Unfinished
Mark 16:1-8
University Christian Church, Seattle
Rev.
I. When is an ending not the end?
a. December 1791 marked an ending. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died, leaving behind an unfinished piece of music, his final work.
b. It was a piece commissioned by another and upon Mozart’s death, only the 48 bars of the opening Introit had been fully scored. The voice parts were complete but the rest of the orchestration was only sketchily drawn in.
c. But the ending of his life was not the end of his music. The unfinished piece lay waiting to be completed.
d. And it was, through the able hands of his students and others who were commissioned to complete what Mozart had begun, his notes and sketches and writings were filled out and made whole.
e. His original manuscript shows the evidence of this posthumous collaboration. His writings are amplified by the scribbled notes of other composers.
f.
The result was Mozart’s Requiem. Though his life was ended, the music of his life lived on.
II. So when is an ending not the end?
a. Lamar Williamson in his commentary on the Gospel of Mark writes, “When a dead man rises from the tomb, and when a gospel ends in the middle of a sentence.”
b. Verse 8 of the Chapter 16 is the earliest ending we have to Mark’s gospel. It ends with the women afraid and saying nothing. Literally in the Greek it ends in the middle of the sentence. A literal translation would read something like, “To no one anything they said, afraid they were for…”
c. There are no resurrection appearances, no meetings on the road to Emmaus, no cookouts on the beach, no sudden appearances in locked rooms. Just women afraid, and an unfinished sentence.
d. Scholars have debated whether Mark intended for this to be the ending. Perhaps the original ending was lost, torn off from the manuscript. Perhaps Mark was interrupted suddenly and never able to complete his thought. Or perhaps, as many scholars believe, Mark intended to leave the story unfinished.
e. During the first centuries others added endings. We usually have them included in Mark either as part of the text or as footnotes. They give us the resurrection appearances, the happy endings, the nice finishing touches.
f.
But Mark, his gospel, his Good News is left incomplete.
III.
Instead, Mark leaves us with frightened women and the promise of an angel: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? Jesus is going ahead of you to
a.
Mark begins his writing with the words, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And the first image of Jesus is at his baptism when Jesus came from
b.
But the ending of the gospel? Well, Mark leaves that up to us. According to Mark’s account, the Gospel continues. The cross was not the end of the story. The empty tomb was not the end of the story. And certainly the women cowering in fear were not the end of the story. The story continues, the risen Christ continues to go before us, into the places we live, the
c.
Cynthia Campbell, President of McCormick Theological Seminary describes it this way, “The risen Christ was not at the tomb but going ahead of his friends. And that’s where we see him today: out ahead of us. Where charity and love prevail over injustice and violence, where compassion and hope replace cynicism and despair; where peace and love take root in lives that are empty and lost; where human beings know joy and justice, dignity and delight: there is the risen Christ beckoning to us.”
So when is an ending not the end? When the ancient story of an empty tomb becomes our story and the Good News of a risen Christ is lived out in us. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!