Meditations in Mark Ch. 16 07/02/2023

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Welcome to the RefleXion Community!  The Lord is with you.

Take a deep breath.  Chuck and Jim almost always use this phrase to lead us in to our quiet time, whether it be here on Sunday mornings or in preparation for Lectio Divina.  Meditation teachers use the breath not only to prepare us, but as an anchor to bring us back to center if our mind wanders during meditation.  I’m familiar with using breath work in these ways.  And, just recently, I have realized that a deep breath or two will bring me back to Presence, to the present, in my daily walking-around life. 

I am often focused on the future: “What’s next?  How can I resolve that?  What’s the plan?”  I have an habitual “future orientation.” Some of us are more “past oriented,” ruminating on “What happened?  Why did I do that?  What if I had made another choice?  That was an awful experience, etc.”  Those types of thoughts keep us in the past.  Our minds can be habituated in either direction, as our pattern of thinking.  The breath has been very effective at bringing me back to being present—to the person in front of me, to God with me, to information being presented.

I’ve been noticing that when I’m stuck in my future orientation mode, it’s accompanied by a sense of urgency, and I have come to realize that that’s because there’s not enough oxygen there—in the future.  My breath is shallow, which creates a sense of urgency, of hurry. It feels to me like inhale, inhale, inhale just to keep going.  I mentioned this to a friend who gets stuck in a past orientation.  She said that to her living there was exale, exale, like a long sigh.  I don’t know if anybody here can relate, but I thought I’d share my experience.  In any situation I can use a few deep breaths to foster Presence.  So, when I catch myself not paying attention and my mind is wandering, I come back to a full breath of inhale and exhale, and that puts me in Presence; that’s where the oxygen is.

The book of Job talks about the breath of life:

“In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.  The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

Our opening prayer today comes from Psalm 150.  Please join with me:

Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!  Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!  Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!  Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Intro: We’ve come to the last chapter in Mark’s gospel

And to the enigma at the end of the book
– that’s because the story ends at Mark 16, verse 8
• you say, “Chuck! My Bible still has more verses”
◦ “Yes, I know, but read the fine print”
• the most ancient manuscripts that we have in our possession end at verse 8
◦ scholars tell us the quality of the Greek writing changes at verse 9
◦ the evidence supports the abrupt ending
– this has become a fascination for me – so, it has been a frequent meditation
My meditation: “Verse 8 is a fitting end to a story well told. Rather than satisfy our curiosity regarding what happened next, we are left in suspense. Verses 9-20 are clumsy in comparison to the rest of Mark. I imagine an ancient scribe coming to the last line and feeling like the bridge is out. Frustrated, he says, ‘No, no, no—this won’t do at all. Mark cannot come to an end with a cliffhanger.’ So at some point in history, someone or some committee added an epilogue that they felt provided a satisfying resolve to the end the story.
These editors had inspired material at hand to cut-and-paste, so it wasn’t like they were making stuff up. From John’s gospel, they borrowed the story of Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus near the tomb. From Luke’s gospel, they took the story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus and the setting for Jesus appearing to the eleven disciples over a meal. Matthew recorded the story of Jesus’ command to go into all the world with the gospel that the editors borrowed to fill out verses 9-20 here as an epilogue. The stories were true, they were just taken from the other sources.
However, this attempt to provide additional details was not nearly as creative or effective as Mark’s writing. One indicator of a foreign hand is the fact that this ending is very ‘preachy’—a characteristic that Mark avoided. There is a message in the final verses, but it is blatant and has none of the subtlety Mark has been careful to maintain. Some people who are not good storytellers or writers use an authoritarian style in which they tell people what they should feel and how they should respond. They do this to compensate for a lack of skill.
There is no other resurrection story in which Jesus rebuked his disciples for their ‘unbelief.’ Instead, in his post-resurrection encounters, Jesus approached them in gentleness and love. His first words to the frightened disciples was, ‘Peace be with you’ (Jn. 20:21). He willingly offered Thomas his hands to examine to verify that he really was Jesus. He lovingly restored Peter to discipleship and ministry. He ate a fish with his disciples to alleviate their fears that they were seeing a ghost. But the editors of Mark have Jesus scolding the disciples for their hardness of heart. If we go back into the substance of Mark’s gospel, we see that Jesus knew they would be shocked by his death and have difficulty believing in his resurrection. Jesus soothed, instructed, promised, and reconciled with his disciples, but there was no rebuke.
I think the editors were adding a rebuke of their own. Perhaps they felt it was necessary in order to frighten readers who came to the end of the story and did not believe Jesus had risen from the dead. The editors were warning those readers that their hearts were hardened. This is too often the very message that has been used to abuse faithful believes. The implicit message of authoritarian preachers, parents, youth leaders, and other Christians with ‘control issues’ is, ‘Jesus won’t love you if you don’t believe in his resurrection and eat your vegetables.’ But that is not what we hear from Mark or from the Lord himself. Jesus tells us that his ‘yoke is easy, and [his] burden is light’ (Mt. 11:30).
These extra verses were not necessary. Any reader who came to this apparent ellipsis—i.e., ‘dot, dot, dot’—would know this could not possibly be the end of Jesus. Anyway, I think the person-to-person reports of Jesus’ resurrection probably had a more dynamic effect than the bogus addition. Besides, Mark’s story was first told to communities of faith that would not have existed had Jesus not risen. They did not need convincing.”
• I have had a couple more thoughts about the way Mark ends:
◦ first, I think I know why Mark leaves off where he does (we’ll come to that)
◦ second, he’s already given us the ending–parable in chapter 12
Remember his story about the owner of a vineyard, who sent his son to collect the produce they owed him. But the tenants killed the son. Then Jesus asks, “What will the owner of the vineyard do?” That is the question at the end of Mark. What will God do next? Jesus answered this question, “He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others” (Mk. 12:9). Fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, God poured out his Spirit on the first Christian community, and within about forty years the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. God turned his vineyard over to his new church.

