When we make new discoveries in life, whether it be finding an object or item that is going to benefit you greatly, understanding a new truth, getting to know someone in a new way, or making a new friend, how did that discovery affect you?
Read Mark 15:40-16:8.
What is significant about the people present for Jesus’ burial (15:40-47)?
What do verses 42-47 tell us about Joseph?
What risks does Joseph run by taking responsibility for Jesus’ burial?
Soon after Jesus’ burial (and even to this day) some have claimed that Jesus didn’t actually die. What details in this account confirm that He did die?
Middle Eastern burials of this era took place in two stages. First, the body was wrapped up, covered in spices to offset the smell and then laid on a shelf in a cave. Second, a year or two later when the flesh had decomposed, the bones were then gathered into a box called an ossuary and stored in the tomb, leaving room for the burial of another family member on the now empty shelf.
Mark finishes his account of the burial with a feeling of eager impatience. He has set everything in order for the next stage, but now it is the sabbath, and everything must rest, including the body of Jesus Himself.
What are the women expecting when they go to the tomb (16:1-3)?
Note what the women are not saying to themselves (as they might be if this story were a later pious fiction). They were not going to witness Jesus’ resurrection. They had no idea that any such thing was even thinkable. They were going to complete the primary burial. This was a sad task, but a necessary one, both for reverence’s sake, and to lessen the smell of decomposition as other bodies, in due course, might be buried in the same tomb over the coming year or so, prior to Jesus’ bones being collected and put into an ossuary (the secondary burial).
What do they do instead (16:4-5)?
How do they respond to what they see and hear (16:6-8)?
In the ancient world, women were regarded as worthless witnesses. Why does Mark’s mention of them here actually affirm the validity of this story rather than call the events into question?
What is the significance of Jesus’ resurrection for you?
Read Mark 16:9-20.
Some scholars believe Mark’s original ending is missing. Note here that God has given us what He has intended for us to have so it is no concern to me either way, but there are some good things to think about if this is true.
The reason some scholars believe as previously noted is that two of the most acclaimed manuscripts that they have, both from the fourth century, end with verse 8. The alternative endings as those scholars would call them are in their opinion later writings, added by copyists, who think that Mark couldn’t have meant to stop at verse 8, and so they determined in themselves to fill in the gap. Whether this is true or not I do not know as I mentioned previously it does not concern me. I trust that God has delivered to us what He wants us to have and it is certainly true that all the content in verses 9-20 is confirmed elsewhere in the New Testament without question or dispute.
However, if it is true about early Christians from the 4th century writing verses 9-20, then what do these verses tell us about how they saw the significance of these events?
What tasks has our risen Lord given you in order to take the gospel into all the world?
How would you evaluate your own discipleship, your commission from the risen Jesus?
Trent Dean
dean008@gmail.com