Terror and Amazement - Easter April 16, 2006
And again, here’s Mark’s description of the day of Resurrection: But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus … who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
Why is it that visiting angels always start with the seemingly futile command to “not be alarmed?” What person who sees an angel from heaven is not going to be alarmed!? “Don’t be afraid,” says one of the most terrifying visages a human will ever experience! It’s not unlike a waitress walking up to me with a braised leg of lamb saying: “Be not hungry.” It’s not going to work! There are certain visceral reactions that can’t be stopped, even if the request comes from an angel. And indeed it didn’t work, for as Mark says:
8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mark is painting a picture of fear, and to make sure we get it, he uses no less than four images of fear in this one verse.
1) Common result of fear: they fled. They ran out of that tomb – they wanted out of there, and the quicker the better. The problem with running from a ghost or an angel, is that you’re pretty sure they can fly much faster than you can run… but run these women did.
2) Mark says they had a common physical expression of fear = terror. The original word is tromos = trembling, “shaking in your boots” fear. This word is usually matched up with phobia – fear and trembling in this case it’s matched up with:
3) Common side-effect of severe fear = ekstasis, ek=out, stasis=stand, so the word= stand outside yourself, from which we get ecstasy. It speaks of a state of being where you’ve lost rational control. In fact, it’s the same word used in the GK translation of Gen. 2:21 God put Adam in a deep trance and took a rib from him. It also happens to be used by Mark another time. When the people see Jesus raise up a girl from the dead. They were astonished – outside themselves with amazement.
4) Common tendency of the fearful = saying nothing to anyone, for fear that they’d be considered crazy.
All that in verse 8. Mark doesn’t want us to miss the point. These women were reacting with terror and amazement. Well, wouldn’t you? What other emotional state is appropriate when coming face to face, toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball, not only with an angel, but with the great mystery of death and wondrously inexplicable hope of life beyond it?
Have you been afraid lately? It’s been awhile for me too. I remember one time being home alone, except it wasn’t my home and I wasn’t alone I was with a friend. We were 11ish and it was night, and we heard noises outside the house. We peeked out the window, and he swore he saw something, no someone. Before we could think, adrenaline started pumping. We ran like mad men (or crazy boys), we pulled out every gun his Dad owned, we put chairs at every door, we got out knives. Every leaf that crackled, every floorboard that creaked, every squirrel that scurried, sounded like the end. I remember the shaking, the wondering if it was all over. Of course looking back I now know that the danger inside was much greater than any outside.
Terror and Amazement. Trembling and Bewildered translates the NIV. This seems all too right, all too appropriate. The women were speechless with fear, for where they expected to find a body, they found a messenger – where they expected to find death, they found words about life. And this is where Mark ends it.
If you have your Bibles open, you’ll note that most translations add a footnote mentioning that the oldest manuscripts ends right here. The later verses were likely the work of a well-meaning scribe trying to make a clearer match with Mark and the other gospels. So Mark, who obviously believes in the resurrection either doesn’t feel it’s necessary to talk about it in detail, OR his original ending was lost.
The reason some think the original ending was lost is because Mark literally ends with the preposition “for.” The Greek reads “the women say nothing to anyone because they were afraid for…” Now Greek allows for the “for” to be at the end (just as Germans love to put their verbs at the end), but you have to admit this seems a strange way to end.
But for what it’s worth, I (and the majority of NT scholars) think this is exactly where Mark intends to end it. With the preposition. Why? Because remember, when Mark was writing his intended audience would have had (or heard of) Paul’s letters. They knew about the resurrection AND they knew about the explosive growth of the early church. They were living it. Mark’s statement that they didn’t say anything to anyone is evidence for his readers that Jesus appeared to the Disciples – forgiving Peter for his denial, comforting the women in their fear.
