Reading: Mark 15-16, Psalm 102
The last chapters of the book of Mark have Jesus engaging in yet more revelation. The powerful among the Jewish people have been revealed to care more for their position than their God, and his own followers have been shown to have more fear than loyalty. Jesus is sent alone to face the real political power, Rome, represented by Pontius Pilate. Mark has been setting up this confrontation with Caesar’s representative since the opening lines of the book when he calls Jesus the Son of God. But as powerful as Rome is, and as much as Pilate wants to believe he is in charge of everything, it turns out that reality is much different, and that he is not even the last power that Jesus will confront.
Look at how Pilate interacts with Jesus, the chief priests, and the crowds. He asks Jesus if he is the King. Jesus tells him You have said it. He uses language that suggest Pilate has made a statement rather than asked a question, putting Pilate off his game. Pilate is baffled as Jesus refuses to answer charges brought against him. He decides to try and use the crowd against the chief priests by bargaining: he will release either Jesus or a notorious criminal, Barabbas. But this plan doesn’t work out either, as the crowd decides for Barabbas. We can almost hear the frustration in Pilate’s words Why? What evil has he done? The highest authority in the land cannot even get an answer to this. He cannot release who he wants released and punish who he wants to punish. Jesus, whose only words to Pilate in this narrative are You have said it, has revealed that Roman authority is as much a sham as that of the chief priests and scribes.
The crucifixion story in Mark, while it contains all the horrible events related elsewhere, also reads like a coronation story. Jesus emerges from a palace. He is given a royal robe. He has a crown placed on his head. He is paraded through town, with a laborer forced to carry the symbol of his Kingship. We know the robe was intended in mockery, the crown made of thorns, and the symbol of Kingship a cross. Nonetheless Mark tells a story of royal ascension. Jesus is raised up above the people, he is given the title King of the Jews. The cross is a coronation and an ascension to authority beyond those of all he has exposed as fakes. This man is the real King. At the moment of his death Mark calls back to the opening lines of his book and the contrast to the Roman Caesar as the Centurion proclaims that truly this man was the Son of God.
Right before the Centurion’s confession, Mark tells us that the veil of the temple is ripped in two from top to bottom. Think about what this means. Mark has set Jesus over against the powers of both the Chief Priests and the Roman Caesars. Now, as he dies on the cross, the veil of the temple, dividing God’s people from the New Creation, is torn asunder. At the same time, a Roman soldier declares that Jesus is the Son of God. Mark is really doubling down on his argument that Jesus is not only the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures, but the rightful King of the nations. It is an astonishingly bold claim, which is only raised to the next level by the end of the book.
The ending of the book of Mark has been a subject of significant debate. The most reliable manuscripts of the book do not contain anything after verse 9 of chapter 16, and there are textual reasons to believe this was the original ending to the book. Some people have said this means Mark does not tell a story of the resurrection. But that is not what it does at all. The resurrection is still referenced, but the book ends on a note of extraordinary expectation. I really have no problem with the rest of chapter 16, and it dates back so far that it is clearly a formative part of Scripture and not to be ignored. But there is value in considering what happens when we read Mark’s original ending.
What happens when we read the book this way? Mark spent half his book talking about how the world got upended when Jesus was around, but that it was a secret. Then, when Jesus chooses to reveal himself, all the facades and masks are torn away. The New Creation is unleashed on the world with the tearing of the temple veil. The authority of Rome is upended with the confession that Jesus, not Caesar, is the Son of God. The last revelation is the most extreme: the power of death is revealed to be as false as that of Rome. Jesus has died and gotten over it. Death is no longer a power to be feared. The women who come to the tomb hear this from an angel and freak out, too afraid to tell anyone.
This, of course, is the first half of the book of Mark again. The world has been upended by the presence of Jesus, but it is a secret. The original ending of the book of Mark was an epic mic drop. An ending that is clearly not an ending. It asks, no demands, that there be a moment of revelation. Jesus is alive, what is going to happen when he comes to claim his throne? Mark leaves his audience with an expectation of the collapse of all false authorities in the face of the true authority. But it doesn’t happen all at once. Mark wants his audience to know, there will be a time in which it is a secret, then there will be a time in which it is undeniable.