Easter Monday - "He is not here"

Monday, April 21, 2014

Mark 16:1-8 

     Robert will write more thoroughly about the ending of Mark’s gospel, so today I’ll just share a couple of thoughts on this passage. Today's passage is the ending of Mark's gospel as found in our most reliable manuscripts. If we accept or consider it as the original ending of the gospel it is notable for its abruptness. This, I suppose is in line with the rest of the gospel’s tone, which is very fast-paced and even frantic, with its recurring use of the word “immediately” that often serves to tie stories together.

     So today we have an empty tomb, a messenger from God, the reassurance that Jesus has been raised, and the instruction to spread the word. The gospels of Matthew and Luke share Mark’s wording: “he is not here” (16:6). This is the message of the story for me; that the sadness and finality that we expected has been overcome by God. In today’s story we do not have a glorious vision of the risen Lord, or a shared meal on the beach, or the examination of his wounds. We must rely on our possibly fleeting, confusing, and alarming experience, and the testimony of others. 

      Matthew’s gospel tells us that they left the tomb quickly, running to inform the disciples. Luke’s account seems to imply that the fear of the witnesses subsides, and they go to the apostles to spread the message of the empty tomb. Our passage in Mark, however, is quite a bit different: “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (16:8). It’s no wonder that the early Church may have seen this ending as unsatisfactory. But for many of us today, the terseness and ambiguity of this ending speaks in some way to our own experience. 

     Even with our doubts, fears, insecurities, and sometimes unsatisfied rational minds, I hope that we can cling to the message that he is not here, in the tomb. He has been raised and he goes before us.

-Matthew Kieswetter