Happy Easter!
The first time available for women to prepare Jesus' body was sunrise Sunday morning. The Sabbath ran from sundown Friday until sunrise Sunday- these must have been some very dark days for Jesus' followers. The women (v 1) come, these are some of Jesus' most devoted followers, and bring spices (v 2) primarily to cover the stench of rotting flesh. But, they ask the question (v 3), "Who will move away the stone?" telling us that they didn't believe in the resurrection; they weren't expecting an empty tomb! Would you have expected the tomb to be empty?
To their surprise, the stone has been rolled away already (v 4)! The women look in and see an angel (vv 5-7) proclaiming Jesus' resurrection. Notice the words the angel uses..."Jesus was crucified...He is risen..." We hear no actual accounts of the resurrection in any of the Gospels, but we hear of the evidence in each of them. All slightly different though! The angles shows them where the body was and that it is gone. Wouldn't it have been enough to just hear the words, "He is risen" or would you want to see?
The angel instructs the women to Go and tell (v 7), but they don't really do that (v 8). Would you have run and told people or kept it quiet?
Then there is this strange footnote and brackets " verses 9-20 are not included in the two best and oldest Greek manuscripts of Mark."That's it...this could have been the end of Mark. How would that ending have been? So, how reliable is the Bible? Does this section (vv 9-20) really belong? The text isn't found in many of the original and translated manuscripts and the grammar and sentence structure is different than the first 15 chapters of Mark. So...what do you think?
Back to the text. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene first. Mary was probably Jesus' closest female friend and probably one of the few true female disciples. Jesus tells Mary to go tell the others (v 10) but they didn't believe her (v 11) probably because she was a woman! Would you have believed her? Jesus appears to two others on the road to Emmaus (vv 12- 13); they go back and tell the others- and still they didn't believe! And they were likely men! Would you have believed them?
Jesus finally comes to the eleven (v 14). Why not 12? Jesus has a talk with them about their lack of faith and unbelief! Can you imagine how they must have felt- especially after being told by three separate people Jesus had resurrected?! Then they get their final marching orders- Go! The story of the commissioning of the disciples is more detailed in Matthew. Jesus then ascends to heaven in the final verse (v 19). Imagine the disciples now. Jesus died on Friday. Resurrected on Sunday. And now Jesus is gone again! They must have had a roller coaster of emotions!
This is a great way to start the week- hearing of Jesus' resurrection!
The next book we read is Galatians. I will post a brief introduction to Galatians later Monday or Tuesday morning and then chapter 1 commentary on Tuesday also.
Have a great day!
Shalom+
Pastor Paul
Early after the sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary of James and Salome, were the first to the tomb to anoint him. What they found was a young man in a white robe. He said to them, he has risen, meaning faith the foundation of Christian faith. Go tell his disciples and Peter, that he is ahead of you going to Galilee. The woman were afraid, probably as I would have been. There are only 11 disciples left, because Judas hung himself. The verses 9-20 have lots of facts weather they can be proved or not, I think are true. Just my thoughts, I think that God had something to do with telling and making his true life known and to get it right in his Bible.
ReplyDeleteI probably would have been afraid too! Going to a tomb expecting a dead body and seeing whatever they saw!
ReplyDeleteYes, Judas did kill himself- I wish there was more about that. I'd like to know his thoughts!
Good points Rose Marie! Thanks!
I would not have expected the tomb to be empty. I don’t think I could have wrapped my brain around the idea, even if I had listened to everything Jesus had said (and didn’t He say it mostly to his disciples?) and believed it, I am not sure I would have realized that EVERYTHING would have risen - body AND soul. AFter all, we believe in Heaven, we believe that after death we go to Paradise, but we don’t believe our body goes along with us. I honestly don’t believe that the disciples would have believed anyone who told them Jesus Has Risen - but Mark does not mention John and Peter running to the tomb to check it out. I think that would have been my first reaction - running to the tomb! The disciples never did “get” it so why would they understand the true meaning of “risen”. I think I would have run and told people -but the women did that, didn’t they?
ReplyDeleteDidn’t they go directly to the apostles and tell them? And tell them where they would see Jesus again? My Bible does not make the notation for vs. 9-20 and in doing some research on the internet I have found that around 99% of the old Greek manuscripts contain the vs. and only 2 do not. But either way, I believe it totally because it is not only told in Mark but the other Gospels as well. AND it notes that in one of the Greek manuscripts that does not include the vs. it includes a lot of blank space between supposed end of Mark and the beginning of John -which is not found in any of the other manuscripts. But either way it does not cause me to doubt - after all, there are other books that we believe were started by one author and finished by another. I cannot imagine the pure joy of the women and the disciples when they saw Jesus again! Yes, their final marching orders and ours! As you emphasized to us last Sunday!! It’s now our turn!! He Has Risen
Jesus did tell (mostly) his disciples, but I am sure others heard the "rumors" of what Jesus was saying! Good point about body v soul. Another good point- we hear a different story in Mark than other gospels. Why?