Now let’s return to the verses we can trust as original
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” Mark 16:1-3

My meditation: “The Sabbath ended Saturday evening, so when the markets reopened the women were able to buy the supplies they would need to anoint Jesus’ body. However, they would have to wait until daylight to go to the tomb safely. Carrying spices and oil, there was good reason to wait until they could see clearly and fulfill their mission efficiently. That they went ‘very early’ indicates their eagerness to prepare his body for burial, even though he was already placed in a tomb that was securely sealed.
(I love the coincidence of words, in English, that the women went to the tomb after ‘the sun had risen’ and arrived at the tomb after the Son had risen.)
‘Anointing him’—that is, his dead body—was a kind and loving act that the family and closest friends would provide. They came regardless of what they had witnessed at the cross. What did they think of him now? That he was not the Christ after all? That he had failed his mission? That their hope in him would be buried in his tomb? If they had such thoughts, what they knew to be fact was all that he had done for them and others, that he was a good man, and that someone needed to perform this service to his body.
A number of obstacles stood in their way. One was their concern over the ‘very large’ stone that blocked the entrance. Another was the soldiers stationed there to guard the tomb. But something that would have never entered their minds was that the corpse would not be where it had been placed.
Though they were not able to not care for Jesus’ body as they had planned, we can recall that this service had already been provided to him. While Jesus was at dinner in Bethany, a woman poured perfumed oil over his head. Jesus explained the meaning of her actions, saying, ‘She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial’ (Mk. 14:8).”

