The Resurrection of Jesus (The Gospels)-- The Gospel of Mark: Fear and Trembling

The following is part 3 of an intended 4 part series (now longer) which reflects on the resurrection of Jesus. It is, at times, highly technical which is due to the fact that it comes from a three-hour lecture that I gave for a class on the Historical Jesus at Tyndale University College in 2004. I am going to extend the discussion on Resurrection in the Gospels into four seperate blog entries (one for each Gospel)...

Listen to the end of Mark’s Gospel: “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (16.8). Most likely the rest of Mark that you have in your Bible is a development of later manuscripts. So, what we have is a gospel that has no resurrection narrative, not even a sighting; we have only an empty tomb.

Now, many scholars see this ending as unfulfilling and thus they desire to construct an ending that was most likely lost at some point in Mark’s circulation; or even burned in the fires of Rome in AD 64. This account, many say, does not satisfy Mark’s readers who have been strung along through the whole Gospel being told about rejection, suffering, handing over and death (which the reader has gotten lots of) and now for the pay off…the fulfillment of the rest of this crucial prophecy (Mk. 8.31; 9.9) and Mark doesn’t deliver the goods!

Proponents of this idea say it is unlikely that Mark's Gospel would simply end with women "saying nothing to anyone, for they were afraid" They say, the lost account of Mark’s resurrection narrative would work to do the same thing that John 21 does: to reinstate the disciples (Peter ‘Do you love me…’ three times paralleling his three denials) after their failure and their shame during Jesus' trials when the deserted him.

The construction put forth by these scholars says that Mark’s story would have looked something like Matthew’s because up until this point in the narrative Matthew has followed Mark so closely. So why shouldn't the two continue to be the same?

But what if this point about the disciple’s failure is precisely where we need to look to conclude not that Mark’s ending is lost, but why in fact Mark’s ending is what it is: a perfect ending to a book like Mark.

What if this abrupt ending in Mark is not a mistake at all; or any type of “problem”. What if it is, what some have called, a “Literary Masterpiece.” Whereby 16.1-8 is a brilliant conclusion to the Gospel as a whole bringing Mark’s two major themes to culmination: 1) the hidden secret of Jesus as Messiah and Son of God and 2) discipleship, more specifically, the problem of ‘discipleship failure’.

Mark's “messianic secret” (the fact that no one properly understands Jesus as the Messiah throughout Mark's Gospel, except the demons and he tells them not to tell anyone--1.24-25) has been partially lifted by the Centurions cry at the foot of the cross: “Surely this man was the Son of God”(15.30), and now the angelic presence (‘young man’ in Mark; 'angel' in Matthew) discloses that secret completely. Though ‘Son of God’ language is not used in the story, the explanation that he is risen is to tie in with the earlier moments when Jesus described his crucifixion and raising from the dead together (8.31; 9.9). If Jesus has been raised, as he had said he would be than all of the other claims about his Messiahship have been vindicated as well. Jesus is now shown to be the Son of God (which God declared him to be at his baptism; 1.11)— whom he has claimed to be this whole time, but which the disciples had failed to see.

The second of Mark’s major themes is in view also: the discipleship failure theme. It is of course this failure that makes the ending seem wrong to begin with. “How can Mark leave us with the women in fear and ashamed”? We may ask. The reason? Because if one were reading Mark they would see the juxtaposition: that the disciple’s continuous failure always led to Jesus’ continued faithfulness:

-The disciples flee at the arrest of Jesus (14.50)
-Peter denies Jesus during the Passion narrative
-And yet the message of the angel at the empty tomb is addressed to whom? “The disciples and Peter” (16.7). The next logical step in the story in that Jesus would make good on his promise to meet them in Galilee (16.7)

Now, the women at the tomb “are afraid” (16.8) and Mark gives us an ironic ending that leaves the rest up to the audience. We have seen what people do when they are commanded to “tell no one” (the leper in ch.1) they go and tell everyone! Now the women “say nothing to anyone” though they have been commanded to tell. This may be a problem of discipleship failure, but it is not one that is simply left there if we understand the promise of 16.7 (that the disciples will see Jesus in Galilee) in light of 14.28 (Jesus' promise that the disciples’ misunderstanding and failure (their “falling away”--14.27) will be reversed by a Galilee experience.

Of course picking up all of these nuances is dependent on us being good readers of story in general which we tend not to be...