Anointed LIstener: The Real Ending of Mark

The Gospel of Mark is sometimes called a passion narrative with a prologue. Well, it also has an epilogue.
     The ending of Mk 16:8 shows three women fleeing the empty tomb, terrified. "They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid."
     Well, obviously somebody talked because we know the story! Mark's epilogue gives us a list of Resurrection appearances and a brief account of the beginning Church: First to Mary Magdalene, who at first was not believed;* a couple walking in the country; a reprimand to doubting disciples (later conflated by John into Thomas), the power of Pentecost and Ascension (Mk 16:9-20).
     The Evangelist Apostle Paul includes such a list as the tradition handed to him: "I delivered to you...what I also received...he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve... to more than five hundred brethren at one time" Paul adds his own epilogue, ending with "Last of all....he appeared also to me" (I Cor 15:3-8).
    A charming alternative epilogue to Mark, footnoted in my RSV, says, "But they [the women of v. 8] reported briefly to Peter and those with him all that they had been told. And after this, Jesus himself sent out by means of them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation."

     But Mark's final redactors left in the fear, clearly separating the fleeing non-witnessing from the proclamation that went out and got handed down to you and me.  Maybe including the fear makes us realize that an encounter with the Risen Lord is scary, especially because Jesus' appearance includes a charge to proclaim him. 

     You don't get to meet Jesus and then go back to what you were doing before. 'Oh yes I saw the Christ today, now where was I?" No. The Emmaus travelers were heading away from Jerusalem UNTIL. Peter was fishing UNTIL. Saul was rushing to kill Christians in Damascus UNTIL.

     Whatever you were doing before, when you have that awesome encounter, you have to spread the Good News. You have to write your own epilogue. And like the evangelist, you have to publish at some point even though the story is never-ending. 

     So: do not preach that Mark's "real ending" is verse 8.  It just isn't true. Mark really ends in power and proclamation. The "real Ending" is still being written.  We must live out our own epilogue, Jesus' sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.

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*Lot of unbelief at the time of these encounters; like, "Do you think we found this easy to swallow? But we SAW him! We TOUCHED him! We ATE with him!"  

The Two Goats: Leviticus 16

We find the holiness of liturgy established in the desert--along with the fearsomeness of the Holy, which must be approached verrry carefully. Along with the special garments the High Priest and the people make certain prescribed offerings for sin, which survive in their essense and spirit to this time, in the holiest of Jewish holy days, Yom Kippur.

Three and more millenia ago, the Day of Atonement began in blood, with the sacrifice of a bull.
Then two goats were brought forward to have hands laid on by the priest. One offered to the Lord was sacrificed and the blood also used.
The other goat, by casting of lots,* was dedicated "to Azazel." In Leviticus 16:20-34, and"The goat shall bear their iniquities upon him to solitary land"--i.e., it bears the people's sins into the wilderness.

Who is Azazel?  The basic meaning is "sent away." The scapegoat is called the "goat of departure." In the days of the Second Temple, the goat was actually pushed over a cliff so as to prevent its wandering back into the herd. (Was a red thread tied to its horns a way to identify it in earlier times in case it did?) Because of the cliff thing, post-biblical teachers wanted to say Azazel meant "strong mountain" from which the goat was cast. And of course even later than that, closer to medieval times, hints appeared of some kind of jinn or devil and maybe even the leader of a pack of fallen angels. But the original meaning shows that this scapegoat was the one that was "sent away."

Cyril of Alexandria sees the scapegoat as a foretype of Christ. I do recall an occasion where people wanted to throw him over a cliff. After his baptism Jesus had been driven into the wilderness by the Spirit.

The thing I love the most about this passage is that it prescribes the keeping of this feast each year on the tenth day of the seventh month; and so it will be celebrated this coming fall on September 26th.
          
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*urim and thummin, the holy dice in the priest's bib--and to be found on the Yale seal of all places.