Talking less and doing more
Sunday, Dec. 8
Mark Chapters 15 and 16 Click here to read
I once came across a Bible study titled “Mark’s Endless Gospel.” The title came from the fact that the gospel doesn’t have a very satisfying conclusion—especially if you take the view of many scholars that it originally ended with 16:8, with the women running, bewildered and trembling, away from the empty tomb.
Methods of scriptural research aren’t really the point of these reflections, but essentially the issue is that the oldest available manuscripts of Mark do not include the last part of the chapter that most English translations have, suggesting that it may have been added later to make Mark more consistent with the other gospels.
Whatever the case, if Mark didn’t choose to include the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, that doesn’t change the evidence of the other writings.
Since we’re not sure exactly who wrote Mark (he doesn’t even refer to himself by name, much less provide any other identification), it could be that he simply limited himself to what he had direct knowledge of, and that he was not a witness to those events. Or it could be that for some reason he just didn’t consider them critical to the story…he was, as we have seen, concise in his account.
It could be that the knowledge of Jesus’s resurrection was so accepted in his community that he saw no need to add more evidence of it.
He may have assumed that the word of an angel was adequate proof, which really isn’t a bad assumption.
Whatever his thinking, Mark limited his account to the core of Jesus’s earthly ministry, including neither the birth nor, likely, the post-resurrection appearances.
Rather than suggesting a lack of faith, that shows that Mark didn’t feel much need to appeal to dramatic proofs about Jesus; rather, he left the words and actions of Jesus speak for themselves.
Maybe we also get carried away with the need to explain Jesus to people when we really need to show Jesus to people.
That’s what incarnation is all about.