Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

We’ve prayed the Gospel of Mark for 45 episodes, from the first verse which says, “The beginning of the gospel” to the end which says, “He rose from the dead.” 

Time to ask, “What did we learn?” 

I learned four things. 

1. Jesus was not a rational or systematic sort of teacher. Not for him college degrees or workshops in logic and rhetoric. He didn’t write a book and do a promotional tour. Rather, he travelled randomly about Palestine, preaching, teaching, healing, speaking.

McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message.” Jesus’ medium? Casual conversations, listener-friendly parables, stories about the weather and farmers and merchants and homemakers, arguments with Establishment Religion. But at the end, the cross he died on and the grave he rose from were his media, that still speak his message most clearly. 

2. Almost everybody who got close to Jesus spent a lot of time being confused. His family speculated that he might be insane (Mark 3:20), the religious leaders suggested he was demon possessed (Mark 3:22). To bewildered disciples, Jesus said, “Why are you so afraid? Don’t you have any faith?” (Mark 4:40). Pilate asked, “Are you really the king of the Jews?” (Mark 15:2). Did anyone understand Jesus?

3. Mark didn’t write to confuse. The strongest voices in his narrative proclaim faith. Like, Mark’s own voice that says, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Like the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, repeated at his transfiguration: “This is my son” (Mark 1:9, 9:7). Like the demon’s voice that said, “I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24). And Peter’s voice, his great confession: “You are the Messiah” (Mark 9:29). 

Voices from heaven and hell, voices from Peter and Mark richly endorse Jesus as God’s special messenger, his son, on earth. 

4. Finally, the bit players had an important role in Mark’s gospel. A leper cleansed, a blind man sees, a lame man walks, a woman with a life-long hemorrhage healed.  And more: children blessed, a widow’s small offering honored. No backstories, no names or addresses. After they receive Jesus’ gift, we never hear from them again. 

But they all point us to Jesus, offering hope he can meet our greatest needs too. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, I am a bit player in your story. I have seen you heal and restore and forgive and save. Do the same for me. 

O Jesus, I am a disciple in your story. Confused, I have followed your ministry years. Afraid, I have denied you at the crucifixion, and wondered at your resurrection. Teach this perplexed seeker to follow you, to receive your healing, to believe your message, to live as you did. 

O Jesus, I add my voice to the voices in Mark’s gospel. You are the Son of God, my Messiah, my risen one, my healer.

This is the gospel of Mark, full of the good news that I can live fully in you and you in all of me. 

Amen

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Two days after the crucifixion, two women took spices to anoint Jesus’ body. “How will we move the stone that seals the tomb?” they asked. 

But someone had already moved it. Instead of Jesus’ body, they found a man in a white robe who said, “Jesus isn’t here. He rose from the dead. Go tell his disciples to meet him in Galilee” (v. 6-7). 

Trembling and bewildered and afraid, the women fled, saying nothing to anyone.

And that’s the end of Mark’s gospel, in the earliest and best manuscripts.  

It’s an incredibly unsatisfying ending. Why weren’t the women excited that Jesus was alive? Who told the disciples about the change in plans? Did anybody actually see the risen Jesus? 

Mark’s ending has been a problem for Gospel scholars for 18 centuries. There are a couple popular endings that tell the rest of the story, but no one knows who wrote them.

Instead of trying to solve the problem of how Mark ought to end, I think I’ll just make some comments.

1. In spite of an abrupt ending, Mark’s gospel is never confused about who Jesus is. The first verse calls him “the Messiah, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). At his baptism, a heavenly voice says , “You are my son” (Mark 1:11). At the transfiguration, that voice again: “This is my son whom I love” (Mark 9:7). And after the resurrection, an angel in the empty tomb, “He is risen”. Mark trusts the voices that said Jesus was the son of God. 

2. Mark describes most of those who interacted with Jesus as confused. His family thought he was insane, the religious leaders saw him as a fraud, the disciples argued about who would be greatest, and Pilate? He didn’t care if Jesus was king or criminal. “Flog him. Crucify him. Next case!”

Many things Jesus did surprised and confused people. He rejected the Pharisees’ take on Old Testament law and practices, he drove money changers out of the temple, he walked on water like a ghost, he claimed to forgive sins. He was a complex character. Nobody really understood him.

So I’m not surprised that Mark’s story ends with confused women and a missing body. You would be confused too if you’d watched a brutal crucifixion on Friday and two days later found the body inexplicably missing. Too much information to process in one weekend.

3. I like an ending that leaves us with questions. Like, what happened next? Did the women get past their confusion and start talking? How did the disciples hear that Jesus was alive? 

I think Mark knew his readers would hear the rest of the story in their Christian community. And that they would experience the risen Christ in their own lives.  

