Mark 16:9-20 - The Rest of Mark

This is how I introduced the sermon I preached from this disputed portion of Scripture:

[One of the neat things about the Bible that you might have noticed is its repetitiveness. Something told in one place will likely be repeated elsewhere. Important words and phrases, concepts and themes manage to travel from one book to the next, between historical eras, even showing up in different genres. Something from the historical books will show up in the prophets sometimes. Or something from the gospels will be alluded to in the epistles. New Testament writers quote the Old Testament or make reference to events from redemptive history—things we’ve read about if we’ve read the Old Testament. We get two tellings of the history of the kings of Israel—one in the books of the Kings, the other in the Chronicles.

And we get four gospels. How blessed are we to have four different witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ? Of the four, the first three are called the synoptic gospels, because they follow roughly the same outline. They cover a lot of the same events and they do so in more or less the same order. But there always has to be a maverick, doesn’t there? And in the case of the gospels that maverick is John. He has a slightly different theme and fills in a lot of holes left by the first three. But when we’re done, what do we have? Four witnesses who in different ways tell the same story. The witness agrees. 

Oh, there may be slight differences in detail. If you’ll remember, Mark says the robe they put on Jesus to mock him was purple. John agrees with that. Luke simply says it was splendid or gorgeous or elegant. But Matthew says it was scarlet. These minor discrepancies serve not to undermine the biblical witness, but rather to lend it authenticity. 

Was there one blind man healed at Jericho or two? To get caught up in such questions about details is, first of all, very western and modern. But more importantly than that, it is to miss the point. The point is that Jesus heals! The point is that Messiah came and his ministry was attested to by signs and wonders recorded by many independent witnesses. If they all said exactly the same thing in every detail, skeptics would simply change tactics and claim there must have been corroboration. Skeptics are going to doubt. No matter what. It’s what they do. But if you’re looking for reasons to believe, the Bible gives you plenty. Faith is not a blind leap. Faith is a healthy and responsible reaction to reasonable evidence.

So when we come to a passage like ours in the Bible this morning, we have good reason to wonder about its authenticity, but no reason whatsoever to get worked up about that if we’re Bible believers. The biblical witness is not at stake. Let me explain.]

To listen to the entire sermon just click the link below.


Click here: Mark 16:9-20 - The Rest of Mark


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