“They Were Afraid, You See …” A reflection on Mark 16:1-8

The ending of Mark’s Gospel we’d rather ignore and why we shouldn’t pass it by.


Part 72, Mark 16:1-8 ‘The Resurrection: They were afraid, you see …’


In this episode we reach Mark’s original conclusion to his carefully crafted account of Jesus life, message and ministry, before later writers added additional material to it.

What appears to be a tragic conclusion, is in fact a beautiful invitation. 

In a slightly longer episode this week, Sean unpacks this fascinating passage drawing several themes together.


It’s an invitation that doesn’t turn the cross into a sword, but invites us to look at how Jesus displayed a different kind of power. And the power of this story isn’t in what it tells us as such - it’s in what it asks, and demands of us.


A complete change of heart, mind and soul, towards truly loving God, and our neighbour.

But like the women who discovered the empty tomb, we might be “afraid, you see” of what lies ahead.


When we reach the place of abandonment, fear, doubt and questions - we can return to Galilee with Jesus, to continue to discover the ‘secrets of the kingdom of God’ - in the light of resurrection, and a God who is right there, in the midst of our questions.



The full transcript follows below.

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You can also read the relevant bible passage, Mark 16:1-8 online at: 


https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%2016%3A1-8&version=MSG;NIV


You can also subscribe to this series playlist on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL17ig7Gb4cmCknxZs7IVgFlJgIPREKISf&si=IrQfzXaoSovNUIr7 and also find 150+ additional bible reflections and stories, from various God’s Squad members around the world.


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Sean Stillman is God’s Squad’s International President and member of GSCMC South Wales, UK.


This presentation, and all of the previous ones in this series that Sean has presented, includes references, quotes and research from the following sources;


Meeting God in Mark, Rowan Williams, 2014.

Binding the Strong Man, Ched Myers, 1998, (2008 edition)

Mark, Paideia Commentary on the New Testament, Mary Ann Beavis, 2011.

The Gospel of Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, William L. Lane, 1974.

The Gospel According to St. Mark, Black’s New Testament Commentaries, Morna D. Hooker, 1981, (2003 edition)

Life on the Road, Athol Gill, 1992.

Mark, New International Biblical Commentary, Larry W. Hurtado, 1983, (1998 edition).

Mark, Tyndale New Testament Commentary, R. Alan Cole, 1961, (1989 edition)

Mark Gospel of Action: Personal and Community Responses, Ed. John Vincent, 2006


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The Full Transcript is below:


Part 72, Mark 16:1-8 ‘The Resurrection of Jesus’ (Sean Stillman)


Welcome to part 72 of our series exploring Mark’s Gospel.

I’m Sean Stillman GS IP.

This week we get to the original ending of Mark’s writing - looking at Ch. 16:1-8.


I say the original end, because that ending, as we shall see, is far from comfortable. It’s a long way from being neat and tidy. It leaves us hanging and looks more like the end of a Greek Tragedy than an account of ‘Good News’.


To readers of this gospel in the first few centuries, there were too many loose ends and various additional paragraphs were added - which we’ll look at next week and I’ll follow that up with a final summary of this whole series.


But for this week, we’ll explore what the vast majority of biblical scholars have concluded is Mark’s actual conclusion - the discovery of the empty tomb of Jesus, by some devoted women followers.


As we come to the end, let’s remind ourselves of the beginning of this account of Jesus on the road with with a band of misfits. 

Right at the start, Mark made it clear, this was to be the record of ‘The beginning of the gospel (good announcement), about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (1:1)

And Mark records Jesus public ministry beginning with a declaration of, 

‘The time has come … the kingdom of God is near, (it’s close enough to touch and embrace). 

Repent, (turn around, change direction, wake up and see), and believe the good news’. (1:15)


So how come does such a hopeful beginning and a promise of news that will be good, conclude with a verse that reads, ‘Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.’ ? (16:8)


Over the next few minutes I will attempt to uncover the hope and the ‘good’ in this story.