Parenthetically: With the news of the discovery of the Gospel of Judas last week, you’ve likely heard more about ancient manuscripts than you really cared to. But please understand this: 1) The four gospels of the Bible are the oldest, were written much earlier (as in a century or two). No matter what you might have heard some well-meaning TV journalist say the new gospel is not a major revelation about Jesus or anything that happened 30 AD. 2) They are however, a major revelation about early Christians. From the “Gnostic texts” we gain an understanding about the early Christians – among other things it tells us that they didn’t all think alike and act alike – they were as diverse as we are today. And just as today, just because somebody writes something about Jesus, and claims they have special knowledge, doesn’t make it so! End of parentheses
My point is that the oldest manuscripts we have of Mark’s gospel end right here. 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Is there any chance that Mark is ending his Gospel where ancient Hebrew wisdom began? Need I remind you: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom?” The fear of God begins what faith in God continues: an eternal life of wisdom.
Do you remember the dark nights of childhood fear? The green slimy terror laying under your bed, breathing ever so quietly, ready to reach his long arms out from under the cover of darkness to grab your pajamas and pull you down into his clutches where he could eat your eyeballs one by one… (OK maybe I just had an active imagination).
Do you remember the sound outside your window, the thump in the attic, the clanging in the kitchen, when no one is home… why is it that so many of our fears arise at night, in the darkness?
Tis the fear of the unknown, psychologists say.
And is there anything darker, more unknown, than death? Peer into its mystery and what you have is darkness. Shakespeare’s “undiscovered country,” W. H. Auden’s reaction fits: “stars are not wanted, pack up the moon dismantle the sun.”
If you don’t have occasional terror and amazement, trembling and bewilderment, boot-shaking
fear and out-of your mind dread at the whole mystery of existence and it’s personal end – it’s only because you’ve not thought about it, or you’re not being honest with yourself. John Donne tells us to not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee – except that most of us hear no bells today.
I’ve been reminded recently… by a neighbor who went out on a clear evening 2 weeks ago today, walking his dog, a storm blew in and then blew down a tree. It happened to fall right on him and his dog (he’s going to make it, but it was close). And by someone very close to me getting sick… by the realization that I remember so well my parents at my age and it was but yesterday…
Mark is honest enough to say, that upon seeing the empty tomb the first reaction of those who loved Jesus the most, was not “whoopee, let’s sing a hymn!” but tromos kai ekstasis = action crippling fear, which for these women proved to give birth to faith. But it’s not automatic or immediate.
Craddock on this strange ending of Mark’s gospel: "Is this any way to run a resurrection? Is this enough to persuade, to stir new life in the followers of Jesus? First, let it be said that none of the Gospels provides an unambiguous… account. Matthew says the disciples worshiped Jesus but some doubted; Luke says that in their joy they were disbelieving; and John says one of the Twelve refused to believe until he touched and felt. Faith is not coerced, even on Easter. In the New Testament, faith is response to divine revelation, and Mark provides that from the mouth of the young man in the tomb."
1 John: perfect love casts out fear. For a while the women let their fear cast out their love and faith. But not for long. Mark feels no need to tell us the obvious. Jesus became so real for these fearful woman, that they changed the world.
There is another possible reason that Mark ends where he does: Mark faced the inadequacy of any words to describe the life-transforming reality of the risen Lord. I’ve never read this by any interpreter, but maybe that’s because many biblical scholars don’t spend their lives preaching. No preacher I know enjoys the prospect of preaching on Easter - this day, among all days, is a day we bounce up against the border of meaning, knowing everything we say is inadequate to the reality we’re trying to talk about.
Which is why we need poets. Hear these words of Dylan Thomas:
And death shall have no dominion.…They shall have stars at elbow and foot;Though they go mad they shall be sane,Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;Though lovers be lost love shall not;And death shall have no dominion.(from his poem: And Death Shall have no Dominion)
I don’t know how close to fear you are today. You may be in great state of denial, that tells you death is for others. But if you’re in touch with the inscrutable mystery of your life, and the inevitability of death, of your death, then you have some natural fear. Life from the back end seems all so short. And from the front end, or middle, it can seem pointless and frightening. If an angel of the Lord appeared to us today and said: “be not afraid,” I don’t expect that it would work for us any better than it did for those women 2,000 years ago.
Only the presence of the living Lord in your life can turn terror into peace, bewilderment into grace. Today we celebrate that presence. Today we recognize that Christ is alive – giving meaning to our life and hope in our death. Let fear lead to a new beginning on this resurrection day.
