As I shared with you, Mark’s Gospel has only eight verses on the resurrection. As Mark tells the story: “and very early on the first day of the week … when the sun had risen,” three women, names as “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome,” go to the tomb of Jesus to anoint him with spices. Expecting to find his body, they walk into his tomb. They are met by “a young man, dressed in a white robe,” presumably an angel, who tells the women, “Do not be alarmed” (this is a frequent biblical expression also translated “fear not” and “be not afraid”). The white-robed figure continues: “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.” “Look” is the old “behold”: “Behold, there is the place they laid him.” And he was no longer there.

Then the white-robed figure promises that the women and Jesus’ other followers (the disciples and Peter are mentioned) will see Jesus in Galilee: “There you will see him, just as he told you.” This promise, along with the empty tomb and the white-robed figure’s interpretation of it, are the heart and climax of Mark’s Easter story. It would have been a grand ending to the first gospel. But Mark has one more verse. It is the end not only of his Easter story, but of his gospel as a whole. The women “fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

Mark’s ending has been puzzling for a long time, beginning in Christian antiquity. New endings were added in the early centuries of Christianity, a shorter one from no earlier than the fourth century and a longer one from the late second century. The longer endings are often printed in English translations and often (though not always) identified as such. But our best ancient manuscripts end with “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

In the modern period, Mark’s ending has attracted scholarly attention. Some scholars have argued that Mark either didn’t have a chance to finish his gospel or that it did originally have a longer ending that got lost very early. Their primary reason is that they find it hard to believe that a gospel could end the way Mark does. But the majority of scholars think the gospel did originally end with 16:8.

Though Mark’s ending may be strange and puzzling to us, it may not have been to his community. Local circumstances may have made the ending exquisitely appropriate. Perhaps it was enough to trigger connections to what they all knew. We have to always remember that the gospels are not historical accounts of what actually happened but, rather, writings meant to stimulate belief in Jesus Christ.