A story that began in the marginalised backwaters of Galilee amongst a bunch of society’s outcasts, that were feeling the oppression of the ruling Roman Empire, it’s puppet local rulers and a religious system that saw fit to exclude them as much as possible. 

It began with communities of people who desperately wanted ‘good news’. 

They wanted to be set free from their constrictive existence, they wanted to be accepted, they wanted to be treated fairly. 

Mark’s Gospel is full of silences, misunderstandings, and it teases us right to the end about how they and we should ultimately respond.


It’s a story that former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, describes as, showing us a ‘…Jesus who not only brings about ‘regime change’ in the world in which we live, but a Jesus who changes forever what we can say about God.’


Let’s get stuck into today’s text, mark 16:1-8

Jesus has been tried and executed by Roman crucifixion alongside some criminals. 

His body was hurriedly taken down, and unceremoniously buried in a borrowed tomb. 

The following day was the sabbath. 

Verse 1


Jesus Has Risen

16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”


So here we have some devoted-to-the-end women followers of Jesus. 

They’re too late to pour fragrant spices on his body before burial - and after 36 hours or so, this wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience. 

But their devotion compels them - they’re more worried about the weight of the stone. 

These heavy tomb entrance covers were made to roll easily into a closed position, but rolling them back out was very difficult. 

It put grave robbers off taking things and also trying to hide stuff there. 

Let’s try to imagine their state of mind - a brutal execution of an innocent friend, their hero, their teacher. 

They’re already in shock and deep grief, and the this happens…v4


But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.


They’re late getting to the tomb not because of the decay of Jesus’s body - but because they’ve missed him. 

He’s gone. He’s not there. 

What we can interpret as probably being an angel is sat there, and brings words of peace in the confusion - and, sitting on the right. 

Mark in his writing has reminded us of the symbolism of the seat at the right of the Lord - it was the place of power and solidarity (12:36, 14:62).

This young man was dressed in a white robe, similar in name to the one left by the fleeing young man in Gethsemane. Time doesn’t permit today exploring that connection - but It’s also the same word as the dazzling white Jesus became at the Transfiguration and also worn by the Great Multitudes in Revelation chapter 7.

The women’s deep trauma at what they experience, is the same language used to describe the trauma of Jesus’s agony in Gethsemane.

This messenger confirms - this Jesus who was crucified, is now risen!

This Jesus, the Nazarene, The beloved Son, butchered at the hands of a greedy empire, a corrupt religious system and selfish people, was never going to be a great ending.

But - The authorities haven’t had the last word. ‘Jesus is Risen’.

Like so many that had risen from their sick beds at the hands of Jesus, now Jesus too was the subject of an inexplicable miracle - of resurrection.


But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”


In a beautiful moment of hopeful reunion and reinstatement, the messenger commands the women to go and speak about these things to the very people who have deserted Jesus, including Peter, who has denied him so spectacularly.

In many ways Peter stands for all that is fragile about human behaviour - Peter is us.

And it’s Peter remember, who narrates this very Gospel to Mark.

Throughout his writing, Mark has made a point of recording Jesus saying to people, ‘Don’t tell anyone’, the time is not right - and of course they do.

And now finally, the messenger gives the women freedom to go and talk about this.

Jesus is not just gone from the tomb, he is risen and will see them again in Galilee.

Do you remember a few episodes ago, when Peter was adamant he would never desert Jesus or let him down? (14:28) 


Jesus said to him, ‘After I have risen, I’ll go ahead of you to Galilee.’

Galilee - the place where they first met Jesus, where the 12 were first called to follow him, where they left their previous lives. Galilee was where they were named and taught by Jesus, sent on missions and experienced all the high and lows of being on the road with Jesus.

The messenger was telling them to return to the beginning.

He could have said, meet Jesus for a victory parade in the temple at Jerusalem, that’ll prove a point to all the doubters - but he didn’t, he said Galilee. 


Mark is short on detail about the various post resurrection appearances - he doesn’t think it necessary.

Instead, he ends with this statement, attempting to describe the complete and utter shock of the women, as they try to comprehend exactly what they’re experiencing.

