Easter’s Epic Failure: The Gospel of Mark has an Ending that is Full of Surprises
Jesus’ Disciples Were Failures
The disciples of Jesus could not have been more dense, strong headed, selfish, naïve, ignorant, and power hungry people. In the gospel of Mark, simply put, from the very beginning all the way to the very end, they were successful at only one thing: failing. Pretty much everything they set out to do turned into failure. They fell asleep when they were supposed to be praying. They were afraid when they ought to have been brave. They told people to stop doing good things, even though the people were doing the very things that Jesus encouraged. They restrained children from approaching Jesus even though Jesus welcomed them. The denied Jesus. One of them turned Jesus in for money. They were power hungry and selfish. Throughout the gospel the disciples simply could not understand Jesus' teachings, even after he pulled them aside and had private tutoring sessions with them.
There were three consecutive times in chapters 8, 9, and 10 where Jesus took time to teach them that his purpose was not to dominate in power, but to serve and die as a ransom for the sake of others. However, the disciples were so fixated on their own selfish ends that their ambition blinded them from hearing Jesus' message. The amazing thing, to me, is that Jesus never gave up on his disciples. No matter how off they were, no matter what their motivation, no matter how big their failures, Jesus continued to pursue them. Despite his faithfulness, despite his perseverance, despite the continual tutoring, his disciples continued to fail. It is almost as if the more they were with Jesus, the more they misunderstood him, and the worse they became as followers.
The Climax of the Peter’s Failure
The climax of their failure, of course, is on the night Jesus was arrested. Mark records in chapter 14:27 that Jesus was with his disciples on the Mount of Olives, and he said to them.
Mark 14:27-30 "You will all fall away, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." 29 Peter said to him, "Even though they all fall away, I will not." 30 And Jesus said to him, "Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times."
We know the rest of this story, right? That night, Judas, who was one of his disciples, and the chief priests and a small crowd of brawlers approached Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and they arrested him. When this happened, just as Jesus declared, all of his disciples fled from the scene because they were afraid for their lives. All of them...except for Peter. Peter didn't flee, rather he followed Jesus at a distance to see where the priests were taking him, and he was bold enough to go right into the courtyard of the chief priest's house, which was essentially the headquarters of the enemy. As he does this, you could begin to think, maybe Peter isn’t that bad after all, maybe he is a man of his word, maybe he will follow Jesus right up to his death. But then it happens.
A servant girl saw Peter, and she recognized him as one of Jesus' disciples, and she said out loud to the others in the courtyard, “hey, this is one of them." Peter denied it, “What are talking about, one of who? Why don’t mind your own business and stick to your chores.” On the outside he blew it off, but on the inside, his heart was trying to break out of his chest. He was scared out of his mind, so he got up and he moved to a different area just outside the courtyard; the servant girl followed him. After looking at him from different angles, she's pretty sure she is right, so she says again to the others standing around, “this man is one of Jesus' followers.” Again Peter denies it. “What are you talking about, I am not a follower of Jesus.” Now, as he was denying his allegiance to Jesus, the people recognized his Galilean, country, fisherman's accent, and they said, “you have got to be one of his followers, you’re from Galilee.”
Then we see Peter’s final denial in Mark 14:71 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know this man of whom you speak." In other words, Peter said something like this, “may God strike me down dead if I am lying, for I swear in the almighty’s name, I don't even know who Jesus is." Everyone takes a step back. There is brief silence.
Cock a doodle dooooooo!
As soon as the rooster crowd, Peter realized what he had done, and immediately he broke down and wept because he rejected Jesus, not just once, not just twice, but three times. He was a pathetic disciple. Of all the disciples, next to Judas, Peter proved himself to be the least worthy, and that’s saying something, because the pool of disciples isn’t anything to write home about.