And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. Mark 16:4-6
My meditation: “‘And looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back . . . .’ Mark devoted a great deal of thought and creative storytelling to highlight the theme of looking and seeing as a necessary development in discipleship. In the heart—the very center of the book—he tells a story about the disciples looking but not seeing. To ‘look’ is to notice and perhaps observe, but to ‘see’ is to perceive. So Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Having eyes do you not see?’ (Mk. 8:18) In a normal day I look at countless things, but what do I see? Do I pay enough attention to whatever it is God wants me to see? I have been at this many years; has my spiritual vision improving at all?
The women had been worried about the large stone, but when they looked up it had already been rolled out of the way. We are pestered by some worries that could be resolved instantly just by looking up.
The women bravely entered the tomb, but what they saw (and what they did not see) alarmed them. The body was missing and a young man was calmly sitting inside. Mark says they were ‘alarmed’—I imagine their emotions were in free fall, plunging from grief to sudden panic.
‘Do not be alarmed,’ the young man told them. But why should they not be alarmed? Because Jesus had announced he would rise from the dead? Because they did not have time to panic because there was too much to do? Because overnight the world had changed and they were now living in the new reality? Perhaps that was it. From now on there would be no need for alarm. ‘And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’—Jesus’ last words to the disciples in Matthew’s gospel.
The young man (the other gospels tell us he was an angel) spoke from his vantage point and perspective, not theirs. He said, ‘You seek Jesus of Nazareth,’ but they were not looking for Jesus. They were looking for his corpse.
The angel invited the women to come closer and ‘See the place where they laid him.’ The women—and the readers too—are given a visual experience to help absorb what has happened. It was an experience of emptiness. The past-tense indicates the slab that once held the body of Jesus was no longer occupied.”

“But go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” Mark 16:7
My meditation: “The angel gave the women simple instructions as to what they were to do next. They were to go and tell Jesus’ disciples that he would meet them in Galilee. This was actually a reminder of what Jesus had told them the night before his crucifixion (Mk. 14:28). It was a prearranged meeting.
When instructing the women to inform the disciples, the angel made an odd specification, ‘and Peter.’ What?! Was Peter no longer a disciple? Had Peter wandered off alone? Had he separated himself from the others? Did he feel that he had disqualified himself and was not worthy to be associated with the true followers of Jesus? There is no way we can know. However, the angel did refer to him by his new name, the name that Jesus gave him.
I know people who would insist on cutting Peter from the team. They do not know what Jesus knows. That once Peter was ‘sifted like wheat,’ he would be a changed man, capable of strengthening his brothers (Lk. 22:31-32). Sometimes I am grieved and troubled by the absence of mercy among Christians and in many churches. Is it okay for me to harbor bad feelings toward these merciless believers? Only if I want to be like them. But Jesus tells me that God ‘”is kind to the ungrateful and the evil, and therefor, ‘Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful”’ (Lk. 6:36). Mercy must win!”

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized the, and the said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Mark 16:8

My mediation: “The angel’s instructions were first of all to ‘go.’ Jesus’ first words to his disciples and others were, ‘Come, follow me’; his last word of instruction was ‘Go.’ ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,’ he told his disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel, ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . .’ (Mt. 28:18-19).
My meditation: “The women came to the tomb courageously. If soldiers were posted there, they would deal with them. If the stone was in place, they were already thinking about how it could be moved. They were preparing themselves for any potential problem. Nothing would stand in their way. But what they had not prepared themselves for, was an empty tomb and a heavenly angel. So they fled from the tomb. Mission aborted. Of all the instructions the angel gave them, the only one they obeyed was ‘Go.’ They were more than willing to do that post haste.
I look back at all the times Jesus performed a miracle or confided something with his disciples and told people, ‘Tell no one’—and more than once he said this with a stern voice. Now, at last, people are told to ‘go tell,’ but these women ‘said nothing to anyone’—not even Peter. Eventually they got around to the disciples. Mark does not criticize them. He most likely learned their story from them. And he concludes his book with their story.

Conclusion: Now I will explain why this is the perfect ending

For Mark, there is no final chapter, no end to the story of Jesus
Whether the disciples went to Galilee or not, he leaves up in the air
But if the disciples were to go to Galilee, they would see Jesus
Mark’s message to us is, “Look for Jesus where he can be found, and you will see him”
Jesus can be found, for instance, in the story Mark has told us about him

If we still ask, “But how does the story end?”
Mark’s answer is, “That is up to you”
He slides the scroll across the table, hands us his pen, and tells us,
“Here, you write the end of this story.
How the story ends for you depends on what you do with it.”