Why is it that visiting angels always start with the seemingly futile command to “not be alarmed?” What person who sees an angel from heaven is not going to be alarmed!? “Don’t be afraid,” says one of the most terrifying visages a human will ever experience! It’s not unlike a waitress walking up to me with a braised leg of lamb saying: “Be not hungry.” It’s not going to work! There are certain visceral reactions that can’t be stopped, even if the request comes from an angel. And indeed it didn’t work, for as Mark says:
8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mark is painting a picture of fear, and to make sure we get it, he uses no less than four images of fear in this one verse.
1) Common result of fear: they fled. They ran out of that tomb – they wanted out of there, and the quicker the better. The problem with running from a ghost or an angel, is that you’re pretty sure they can fly much faster than you can run… but run these women did.
2) Mark says they had a common physical expression of fear = terror. The original word is tromos = trembling, “shaking in your boots” fear. This word is usually matched up with phobia – fear and trembling in this case it’s matched up with:
3) Common side-effect of severe fear = ekstasis, ek=out, stasis=stand, so the word= stand outside yourself, from which we get ecstasy. It speaks of a state of being where you’ve lost rational control. In fact, it’s the same word used in the GK translation of Gen. 2:21 God put Adam in a deep trance and took a rib from him. It also happens to be used by Mark another time. When the people see Jesus raise up a girl from the dead. They were astonished – outside themselves with amazement.
4) Common tendency of the fearful = saying nothing to anyone, for fear that they’d be considered crazy.
All that in verse 8. Mark doesn’t want us to miss the point. These women were reacting with terror and amazement. Well, wouldn’t you? What other emotional state is appropriate when coming face to face, toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball, not only with an angel, but with the great mystery of death and wondrously inexplicable hope of life beyond it?
Have you been afraid lately? It’s been awhile for me too. I remember one time being home alone, except it wasn’t my home and I wasn’t alone I was with a friend. We were 11ish and it was night, and we heard noises outside the house. We peeked out the window, and he swore he saw something, no someone. Before we could think, adrenaline started pumping. We ran like mad men (or crazy boys), we pulled out every gun his Dad owned, we put chairs at every door, we got out knives. Every leaf that crackled, every floorboard that creaked, every squirrel that scurried, sounded like the end. I remember the shaking, the wondering if it was all over. Of course looking back I now know that the danger inside was much greater than any outside.
Terror and Amazement. Trembling and Bewildered translates the NIV. This seems all too right, all too appropriate. The women were speechless with fear, for where they expected to find a body, they found a messenger – where they expected to find death, they found words about life. And this is where Mark ends it.
If you have your Bibles open, you’ll note that most translations add a footnote mentioning that the oldest manuscripts ends right here. The later verses were likely the work of a well-meaning scribe trying to make a clearer match with Mark and the other gospels. So Mark, who obviously believes in the resurrection either doesn’t feel it’s necessary to talk about it in detail, OR his original ending was lost.
The reason some think the original ending was lost is because Mark literally ends with the preposition “for.” The Greek reads “the women say nothing to anyone because they were afraid for…” Now Greek allows for the “for” to be at the end (just as Germans love to put their verbs at the end), but you have to admit this seems a strange way to end.
But for what it’s worth, I (and the majority of NT scholars) think this is exactly where Mark intends to end it. With the preposition. Why? Because remember, when Mark was writing his intended audience would have had (or heard of) Paul’s letters. They knew about the resurrection AND they knew about the explosive growth of the early church. They were living it. Mark’s statement that they didn’t say anything to anyone is evidence for his readers that Jesus appeared to the Disciples – forgiving Peter for his denial, comforting the women in their fear.