They were truly, ‘Lost for words’.



Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.


They’re seeing and experiencing something which defies logic and language. 

This is not normal.

The one time Mark records instructions to go and tell people, they don’t. 

They can’t. Jesus the healer is easy to talk about. 

Jesus the resurrected one? 

When we thought we were about to our spices on his rotting body, that really freaks me out. 

What’s more; resurrection talk, means the end is coming.

An angel tells us he’s risen and will meet us in Galilee? 


How could they speak about this stuff? Could you? Could I?

This frightened the life out of them

Mark wants us to see this.


Somewhere in the middle of the muddle, the madness, the chaos, where there are no words to describe what on earth is going on, God acts. 

God acts in and through the pain, failure, rejection of Jesus - in his torture and execution.

This is not a conventional triumph.

This is the unfolding of the ‘secret of the kingdom of God’ that Jesus mentioned in chapter 4 (4:11).


The early Greek text of ‘They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid,’ ends with a small word, ‘gar’ and Rowan Williams suggests is most accurately translated as, ‘they were afraid, you see …’

But why does Mark end it here?

It was not unknown for tragedies to end on a note of departure.


In our modern times we like Hollywood endings.

We want the cavalry to come riding in and save the day.

We want, ‘they all lived happily ever after’.


But, we’re left with asking; in their fear and confusion, will they flee, or will they follow?


Of course, we know they eventually did find the words and the resurrection message lives on as a result.

But, How many times have I found myself asking of God, ‘you want me to trust you with this?’ 


And in my heart I’m thinking, ‘I’m afraid, you see..’

The resurrection of Christ, still confounds me, and defies logic and words, but makes complete sense in the light of the whole story. 

There is a secret there to be known.


If Jesus hadn’t have risen, this Nazarene carpenter might, if he was lucky, have got a single line mention by the historian Josephus, but more likely, he would have been forgotten. 

If he did indeed rise, and the testimony of those in this Gospel of Mark and others, would lead them to believe enough to die for, it leaves me, leaves us, with a challenge.


Mark’s Gospel ends with astonishment and fear - and also an invitation to join with the disciples in our Galilee. 

It began with ‘Follow me’ and it ends with, ‘meet me in Galilee.’

It ends with an invitation to go back to the beginning again.

And when we reach the place of abandonment, fear, doubt and questions once more - we return to Galilee with Jesus, to continue to unpack the ‘secrets of the kingdom of God’ - in the light of resurrection, and a God who is right there, in the midst of our questions.


To ‘Repent for the kingdom of God is near’, is not some veiled threat, that recent centuries of empire influenced church structures have often made to out to be.

It’s not about submitting to the control of a tyrant God.

It’s an invitation to embrace something that is altogether; more radical, more wonderful, more liberating, and more fulfilling than anything, any of the empires of this world can impose.

That’s why Mark wrote it to the believers being persecuted by Rome.


It doesn’t turn the cross into a sword, but invites us to look at how Jesus displayed power.

The power of this story isn’t in what it tells us as such - it is in what asks, and demands of us.

A complete change of heart, mind and soul, towards truly loving God, and our neighbour.


My contributions to this series have been informed and challenged by many different highly respected theologians and thinkers, from all aspects and angles of the Christian faith.

I want to close this episode with a quote from Ched Myers, whose commentary on Mark’s Gospel called ‘Binding the Strong Man’, is considered one the best in modern times and hugely recommended by my predecessor, John Smith.


“Here at the end of the story we find ourselves in exactly the same position. We do not entirely understand what "resurrection" means, but if we have understood the story, we should be "holding fast" to what we do know: that Jesus still goes before us, summoning us to the way of the cross. And that is the hardest ending of all: not tragedy, not victory, but an unending challenge to follow anew. Because that means, we must respond.” 

(p401 BTSM)


We’ll return next week to look at the text that has been added at the end of this Gospel.

The following session, I’ll bring us a summary to wrap up the series.

Cheers and God bless - and thank you so much for tuning in and engaging with us.