Day 260

Rituals around death are almost universal. Preparing the body for burial was an important part of saying goodbye. We have relegated this to “professionals” at the funeral home. In Jesus’ day the close women relatives would do the job. Since Jesus was rushed to the grave before sunset in order to observe the special rituals around the Passover feast, they had hastily placed Jesus in a borrowed tomb. Spice would have been added to cover the smell, and a year later the bones would have been gathered stored together in a much smaller container.

But when the women get there, Jesus isn’t there. The tomb is not secure. The Roman guards have failed to keep Jesus from rising from the dead, an impossible task. The women become the first people to carry the message of the Resurrection. They aren’t really sure what it all means, but they obey and go tell the disciples. Peter is singled out as one who needs to hear the good news. He needs the news, having betrayed Jesus only three days before.

One of the curious things about the Scriptures is that we don’t have the original writings. But we don’t need them. Instead, we have thousands of copies over a great timeframe and geographic diversity. In addition we have people who quoted the Scriptures, almost every verse. Plus, the Scriptures were translated into multiple languages around the same time as the original writing. And when you compare all these sources there is almost complete agreement about what the original said. Only a very small percentage of differences exist, mostly spelling of names and slight changes in the spelling of a few other words. This passage at the end of Mark is one of the few exceptions to this trend.

It could be that these few verses were originally part of Mark, or that the last page was lost almost at the time of its writing and someone familiar with the content of the original wrote this to fill in the missing material.

There are several very unique things in this section that don’t seem to fit with any other portion of the New Testament teaching, and especially Mark’s style. Mark has been rapid fire events with little commentary or summary work. This section is filled with summary and commentary. It seems out of place. If it were not part of the original, in my opinion, we would not loose anything of importance to the message of Mark, and of the Scriptures as a whole.

When I am serving as a pastor of a congregation I preach through Mark, including this section, gleaning from even this passage Truth that is present. So, read it and listen to hear what God can teach you about Himself and about the nature of our relationship with Him. But, I would not get in a long discussion about its content and the theology presented here.