FACING BEWILDERMENT (16 OF 49)
Scripture: Mark 16:1-8
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Facing Bewilderment (16 of 49)
Lectionary, Year B, Easter Sunday
Christopher Harbin
Mark 16:1-8
If we did not understand the concept of bewilderment before, we learned it this last year. We heard many conflicting claims about a viral pandemic, masks, distancing, prophylactics, potential treatments, and vaccines. 15 months ago, no one understood what was happening, and we struggled for guidance as scientists began studying a new virus that was acting in novel ways. We knew people were getting sick. We knew people were dying. We knew a new virus was spreading across the globe. There were numerous unanswered questions, however, about how we should protect ourselves, one another, our healthcare system from being overrun, and to see that lives, livelihoods, education, business, and relationships continued thriving. Where do we turn when there is no clear path forward? Where do we seek guidance and security?
Mark's gospel has a relatively strange ending. It is abrupt. It is discordant. While Mark was very intentional about this, it did not sit well with many. They felt somewhat out of sorts with it. People did not want to be left with the initial failure of these women to share the resurrection message entrusted to them. The early church heard Mark's rendering of the good news of Jesus, yet wanted to focus on more positive aspects of announcing the resurrection than what Mark wrote down. Versions of his gospel began circulating with alternate endings. Some of our Bibles contain those additions to Mark's account, providing a rosier finale, moving past the women's bewilderment upon hearing of Jesus' resurrection.
We are uncomfortable with bewilderment, even the bewilderment of others. It is only natural. We prefer pinning down the facts, understanding what is before us, and marching confidently, full steam ahead. That is simply not where these women were at the end of Mark's account. (To be sure, in Mark's account it is these women who are bewildered, but the ...
Lectionary, Year B, Easter Sunday
Christopher Harbin
Mark 16:1-8
If we did not understand the concept of bewilderment before, we learned it this last year. We heard many conflicting claims about a viral pandemic, masks, distancing, prophylactics, potential treatments, and vaccines. 15 months ago, no one understood what was happening, and we struggled for guidance as scientists began studying a new virus that was acting in novel ways. We knew people were getting sick. We knew people were dying. We knew a new virus was spreading across the globe. There were numerous unanswered questions, however, about how we should protect ourselves, one another, our healthcare system from being overrun, and to see that lives, livelihoods, education, business, and relationships continued thriving. Where do we turn when there is no clear path forward? Where do we seek guidance and security?
Mark's gospel has a relatively strange ending. It is abrupt. It is discordant. While Mark was very intentional about this, it did not sit well with many. They felt somewhat out of sorts with it. People did not want to be left with the initial failure of these women to share the resurrection message entrusted to them. The early church heard Mark's rendering of the good news of Jesus, yet wanted to focus on more positive aspects of announcing the resurrection than what Mark wrote down. Versions of his gospel began circulating with alternate endings. Some of our Bibles contain those additions to Mark's account, providing a rosier finale, moving past the women's bewilderment upon hearing of Jesus' resurrection.
We are uncomfortable with bewilderment, even the bewilderment of others. It is only natural. We prefer pinning down the facts, understanding what is before us, and marching confidently, full steam ahead. That is simply not where these women were at the end of Mark's account. (To be sure, in Mark's account it is these women who are bewildered, but the ...
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