Mark’s Conclusion
This is the nature of Jesus' disciples, this is the context by which we are to enter into chapter 16 of the Gospel of Mark. As we know, Jesus' arrest led to his death, which happened on a Friday, then the Sabbath occurred on Saturday, so no one did anything because they weren’t allowed to, and then, on Sunday morning, at the crack of dawn, Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to the tomb where Jesus was buried to lay spices on him. The spices covered the stench of his decaying body. But when they arrived, they were surprised to see that the stone which covered the tomb had been rolled away, so they walked into the tomb. When they walked in they found another surprise. Jesus' body was not there, but someone else is. A man dressed in white (which is another way of saying a supernatural angel) says to them. “Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified and was dead, is now alive. He is no longer here.” The angel then proceeded to tell them a command, which presumably he received from Jesus himself. “Go tell his disciples, and Peter, that he has risen, and that he will meet them in Galilee.”
Surely the angel knows about Jesus’ disciples? Doesn’t he know that the disciples left Jesus to die and doesn’t he know that Peter denied Christ? Listen to what he told the women again. “Go tell his disciples, especially Peter, that Jesus has risen, and that he will meet them in Galilee.” Why is he saying this? What is he communcating? He’s communicating this: despite their failure, despite their public rejection, despite their ignorance, despite their sin, Jesus is continuing ot pursue them, he is calling them back to himself. He is communicating that he has forgiven them, and he wants them now, more than ever, to continue to follow him.
Jesus’ Grace Transforms our Failures
When Jesus chose his disciples, they were failures. They were dense, they were ignorant, they were hungry for power, they were living for the sake of their earthly status. This is what we see in Mark, but after Jesus rises from the dead, and after he forgives and restores his disciples, even Peter, we see a transformation take place within them. Instantly, they begin to do all of the things that they should have been doing when they were with Jesus. They become radical, they pray, they perform miracles, they gladly take up their cross, they become leaders of the movement that Jesus started. Why the transformation? What changed them? It was forgiveness. It was redemption. It was hope, all of which they received through the resurrection.
This is what the resurrection does for us too. When we read the book of Mark, we can identitfy with the disciples because we also are failures. Christ has died and has risen so that like them, our lives can be tranformed into radical followers as well. This is what Romans 6 communicates.
Romans 6:8-11 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
This is the message and the significance of the resurrection. Because Christ lives, we live. However, if you go back to the book of Mark, there is one major problem. This message of hope and grace and redemption apparently never reaches the disciples. You see the gospel of Mark doesn't end in v. 7, it ends in v. 8. V. 7 is the message the angel wanted his disciples to hear, but in v. 8, the women fail to give the message.
Mark 16:8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mark’s Conclusion is an Epic Failure
This is how Mark ends his gospel. What? You’re kidding me, right? There is something deeply disturbing about it. How can this possibly be the ending of the gospel? There has to be something more, doesn't there? The greatest news in the history of the earth cannot end on this note, can it?
This question surrounding Mark's ending has perplexed Christians ever since the first century. Those in the early church were utterly confused about this ending. In fact, there are a handful of ancient copies of Mark that have a completely different ending to the gospel. Thats why if you opened up your bible to the end of Mark, you would also see vv. 9-20. But after v. 8 and before v. 9 there is probably something like a Surgeon General's Warning that says “Please note: the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of Mark do not contain vv. 9-20" What? How did we get some manuscripts that end in v. 8 and some that go all the way up to v. 20? In all likelihood, let me give a satirical stab at what might have happened. There was a scribe who was making a copy of Mark’s book, he came to this ending in v. 8 and thought to himself, this has got to be a mistake. Something has to be missing, the last paragraph must have been torn off. And so, he added what to seemed to make sense. He added words that made it sound more like Matthew or Luke or John.
In Matthew 28:8, it says the women "departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and they ran to tell his disciples." In Luke 24:9, it says "and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest."
But the problem is, when you look at the oldest and most important manuscripts of Mark, none of them have anything else after v. 8. Additionally, when you go back to the writings of the early church fathers, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, and others, they all affirm that v. 8 was the ending of Mark, they seemingly have no knowledge of another ending or another version. And so, today, almost every scholar, conservative and liberal alike, affirm that v. 8 is the original ending. How can this be? How can Mark be so different from Matthew or Luke. Are they in contradiction? Did he get his story wrong?
Listen to what one Commentary says on this ending.
