Is This the Ending?

Mark 16

Is This the Ending?

We’ve arrived.  We’ve already reached the last chapter of Mark’s Gospel.  And this is going to sound very, very strange, but the thing that always catches my attention when I come to chapter 16 is a question I can’t help but ask … “Is this the ending?”

If you’re wondering what I mean, then look right there between verses 8 and 9.  In most versions, there’s a note from the editors of your given translation – making a special point of telling you that in many of the ancient manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel, verses 9-20 are missing.  So in these particular New Testaments, this chapter ends with verse 8 – with the women rushing out of the tomb after they’ve heard the angel tell them: “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.  He is not here; He has risen!”

Now before you call your favorite conspiracy theorist, or try to sell a motion picture idea to director Michael Moore, listen.  If you’re thinking that this brings all the resurrection accounts into question, keep this in mind.  While verses 9-20 are not found in some of the earliest manuscripts, all the other resurrection accounts from Matthew, Luke and John, are found in tact.  Those very same documents that end at verse 8 in Mark 16, include the account of Jesus being mistaken as a gardener by Mary Magdalene, Peter and the other disciples getting a behind locked doors Easter visit in the upper room, and the two disciples meeting up with a stranger on the road to Emmaus. It’s only these twelve verses that are missing.

And yet I can’t help wondering where the ending is really supposed to be.  Did Mark, working in conjunction with that very same Peter who saw Jesus face to face after His resurrection, really mean to leave us hanging with verse 8?  Yes, the angel has told the women that Jesus is alive and that He plans to meet up with Peter and the other disciples.  But it seems so abrupt – so not quite finished. And yet when I really take the time to reflect on this shorter ending, I can relate to it in a way that I can’t with the other endings of Matthew, Luke or John.

Don’t hear me wrong.  I still get swept up on the shore along with Peter as Jesus is cooking fish and asking: “Peter, do you love me?”  My heart also burns as I listen in on Jesus’ conversations with the two disciples walking along the road – heading home to Emmaus. And my eyes still long to peak over Thomas’ shoulder and see those nails in His hands with my own two eyes. 

But I haven’t seen the nail marks in His hands, and I haven’t heard His voice directly calling out to me and asking about my love for Him, nor have seen those two hands break bread at my kitchen table.  I’m more like the women.  I’ve heard that the tomb is empty and that Jesus has risen.  I haven’t seen the risen of Christ face to face … at least … not yet. 

So I ask: “Is this the ending?” And my honest answer is: “I may never know in this life whether Mark ends at verse 8 or verse 20 or somewhere in between.”  But that’s okay, because the real ending of this story of Jesus doesn’t come with the final typed period of punctuation.  This is not the end.  In fact, my end is not the end.  Somewhere deep in my heart you can hear the echoes of the angel.  He is not here!  He has risen!  And that ending means my life won’t have an ending when I reach my end.  I will finally see Christ, and that’s all I need to know.