DeleteThe two sources that don't contain the verses are the original Greek texts! It is interesting that they don't and others do!
Good points Donna! Thanks!
I can’t imagine walking into a tomb and finding an angel instead of Jesus’ body. And then knowing people wouldn’t believe you because you are a woman? Would the people have thought that the women had gone to the wrong place? That Jesus’ body was stolen? Just imagine the chatter around town.
ReplyDeleteEven in our modern world with fact checkers and super speedy internet people are not sure what to believe.
I believe that the first ending was the real ending . That maybe scholars thought that people wouldn’t get it and added a bit of explanation.
Yes- imagine the chatter! Those crazy women!
DeleteHahaha! Fact checkers- I wonder who the fact checkers were 2000 years ago!
Interesting statement about the ending of Mark. Possibly more did need to be added...or maybe the fact checkers got more information!
Good points Cathy!
I can't imagine going to a grave and not finding the body I would have been frightened and probably thought that there were grave robbers since the stone was rolled away Mark does not mention the Roman soldiers that were guarding the tomb where were they? The angel told the women that Jesus had risen I probably would have said risen to where like doubting Thomas I wouldn't have believed and would have been very afraid. I still don't completely understand the idea of Mark ending at verse 8. If this was all Mark wrote where did the other verses come from?
ReplyDeleteThe first person that Jesus saw after his resurrection was Mary Magdalene and when she went and told the disciples about it they did not believe her.
Back up a bit originally the women went to the tomb to anoint the body but when they spoke with the angel, the angel told them to go tell the disciples to go to Galilee and Jesus would be there but the women were afraid and ran away. So how did the disciples know to go to Galilee? If a person did not know from the other gospels more the of story it would be very confusing to a person.
Anyhow Jesus did appear to the remaining disciples, since Judas was no more and told them to go out and spread the Good News and that they would have some healing powers etc. Then Jesus ascended into heaven to be with God. That also must have been very frightening to the disciples as Jesus had died , had risen and was with them again. He was their friend their master and teacher and they were losing him again It would have been grief all over again after joyously seeing him once more
I have enjoyed reading Mark and being able to share my thoughts with others and see what others ideas were also. Thank you for sharing!
True- there may have been grave robbers. That is why some of the accounts have Roman guards at the tomb, so nobody could take the body and say that Jesus arose from the dead! Not sure why Mark doesn't mention the soldiers!
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point. We need to know all the Gospels to get the most complete story. If you had only one source, things wouldn't be so clear.
So many questions still out there!
Good comments Clara!
I always think of Easter Day as a happy joyful time. Especially after Holy Week with such sadness of Jesus being crucified. That he is risen is so wonderful. I cannot imagine what I would think if I went into the tomb expecting to see Jesus body but saw an angle. I think I would believe the angle but not so sure about someone just telling me. I believe I would have shared the news because I get very excited with good news!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to imagine what we would do-- knowing what we do about the resurrection. Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish New testament scholar once said something like- it is hard for Christians to not read the new testament without the knowledge of Christ (as the Jews do). Our interpretation of events is always biased with the knowledge of resurrection and Jesus' "purpose"
DeleteGreat thoughts Cindy! Thanks!
My translation, The Jerusalem Bible, has verses 9-20 in it. I thought it strange when reading from verse 8 into verse 9 as it seems to start the chapter over as if someone else is writing it. It doesn't flow from verse 8 into verse 9 and following. However, if the chapter ended at verse 8, it would have omitted all the references to the Ascension and the disciples work after Jesus had risen to the right hand of God. There is also a stern waring in verse 16 that would have been omitted. I think that these verses belong, even though it doesn't flow.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I thought the women had found Jesus sitting there and they did not recognize him. Is it possible that it was Jesus and not an angel? My translation states "they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side". The right-hand side of what? Mark doesn't say. This scripture doesn't give the impression that the "young man" is an angel, and that is why I thought it was really Jesus in a form the women did not recognize. Why else would they run away in fear? I guess that finding an empty tomb would itself cause them to be fearful. After all, they were worried about moving the rock from in front of the tomb. I have to remember that they didn't have the "big picture" that we do.
Why eleven and not twelve? I wondered myself until I realized the missing disciple was probably Judas. I don't imagine he would want to show his face, nor would he be welcomed by the other eleven after his betrayal.
I thought that Mark (or whomever wrote verses 9-20) wrapped up the chapter very abruptly and had the Ascension very quickly. There was no detail about the time between the Resurrection and the Ascension. I thought it was 40 days between them.
It's only 9:45 here!
DeleteYou bring up some good points, Jack. The reasons you give are some of the reasons why they think the verses are added later but a different author!
DeleteIt is possible the angel was Jesus...in John 20 we hear that part of the story...so possibly the angel is Jesus! Seeing an empty tomb would be kind of scary! Good point in the end- they don't have the "big picture" like we do! See my comments to Cindy about that.
Right- Judas is the missing disciple. He committed suicide shortly after the events of the week.
And right again- there are 40 days between resurrection and ascension according to many other sources. There does seem like a fast ending!
Good points Jack...Thanks!