May 15th, 2021

t is the last, the Seventh Sunday of the Easter season, but, in a way, the Easter season will continue every Sunday until the end of time. The Lord will continue to meet with his people, as the resurrected Lord met with his followers on Sunday, and that is called, in some languages, the Lord’s Day, and that is for a good reason. The term ‘lord’ shows authority, and it would be good to remember who is really in charge of that day and what is truly important. Jesus showed his authority over sin, death, and hell.

The First Reading, for the last time, is from the book of Acts, chapter 1[:12-26]. The text moves in a positive direction, despite Jesus having just ascended. You get the idea that Jesus is still involved and giving his input. The apostles want to bring their number back up to twelve, and, by the end of the chapter, the twelfth one is in place, and he is doing his job—although we do not hear anything more about Matthias specifically—that is a good thing. That is the way the flow of the text seems to be moving within this entire book, the Acts of the Apostles, although a better title may be ‘the Acts of the Risen Lord’. Throughout the chapters there are some difficulties, but those difficulties are handled. And the Lord’s Church continues to grow.

This seems to be a stark contrast to what is considered the end of the Gospel according to Mark, in its most reliable manuscripts. There, the women have just talked to the ‘young man’ at the empty tomb of Jesus. He tells them to tell Jesus’ disciples that Jesus will see them in Galilee, just as he had promised. Then what follows is this last verse, in a somewhat-literal translation, of the most ancient manuscripts of this gospel account:

And [the women] going out, they fled from the tomb, for trembling and ecstasy had them, and they said nothing to no one, for they feared.

Much has been written about this ending. Some people insist that this cannot be the ending of a gospel account. [For more details in a recent writing, see Excursus 19: A Consideration of the ‘Long Ending’ of Mark: 16:9-20, in Concordia Commentary: A Theological Exposition of Sacred Scripture, Mark 8:27-16:20; Mark 8:27-16:8, James W. Voelz; Mark 16:9-20, Christopher W. Mitchell; Concordia Publishing House, Saint Louis, 2019; pages 1222-1237.]

Such a negative reaction regarding this ending usually comes from a negative reaction to fear, the last description of the women who went away from the tomb. But, as Rev. Dr. James Voelz points out in the commentary mentioned above, fear is not always a bad thing.

Dr. Voelz references these verses below that are also in the Gospel according to Mark. They are somewhat literally translated below, and they have fear mentioned somewhere in them, but it is not an exclusively negative fear. Along with the fear is some action that is far more important. For the first three, it is some sort of miracle, but for the second two, it goes to a much more important issue of Jesus’ main purpose on earth:

5:15     Jesus just healed the man who had a ‘legion’ of demons. The demons went into some nearby pigs, and those pigs died. Those who were watching the pigs told what happened in the nearby town, and then there is this verse: ‘And they come toward Jesus, and they behold the one having been demon-possessed, sitting, and having been robed, and being in his senses, the one having the legion, and they feared.’

5:33     A woman who had a flow of blood was just healed by Jesus, because she believed that she will be healed if only she touches his clothes, but Jesus wants her to say something about it. Then there is this verse: ‘And the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell before him, and she told him all the truth.’

6:50     Jesus is walking on the water, and the disciples think that he is a ghost, and they cry out. Then there is this verse: ‘For all saw him and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and he says to them, ‘Have courage; I AM; do not fear.’

10:32   Jesus has already predicted twice before that he will be going to Jerusalem to die, and he is about to predict this one more time. Then there is this verse: ‘And they were in the way, going up into Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed, and, those following were afraid; and taking again the twelve, he began to tell them the things about to happen to him.’

11:18   Jesus just cleansed the temple, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was being so strict! And he was saying that people have made ‘his house’ a ‘den of robbers’. And then there is this verse: ‘And the scribes and the chief priests heard, and they sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him, for all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.’

Another positive connection can also be made by comparing this account to the other gospel accounts—this is something that is difficult to do when studying a biblical text from just one gospel account or when studying a commentary. But such a study can be very helpful. And such a study can be easy since these accounts are not in four large scrolls, but they are in a ‘codex’, a book, so that comparisons can easily be made. If taken with the other gospel accounts, to see this in light of a fourfold gospel, then the ramifications are much more positive.

There is a somewhat similar resurrection account in the Gospel according to Matthew, and the women are running from the empty tomb, but then these words are included, and this is, again, in a somewhat-literal translation [28:9-10]:

And, behold, Jesus met them saying, ‘Hail!’ And those approaching him held his feet, and they worshipped him. Then Jesus says to them, ‘Do not fear; go, announce to my brothers that they may go away into Galilee, and there they will see me.’

In the Gospel according to Matthew, this message is set up in strong contrast to the message that the soldiers passed on to others, that Jesus really did not rise from the dead, but that his disciples came and stole his body. The Jewish leaders are trying to calm the soldier’s fears, assuring them that they will not get into trouble.
This is such a strong contrast to the positive fear within those five texts above. This fear is within the context of something very good happening, something that was strongly connected to Jesus’ role on earth of savior from sin.

This ending may have been this short to remind people that, when we look at what we see, it is not always good. Within a larger context, this fear is a positive one, especially in light of what the Lord has already promised and done.

The Lord appeared to those women who were afraid. The Lord will return again at a time in which some Christians may be afraid. There will always be interruptions in our lives, both good ones and bad ones. But no matter what happens, the Lord always keeps his promises.