Session 13: Class Notes

Wow!  I have really enjoyed this journey with you all.  Thank you for your wisdom, your wit, your inquiries and offerings of food and ideas.

Here are the notes from Mark 16, our final session of "Marking the Way."

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Mark 16:1-7 - Women at the Tomb

The ones who remainder at the cross are the ones who come first to the tomb after the Sabbath.  Here are a few insights to consider as we approach the tomb with the Mary, Mary, and Salome (sounds a little like a band).

• Mark (and the other three canonical gospels) report that it was the women who first discovered the empty tomb.  This is significant as the women were told to testify to what they had seen.  Many teachers in first century Judaism considered a woman's testimony to be inadmissible in court as it was not considered trustworthy.  The spirit makes a special point in chipping away at patriarchy and elevating the role and status of women.

  

  "The Empty Tomb" by He Qi

• The women brought spices to anoint the body properly for burial.  Does this imply that Joseph of Arimathea did not bury Jesus properly?  If so it would be a final insult and humiliation in that Jesus' body is not even given a proper burial.
• Who is Salome?  Is this the same Salome that danced before Herod and had John the Baptist beheaded?  Salome is only mentioned twice in the gospel of Mark, present at the crucifixion in 15:40 and here in chapter 16 (the girl who danced for Herod is never named, we assume that her name was Salome because the historian Josephus tells us that Herod had a stepdaughter named Salome).  The text itself tells us little about this woman.  The Gospel of John says that present at the crucifixion was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Some traditions have interpreted Salome therefore to be Jesus' aunt.  In the Gospel of Matthew it says that the mother of James and John (the sons of thunder) was present at the crucifixion so another tradition sees Salome as Zebedee's wife and the mother of James and John.  Short answer, we don't know.

The Man in White

The women come to the tomb expecting to find the body of Jesus and instead they encounter a young man.  Who is this guy hanging out in a tomb?  Two prominent theories:

An Angel

While the character is never called an angel there are several good reasons for applying the label.

• His dress seems to mirror the shining other worldly clothes of Jesus at the transfiguration.
• The gospels of Matthew and John both directly refer to the one at the tomb as an angel.
• The young man has a message and the word angel literally means "messenger."
• The young man greets the women with the words, "Do not be alarmed" which is the first sentence of most angelic appearances in the scripture.

The Naked Guy

Mark doesn't shy away from talking about spiritual beings so if this was an angel why doesn't he just say it?  Maybe he is something else.  Well the phrase "young man" only appears twice in Mark.

• Remember the "young man" who gets scared when Jesus is arrested and runs away so fast that he loses his clothes?  In that story we see the young man as a symbol of all of the disciples and the shame they carry in deserting Jesus.  Is what we're seeing here a restoration of that disciple (and by extension all disciples) not by his own doing but by the resurrection of Jesus?
• The young man who lost his linen cloth is now wearing white robes.  The purification or changing of clothes was a common symbol of God's holiness restoring or sanctifying a person.

The Message

Whatever the identity of our young man in white, his message has a few insights for reflection.

• The Nazarene: Once again we see Mark's focus on the geographical area of Jesus' hometown.  He is not called Jesus, the Messiah, or Jesus the Son of Man or God, but Jesus the Nazarene.  Mark is very clear that Jesus was rooted in a particular time and place.
• The Disciples and Peter: Why single Peter out?  Perhaps it was to mirror the desertion narrative.  In a general way it says that the disciples left but in a very specific way it outlines Peter's denial and desertion.  Perhaps this is an intentional restoration.  Another theory is that Mark was a companion of Peter and this was a way of singling out his friend and companion.  While the name Mark pops up a few times in the new testament (eg Acts and 2 Timothy) none of these seem to be referring to a companion of Peter and there is no evidence that any of the Mark's referenced were the author of this gospel.
• Begin Again: The young man instructs the women to go to Galilee.  Galilee is not only the hometown region of Jesus, it is also symbolically the beginning.  The young man is sending them back to where it all started and says that there, at the beginning they will see Jesus.  Mark 1 speaks of the beginning with a simple invitation from Jesus, "Follow me."

Choose Your Own Adventure!

Do you remember the choose your own adventure books where the story presented you with choices and the story changed based on the decisions you made?  Well, this isn't quite like that but there is a sort of choice here.

Check out Mark 16:8

"So they (the women) went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

And scene!  Wait what...?

Is that really how the book ends, with a reversal of the Messianic Secret (ie when Jesus told people not to talk about him that's all they ended up doing and now that the women are told to talk about Jesus they totally clam up?!)?

Well, there are actually a couple different ending options.

• Option 1: Yep, verse 8 is the end of the book.  The oldest and most trustworthy source texts (Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus) end at verse 8.
• Option 2: Well...verse 8 is the ending we have but really Mark either intended on writing more or did write more and it was lost somehow.
• Option 3: One ancient source (again not as old as the main sources for Mark) includes an 8b which says the women did say something and includes a final charge from Jesus that sounds very similar to the Great Commission in Matthew.
• Option 4: A couple of sources (yep younger) include a longer ending of Mark that includes some post resurrection appearances by Jesus (one that sounds a lot like the Road to Emmaus story in Luke), some odd promises about poison and snakes, and an ascension story.

I'm partial to Option 1, here's why:

• Option 2 doesn't seem very helpful.  If the real ending was lost there isn't much we can do about it now.
• The shorter ending in Option 3 seems a little too neat and tidy for me, plus the Greek diction doesn't quite match the rest of the book of Mark.
• So much of the material in Option 4 does not match thematically or in language to the rest of Mark.  Some parts, like the thing about the snakes and the poison, is a direct contradiction to other parts in Mark (see 8:11-12).

While I find flaws in the other options, the main reason I like Option 1 is because of the question it asks.

Will the women go and tell the disciples?  Will they go back to Galilee, back to the beginning?  Will they see Jesus there?  And what will happen when he invites them yet again to come and follow?  Now that they know how the life of Jesus plays out; now that they see what it means to drink from the cup he drinks; now that they know what the Messiah is all about and how one lives as God's beloved; now that they see where the path of Jesus goes and the people you meet along the way; and now that they know what it means to follow him, will they do it?  The invitation is to begin again and it is to begin anew.

All throughout the Gospel of Mark we've heard the theme of discipleship echoed in the familiar refrain, "Come follow me."  In each narrative scene the invitation has been extended to various characters and also to us.  Each time we've read the words of Jesus to a person in the story, the Holy  Spirit has echoed those words to us.  When we read the Bible, the Bible reads us.

The hanging question for the women is turned and presented to us.  Will we go back to where it began with a simple invitation?  Will we tell others of what we've heard and seen and experienced?  Now that we have a better picture of what it means to follow Jesus, to live as the beloved, to walk in his steps, to do and act as he did, will we follow?

Mark ends with a question, an invitation, to start the journey again, to start it anew.