Sunday, April 20, 2014

A Better Ending

"Trembling and confused, the women fled the tomb and didn't say anything to anybody because they were scared," Mark 16:8).

That's how the first written Gospel ends.

Other things were added later by other people.

Matthew, Luke and John came decades later and are much more glorified versions of events than the rawness of the first account of Jesus's life and death.

The original ending of Mark has an tomb with no body and three women scared out of their minds.

When they arrived to pay their respects, the tomb's open and somebody's sitting inside.

A young man dressed in white is apparently waiting on someone to show up.

He explains, "You're looking for Jesus but he's not here," pointing a finger to the imprint on the ground, "that's where he was."

I'm sure the women looked and wondered, "What in the Hell?"

"Go find Peter and the others and tell them to go to Galilee and you'll see him," the kid concludes and it scares the women to death so they get away from the grave as fast as possible, keep their mouths shut and ... who knows what happens next?

Mark doesn't call the young man in white an Angel.

He was just somebody who seems to be in the know.

That's how the story originally ends.

All of the other events ... frying fish on the beach after telling Disciples which side of the boat to fish ... letting doubting Thomas touch him ... magical apparitions here and there ... were added in the rewrites of the original story because many though such a great story needs a better ending.  

As good as those other endings are, I prefer the original.

The tomb's empty.

Jesus' body isn't there but a cocky teenager is who basically explains, "Just do the stuff he told you to do."

Because in his life Jesus said lots about how to live a better life.

The obvious question Mark leaves hanging in the air is, "Where's Jesus?"

The obvious answer is, "Where do you want him to be?"