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, Mark’s ending invites us into the story. The tomb that was empty for the women is still empty for us. 

Risen, you entered Mark’s life, inspiring him to write your story.
Risen, you entered the women’s confusion, changing their lives.
Risen, you found the disciples and inspired their witness.
Risen, you find me in my confusion and weave my story into yours.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Mark 15 talks about Jesus’ crucifixion. After being tortured, he was forced to carry his cross to Golgotha, crucifixion hill. 

Beaten and whipped by Roman soldiers, Jesus was too weak and slow, so a passer-by was conscripted to help. 

Pilate nailed a sign to the cross that said “The King of the Jews”. What a sneering and cynical statement, expressing Pilate’s loathing for the endless religious and political squabbling in this backwater of the Roman empire. 

Jesus was not a real king like Caesar. He had no path to power, he showed no strength against enemies, he found no guards or wisdom to protect himself. 

Jesus’ trial and crucifixion was a public spectacle, a bit like reality television today. A chance for voyeurs to watch people scheming and arguing and airing dirty laundry. An opportunity to be fascinated and disgusted and entertained by human foibles and gratuitous cruelty. 

Some watchers said to Jesus, “Did you say you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? What’s your plan now?” (v. 29). 

The religious leaders said, “He posed as messiah and king. He saved others. Can he save himself?” (v. 32). 

The soldiers threw lots to decide who got his clothes. 

Jesus was naked and alone on the cross. 

Let’s pray. 

O father, Jesus’ story is full of irony. 

John’s gospel tells us that the temple Jesus would destroy and rebuild was his body. But after the crucifixion, that body was soon buried.

The religious leaders maneuvered the king of the Jews onto a cross, proving he had no credible claim as a religious leader, that he had no special relationship to God, burying any hope he had of starting a new religion. 

Despite coming to build your kingdom, God, Jesus perished under Jewish conspiracies and Roman politics. 

A few women who loved him and disciples who had abandoned him watched him die. What else could they do? 

O father, Pilate and the religious leaders are long gone. Jesus’ cross has turned to dust. Archeologists excavate Roman ruins and ancient Jewish garbage dumps. But Jesus lives.

The sign under which he died is the sign under which we live. We meet and serve him. We pray to him for forgiveness and salvation. We trust his kingship in our lives, our churches, our world. We wait as he builds your kingdom, O God.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In Mark 15, the Passover didn’t pass over Jesus, it targeted him. Here’s what happened. 

The religious leaders had a problem with Jesus and wanted him dead. Since only the Roman occupiers could execute prisoners, they took Jesus and their complaints about him to Pilate, the Roman governor. 

Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you king of the Jews?” 

Jesus says, “If that’s what you want to call me, feel free.” 

Then the religious leaders pile on with their complaints and accusations. But Jesus doesn’t defend himself. Pilate exclaims, “Don’t you have anything to say?” 

Jesus didn’t. 

Pilate wasn’t keen to execute Jesus. He was leery of the religious rivalry and endless tribal arguments among the Jews. So he said, “Hey, every year I set a prisoner free to help you celebrate Passover. How about Jesus this year?” 

“Whoa, not him!” the religious leaders said. “How about Barabbas the murderer?” 

“Okay, if that’s what you want,” said Pilate. “But what about the king of the Jews?” 

“Crucify him!” they demanded. 

Some comments. 

1. Jesus didn’t look like a commanding king of the Jews. His followers abandoned him, the religious movement he started failed him, he sat silently through false accusations and unjust sentencing. 

2. Passover holiday celebrated the first passover, where God’s angel of death targeted Egyptian firstborn, and spared the Israelites. At Jesus’ New Testament Passover, Pilate is the angel of life and death. He offered to pass over Jesus. 

But the religious leaders desperately wanted Jesus out of the picture, so they convinced the angel of death to pass over Barabbas and target Jesus. It was a real Passover weekend for Barabbas. Not so for Jesus. 

3. The world Pilate and the religious leaders inhabited sounds like the world we live in. Corrupt religion making alliances with politics. Power protecting the powerful, and ignoring the weak. We see truth and human life sacrificed for religious and political outcomes. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you were hated by religious leaders and abandoned by friends.

The Jewish religion that nurtured you turned its back on you. 

You were targeted and imprisoned during a celebration of freedom.

You were silent before your accusers. 

You were a puppet in the religious leaders’ machinations and a pawn in Pilate’s game. 

You were wrongly convicted and harshly sentenced. 

But somehow in the disaster, you were king. King of the Jews, ruler of creation, savior of the church, judge of the world. 

Help us not to be like the religious leaders. May your strong name demolish our narrow ideologies, our questionable religious views, our corrupt political systems. 

Help us see the truth, and speak the truth, and worship you who are the way, the truth, and the life.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube