Lenten Devotional Guide

Fortieth Day:

"When the two women ran from the tomb, they were confused and shaking all over. They were too afraid to tell anyone what had happened." Mark 16:8

Fear is a powerful motivator. It so often controls our actions, even when we know there to be a better way of doing. Fear is often irrational, but at times it is the very rational aspect of fear that keeps us from living according to faith. The women's word was almost pointless in the day's courts. It took the word of two women to equate the word of one man. No one would believe them if they told the story. Perhaps it was just a ruse to locate the disciples and kill them along with Jesus. They were afraid and their fear ran with them, silencing their message of good news.

Mark's gospel originally ended with this verse. It was an unsettling ending. It was troubling. It was not the way the story was supposed to end. What about the happily ever after? Apparently, the text was changed by editors and copyists to reflect that the resurrection story did get told. They wanted the text to speak more of Jesus' resurrection than Mark's ending. His ending was uncomfortable, after all. It was unsatisfying. The women go to the tomb, find Jesus, then slip away quietly in fear. Mark's was a brilliant literary device. It is effective. It stirs our emotions. It makes us question the women, but also ourselves. Too often, however, we read the text as those early editors, seeking a reinforcement of the message we want to share or hear, so we miss Mark's point.

This is the most fast-paced of the gospel narratives. Mark presents Jesus teaching and doing. We are at one place, then another. We hear Jesus' words and see him act. He takes the disciples on a journey of action-packed discovery. We find Jesus healing and touching the lives of all kinds of people in order to continue the task of teaching the disciples in memorable ways. He leads us to the cross, then the tomb. Here we are faced with the seemingly unreasonable news that Jesus has risen from the dead.

This is the climax of Mark's account. We have been introduced to Jesus and his teaching the disciples. We have watched the disciples fail to understand the gospel time after time. They were always missing the point behind Jesus' words and actions. They worried over food when Jesus had just fed thousands of people. They battled Jesus over how to be messiah and argued against the possibility of his death. They argued over the wrong definition of greatness in the messianic reign.

It is easy to accuse the disciples of falling down on the job. Mark casts them as easy targets—dense fishermen who were always missing the boat. As these women come to the tomb, however, it is no longer the disciples who must respond to Jesus. All have abandoned him—the crowds, the twelve, Peter, and the other women who stood by the cross. They had all departed, and only the women are left to care for him. As they approach to hear the news of Jesus' resurrection, they also fail and run away. Now we are the only ones left. Now we are the ones faced with the question of how we will respond. What will we do? Will we run away in fear, or announce the message of the risen Lord?

Give the risen Christ center place in your life. Allow his resurrection to live in you.

"Lord, grant me the courage to see how I have failed to understand your gospel, the to proclaim your word in the character of Christ Jesus, crucified, yet risen from the dead."

—©2009 Christopher B. Harbin

Previous Day | Easter Devotional Index