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Weekly Devotional

September 22, 2008
 

Mark 16:1-8  When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.  ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.  ³ They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"  ⁴ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.  ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.  ⁶ But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.  ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."  ⁸ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

            The verses that are above start the last chapter of Mark’s Gospel.  Yesterday in confirmation, the students and I finished watching a video called “God’s Story”.  The Narrator of this story makes the claim that this is probably all that was included in the last chapter of this Gospel.  He claims that this is how the Gospel writer intended it.  However, if you look in your Bibles, you will see probably two endings.  The shorter one begins with vs. 9 and goes for two or three verses.  The longer ending has even more, ending with Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven.

            However, I have to agree that I also think the above verses are all that was originally written.  By leaving the ending open, it leaves the Gospel open, meaning that we are a part of living good news, that Christ has died and risen.  It keeps the story from being finished, because until Christ returns, the story doesn’t technically have an ending.

            There is a catch to this though….if they told no one, how do we know this happened?  The same can be asked of the voice from Heaven at Jesus’ baptism.  In Mark, only Jesus heard those words, so how do we know it happened?  The answer to that is simply “faith”.   We know that God works in mysterious ways.  After all, Mark’s Gospel is best dated to around 90 AD, some 60 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  So for 60 years, all of this had been passed down by word of mouth.  That is faith.  That is God at work. 

            So as we continue to write our chapter in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we too can be afraid, and at the same time, we too can be amazed.  Our fear though is overcome by the help of the Holy Spirit, who over the years has enabled this story (along with the Church’s story) to be passed down from generation to generation.

In our prayers this week: 

Alma (out of isolation), Ann (having an MRI Wednesday), the moms of Doris and Gail

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson