The last issue of this article ended with some thoughts on the ending of Mark’s Gospel. The oddness of Mark’s last verse should not distract from the central affirmation of the story, spoken by the angel to the women. The angel begins with the obvious: You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. Then the proclamation: He has been raised; he is not here.

Thus Mark’s story, in   spite of its puzzling ending, unambiguously proclaims the central conviction of Jesus’ followers in the post-Easter period. Jesus was not just a figure of the past, but is a figure of the present. You won’t find him in a tomb, won’t find him in the land of the dead; imperial execution and a rich man’s tomb couldn’t hold him, couldn’t stop him. God has raised and vindicated him – he lives and is Lord. This conviction, the foundation of early         Christianity and the New Testament, is expressed with great economy in Mark’s Easter story. It’s all there. The tomb is empty! Jesus is still loose in the world!

It is also important that we consider the historical context in which Mark’s Gospel was written. Dating Mark’s Gospel around 70 CE puts it during a momentous time for Jews and early Christians, the majority of whom were Jewish. It was especially calamitous in the Jewish homeland. In the year 66, a revolt against Roman rule broke out. The Jewish revolutionaries were initially successful. They took control of Jerusalem, deposed the high priest appointed by Rome, and installed one of their own. War immediately followed. Rome sent several legions to crush the revolt. After four years, in the year 70, the legions reconquered Jerusalem and destroyed both the city and the temple. It was perhaps the most devastating event in ancient Jewish history, rivaled only by the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple some six centuries earlier.

The destruction of the temple was unimaginable for first-century Jews. Herod the Great (ruler of the Jewish homeland from 37 to 4 BCE) and his successors had turned the temple into a magnificent combination of courtyards and buildings that had features of a fortress. Its walls were high (over 300 feet at one point) and massive (some stones were 40 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 7 feet high and weighed 200 tons). It seemed like an impregnable fortress. Moreover, according to temple theology it was the dwelling place on earth of the God of Israel. God had promised to dwell in it forever. Only there were sacrifices offered to God. Surely nothing could destroy it. In 70 the unimaginable happened. The temple was destroyed. One can only imagine what went through the minds of people. The temple of the God that freed them from Egypt, was     destroyed. Unthinkable!