story is probably my favorite exactly because it is so ambiguous. It feels more authentic. It feels more like real life. Because while it’s no secret that we all like happy endings the best, we also know that life isn’t always a series of happy stories all strung together.
  • Real life can be …
    • Hard
    • Frustrating
    • Painful
  • Real life involves …
    • Grief
    • Uncertainty
    • Fear
  • Sometimes the events of our real lives feel out of our control. And that’s exactly why I think Mark’s Easter account is such a crucial part of our overarching Story: because even in the ambiguous darkness of those early morning hours … even in the ludicrous audacity of the empty tomb … even in the terrified silence that strikes the final chord in Mark’s tale, the Good News endures. Mark’s gospel doesn’t end with a period. There is no full stop with this good news. Mark’s gospel ends with an ellipses – that simple punctuation mark of three dots that indicates an omission of words … or a pause … or suggests there is something left unsaid. Mark’s gospel concludes … with a continuation.
• And I find this sort of ending to Mark’s gospel powerful for two reasons.
  • FIRST: Mk’s ending is powerful because it bring the unmitigated grace and comprehensive salvation of a risen Christ into all our moments and experiences – the uncertain and broken ones as well as the happy ones
    • It’s not about us being perfect enough to share the good news. It’s about the good news overcoming any and all barriers … even us. – scholar: The women’s response also brings readers face to face with the mystery of faith. There are no heroes among Jesus’ followers. The hostility that puts Jesus on the cross has reduced them all to flight and fearful silence. … However imperfect our faith and however many times we remain silent when we should testify to the gospel, we can always return to the Lord. None of us can get so far away from Jesus that we cannot be touched by [God].[4]
    • Another scholar put it so beautifully, I just had to share her words with you this morning – scholar: It is finally a story in which we face the reality of God’s presence to us in the sturdy, raw facticity of history. God is present not only in the loud hallelujahs and glorious proclamations of a grand, churchly Easter morning … God persists as well in the midst of speechlessness, in death, in the outer regions of our own experiences and of our social lives, where life unfolds underfoot, as it were. Mark gives us a powerful account of God’s good news by giving us these traumatized, determined women as witnesses to God’s truth – it is not just pride or falsehood or arrogance or violent boasting that God redeems. It is also the nether regions of life where we are broken by violence and by love and by sheer exhaustion of the labor it takes to go on. Here, where we expect to find him dead, the tomb does not hold him … And with often unspoken force, grace abounds.[5]
  • SECOND: powerful because the open-endedness of Mk’s ending emphasizes what the “young man in a white robe” said to the women – text: He said to them, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.”[6]
    • Scholar: One of Mark’s unique claims is that Jesus is absent. Not only is the tomb empty (as each Gospel reports), but Jesus is not there—and nobody sees him. How can this possibly be good news? The other Gospels offer concrete assurances that Jesus is present with his followers even after the end of his earthly ministry. But in Mark there is no Paraclete to comfort them (as in John), no fellow traveler to explain everything (Luke), not even the promise “I am with you always” (Matthew). In Mark, the resurrected Jesus is not described as being “with you”; instead he is “going ahead of you.” If that is true, then death is stripped of its power. There is nothing Jesus’ followers will endure, no place they can go, that Jesus isn’t already there.[7] → Mark’s open, even uncertain ending to his gospel leaves that open space for Jesus to go on ahead – not just ahead of the disciples but ahead of us as well: into our shadowed moments … our uncertain moments … our fearful moments. Jesus goes on ahead through the grief that we think will shatter us … through the anxiety that we feel paralyzes us … through the desperation that we feel weighs us down. In those moments that seem wholly impossible to navigate, the good news of Mark’s gospel is that Jesus has already made a way for us. Ultimately, this ambiguous ending to Mark’s gospel is an ending of triumphant hope – hope that is raised, even if we’re too scared to declare it so … hope that exults over something even as seemingly-certain as death … hope that shines brighter than the dawning sun even in the face of all that would blot it out … hope that doesn’t negate or omit the most broken aspects of our lives but instead promises blessing in the midst of that brokenness.
      • Leave you with the words of Jan Richardson this morning – from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons: “Therefore I Will Hope” → This was written as a blessing for Holy Saturday – that time in the cycle of liturgical seasons between Jesus’ death on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter morning. A Holy Saturday, or Easter Vigil, service is a service of waiting and grieving, but it is also the mirror image of the Good Friday service the night before – a service which begins in darkness, but as the evening wears on and Easter morning draws ever closer, the light begins to make its way back into the sanctuary.
        • Often includes baptism – a welcoming of others into the body of Christ even as Christ’s body is being resurrected again
        • Often held between sunset on Saturday, or sometimes even midnight, and concluded with a sunrise service on Easter morning
        • Often includes the relights of all the candles snuffed out during the Good Friday service
        • Holy Saturday is a liminal time within the cycle of our faith, just like the end of Mark’s gospel feels like liminal time – time that is in between … time that is both darkness and light … time that is weighty with both grief and joy, uncertainty and blessing. → [read “Therefore I Will Hope”] Amen.

[1] Mk 16:8.

[2] Mk 16 – “The Shorter Ending of Mark” (NRSV).

[3] Mk 16:15 (NRSV).

[4] Pheme Perkins. “The Gospel of Mark: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 8. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 733.

[5] Serene Jones. “Easter Vigil – Mark 16:1-8 – Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 356.

[6] Mk 16:6-7 (CEB – emphasis added).

[7] Audrey West. “Commentary on Mark 16:1-8” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/resurrection-of-our-lord-2/commentary-on-mark-161-8-9, accessed March 31, 2024.