"It is true that they [the women] were also filled with joy, but it is not Mark who mentions this. It is also true that when they had somewhat recovered from their mental terror they ran to deliver to the apostles the message that had been entrusted to them. But again, it is not Mark who says this. It is true that Jesus himself in person revealed himself to the women. But on this subject, too, Mark is silent. And it is true that Jesus, in fulfillment of his and the angel's message, actually met his followers in Galilee. However, here again Mark remains silent!" (Hendrickson, Exposition of the Gospel According to Mark. p. 681).
So, all of this makes me ask the question, Why? Why, of all the endings, does Mark finish his story in this manner? Why is it that the women leave the tomb in fear, and they do not follow the angel's command? What is Mark trying to communicate? To answer that question, lets look at the last sentence in detail. When you read it slowly, you cannot help but see that the women were steeped in fear. They left in trembling and astonishment and because of their fear they did not relay the message. Why this emphasis on fear?
Fear Cripples Christians
Did you know that in the gospel of Mark, fear is almost always associated with a lack of faith? Eleven of the twelve times that fear is mentioned in the book of Mark, it is entirely negative. Let me give you a few examples.
In Mark 4, the disciples were on a boat in the middle of a storm, and thinking they were going to drown, they woke Jesus up and screamed in panic, “don't you care that we are going to die.” Jesus got up, he told the wind "be still," and the storm and the water resided in peace. Then he said to his disciples, "why are you so afraid. Have you still no faith?"
In Mark 5:15, there was a demon possessed man who had caused lots of problems for the village people in the region of the Gadarenes. But then Jesus came and exorcised the demons out of this man. When the villagers witnessed this, all the fear they had for the demon possessed man transferred to Jesus. It says, as a result of their fear, they asked Jesus to leave. Their fear pushed Jesus away.
Also in Mark 5, there was a man whose daughter was on her death bed. In desperation, he went out and found Jesus. As he was leading Jesus back to his house, some of his friends stopped him and told him its no use, because his daughter had died. But Jesus said to him, "Do not fear, only believe."
In Mark 11:18, the Chief Priests and the scribes wanted to kill Jesus. Why? Because it says "they were afraid of him, because the people marveled at his teachings.”
In the gospel of Mark, fear is the antithesis of faith. Fear separates people from Jesus. And the last verse in Mark's book is no different. Mark is communicating that all of Jesus’ disciples are poor followers because they were afraid. Even the women, who, up to this point, have really done nothing wrong, utterly fail at their task.
Not to be pour salt in the wound, but I want to point out that the women's failure to relay this message is no small mistake. The way that the gospel is constructed, this one command that the women fail to follow is perhaps the most important command in the entire gospel. Let me explain.
Jesus is Full of Secrets
There is a theme of secrecy in Mark. All throughout the gospel, we see Jesus repeatedly trying to keep his identity a secret. In chapter 1, Jesus healed a leper and told him to say nothing to anyone about who healed him. In chapter 5, Jesus raised a little girl from the dead, and he told her parents not to tell anyone what he did. In chapter 7, Jesus heals a man who is deaf and can't speak, and he told him not to tell anyone. In chapter 8, after Peter confessed out loud that Jesus was the Christ, he commanded Peter and his disciples not to tell anyone. On three separate instances Jesus silences demons from declaring who he is because they know he is the son of God. Altogether there are nine different occasions in which Jesus commands someone not to say anything about him. And then we get to chapter 16, outside of one minor occurrence, it is the only time that anyone has been encouraged, rather commanded, to share the good news about Jesus. And the women fail at this one request. So again I ask, why? Why does Mark end this way? Why does he end with this sentence, why does he end on such a sour note?
Hold that question in your mind. Let me explain one more thing in Mark before I attempt to answer it. My hope is that this will bring everything together. When I teach people how to read the Bible, one of the overarching principals that I try to convey is that the Bible is not a book of rules, it is not a book of ethical codes, nor is it a guide book or a survivor’s manual. It is first and foremost a narrative story, from beginning to end.
What Makes a Good Story?
Ask yourself, what is it that makes a good story? A good story fully engages us so that even though we're not a character, we feel as though we are in the actual world of the author. We're so involved that we find ourselves getting anxious, nervous, our palms are sweaty, our heart is beating, we weep, we laugh, we love, we hate. Another indication of a good story is the impression that it leaves on you when you’re done. Not only does it bring you into the story but when you're finished with the story, it has changed you. To demonstrate this I ask my class a simple question. What's a great story that has impacted you?