Parenthetically: With the news of the discovery of the Gospel of Judas last week, you’ve likely heard more about ancient manuscripts than you really cared to. But please understand this: 1) The four gospels of the Bible are the oldest, were written much earlier (as in a century or two). No matter what you might have heard some well-meaning TV journalist say the new gospel is not a major revelation about Jesus or anything that happened 30 AD. 2) They are however, a major revelation about early Christians. From the “Gnostic texts” we gain an understanding about the early Christians – among other things it tells us that they didn’t all think alike and act alike – they were as diverse as we are today. And just as today, just because somebody writes something about Jesus, and claims they have special knowledge, doesn’t make it so! End of parentheses
My point is that the oldest manuscripts we have of Mark’s gospel end right here. 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Is there any chance that Mark is ending his Gospel where ancient Hebrew wisdom began? Need I remind you: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom?” The fear of God begins what faith in God continues: an eternal life of wisdom.
Do you remember the dark nights of childhood fear? The green slimy terror laying under your bed, breathing ever so quietly, ready to reach his long arms out from under the cover of darkness to grab your pajamas and pull you down into his clutches where he could eat your eyeballs one by one… (OK maybe I just had an active imagination).
Do you remember the sound outside your window, the thump in the attic, the clanging in the kitchen, when no one is home… why is it that so many of our fears arise at night, in the darkness?
Tis the fear of the unknown, psychologists say.
And is there anything darker, more unknown, than death? Peer into its mystery and what you have is darkness. Shakespeare’s “undiscovered country,” W. H. Auden’s reaction fits: “stars are not wanted, pack up the moon dismantle the sun.”
If you don’t have occasional terror and amazement, trembling and bewilderment, boot-shaking
fear and out-of your mind dread at the whole mystery of existence and it’s personal end – it’s only because you’ve not thought about it, or you’re not being honest with yourself. John Donne tells us to not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee – except that most of us hear no bells today.
I’ve been reminded recently… by a neighbor who went out on a clear evening 2 weeks ago today, walking his dog, a storm blew in and then blew down a tree. It happened to fall right on him and his dog (he’s going to make it, but it was close). And by someone very close to me getting sick… by the realization that I remember so well my parents at my age and it was but yesterday…
Mark is honest enough to say, that upon seeing the empty tomb the first reaction of those who loved Jesus the most, was not “whoopee, let’s sing a hymn!” but tromos kai ekstasis = action crippling fear, which for these women proved to give birth to faith. But it’s not automatic or immediate.
Craddock on this strange ending of Mark’s gospel: "Is this any way to run a resurrection? Is this enough to persuade, to stir new life in the followers of Jesus? First, let it be said that none of the Gospels provides an unambiguous… account. Matthew says the disciples worshiped Jesus but some doubted; Luke says that in their joy they were disbelieving; and John says one of the Twelve refused to believe until he touched and felt. Faith is not coerced, even on Easter. In the New Testament, faith is response to divine revelation, and Mark provides that from the mouth of the young man in the tomb."
1 John: perfect love casts out fear. For a while the women let their fear cast out their love and faith. But not for long. Mark feels no need to tell us the obvious. Jesus became so real for these fearful woman, that they changed the world.
There is another possible reason that Mark ends where he does: Mark faced the inadequacy of any words to describe the life-transforming reality of the risen Lord. I’ve never read this by any interpreter, but maybe that’s because many biblical scholars don’t spend their lives preaching. No preacher I know enjoys the prospect of preaching on Easter - this day, among all days, is a day we bounce up against the border of meaning, knowing everything we say is inadequate to the reality we’re trying to talk about.
Which is why we need poets. Hear these words of Dylan Thomas:
And death shall have no dominion.…They shall have stars at elbow and foot;Though they go mad they shall be sane,Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;Though lovers be lost love shall not;And death shall have no dominion.(from his poem: And Death Shall have no Dominion)
I don’t know how close to fear you are today. You may be in great state of denial, that tells you death is for others. But if you’re in touch with the inscrutable mystery of your life, and the inevitability of death, of your death, then you have some natural fear. Life from the back end seems all so short. And from the front end, or middle, it can seem pointless and frightening. If an angel of the Lord appeared to us today and said: “be not afraid,” I don’t expect that it would work for us any better than it did for those women 2,000 years ago.
Only the presence of the living Lord in your life can turn terror into peace, bewilderment into grace. Today we celebrate that presence. Today we recognize that Christ is alive – giving meaning to our life and hope in our death. Let fear lead to a new beginning on this resurrection day.
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