Mark 15 & 16

Mark continues the hurried pace of his writing to cover these last moments of the life of Jesus. He does not dwell on the gory details of crucifixion, but yet conveys that it was a very real death, with a very real purpose. He rushes past the supernatural darkness, the forsakenness of Jesus, the expectation of Elijah arriving before ‘the great and dreadful day of the Lord’ (last but one verse of the Old Testament), the curtain being torn open, the centurion’s recognition, the women’s presence, and the original ending (v8) leaves us without any confirmed sighting of the resurrected Jesus. It’s as if Mark is passing the baton to us and saying, “Go on, keep running with this news”. Shall we?

The Revd. David Hildred