I get typical replies. Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, Brothers Karamozov, Les Miserables. For me, it’s the story of Shawshank Redemption. It gets me every time. We all have stories that we are drawn to. After these stories are over, we are impacted. How? Does the author write a final chapter after the end of his book and spend hours explaining how this story should impact you? No, that’s absurd. That would be very poor writing/directing. Why? Because the story itself should be compelling enough to leave an impression on the soul. Let's apply this principle to Mark.
An Overview of the Mark’s Story?
Mark’s story is about a man by the name of Jesus Christ. He was no ordinary man, he was God himself who came down to establish heaven on earth. He came to establish a kingdom or a movement, which essentially brought about goodness. Jesus healed people who were sick and dying. He embraced the outcasts of society, those who most people rejected. He forgave sinners. His whole purpose as the leader of this movement was to serve and to sacrifice himself for those who were under him. He wasn’t looking for power and prestige, he was trying to lift up those around him. In a word, his kingdom was about sacrificial love, it was about restoring righteousness and justice, and he offered his kingdom to anyone and everyone who is willing to enter into it.
There is more, there's a spiritual world and there's a physical world. There are followers of Jesus and there are enemies of Jesus, and they all collide together, leaving us despertely wondering the answer to this question: will Jesus succeed or will he fail? What makes this story even more daunting is that it's all historically true, it’s as non-fiction as you can get, so that the outcome of this story doesn’t just impact me emotionally, it impacts my life in the here and now and in the there and not yet. This story is my story. This story is your story. So we get to the climax, and we see that Jesus dies, and it’s depressing. His movement, his kingdom, heaven on earth, the hope of the world that he offered, everything, it dies with him. God is dead.
But wait. What we see in chapter 16 is remarkable. It is the surprise of all surprises! God himself raised from the dead! The kingdom is not dead! The hope of the world is still alive!
But there is one glaring problem…the women who were supposed to tell Jesus' followers about his resurrection remained silent.
Mark's hook.
This is where the audience comes into play. If you've read nothing else in your entire life, and this story is all you have to go by, if you’re deeply and emotionally engaged and you believe in its validity, and you see the impact that Jesus’ kingdom could have on the outcome of the world, then what do you think the natural response to the end of Mark’s gospel would be? It might be something like this: If these women didn't tell the others, if they didn’t relay the message, then who will? If they failed, then who will declare this great truth that God lives? Who will carry the torch so that this amazing kingdom might take over the world?
What about me? What about you?
When you ask that question, what about me? All of a sudden you have placed a tremendous burden on your shoulders…but this is exactly what Mark wants. Not only does he want you to be the one to tell the world that Jesus lives, but he also wants you to exemplify his kingdom in the way you live it out.
Mark wants us to do everything that Jesus’ disciples failed to do.
He wants us to become radical. He wants us to abandon everything. He wants us to zealously pursue holiness, and purity, and integrity. He wants us to seek after those on the fringe of society. He wants us to serve those who are beneath us. He wanst us to forgive those whom we hate, those who have wronged us. He wants us to love radically. He wants us to heal those who are sick, to pray fervently for those who are spiritually possessed, to give away our possessions and our money so that the poor can survive. He wants our complete and undivided trust. He wants us to confess our allegiance to Jesus Christ, even when we’re surrounded by people who want to kill us because of him. He wants us to carry our cross. He wants us to give up our lives for the sake of the kingdom. In order to do all of that, we must be fearless. What can help us overcome our fear? That’s simple. Christ is alive. If Christ is alive then what could possibly stop us from advancing his kingdom. Not even death can stop us.
1 Corinthians 15:55-58 55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
This is the reaction that Mark intended. Mark’s gospel ends the way it does because Mark is putting the onus of responsibility not on the women, and not on the twleve disciples, but rather, he is putting the responsibility of Christ’s kingdom on our shoulders. Are you ready for that? Do you believe that? Have you embraced that?
Jesus lives! What are you going to do about it?