The Weekly Perspective
by Joe Thacker, Pastor
“Where is Jesus?”
Reflecting further upon the resurrection in Mark 16:1-8, who is notably absent? Jesus. In Matthew, Luke, and John’s accounts, each of them records Jesus making some form of appearance, whether to the women (Matt. 28:9), the disciples later (Luke 24:13–49; John 20:19-23) or Mary Magdalene (John 20:11–18), but not Mark. Granted, in his addendum in 16:9ff. Mark makes mention of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and two disciples, but these verses are not part of the resurrection account proper and were likely added by him at a later time.
So why might Mark write an account of the resurrection that doesn’t include Jesus? Why construct the narrative without the main character of an event that forever changed the course of human history? Let’s appreciate how Mark is telling the story. The young man tells the women, “He is not here. See the place where they laid Him,” providing them with word and sign, as well as a mission: “Go and tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee”. The same was true for the first recipients of Mark’s Gospel, the early church, as it is for us. We don’t see Jesus either, yet we’re called to follow Him in the way in which He’s gone ahead of us. So let us recognize our place in the story along with the women and go forth by faith after the unseen yet risen Christ, trusting the word and signs (sacraments) as we fulfill the mission we’ve been given. That’s the life of discipleship and has been since the resurrection took place.