Easter

6 Easter

Exploring the text
Probably one of the best-known features of Mark’s Gospel is its ending – or, depending on your perspective, its lack of ending. Unlike the other Gospels, the accounts of resurrection in Mark are sparse in the extreme. In Matthew an angel appears to Mary Magdalene and ‘the other’ Mary, followed by an appearance of Jesus to the two women and a second one to the disciples in Galilee at what has become called the great commission (Matthew 28). In Luke, similarly, two angels appear to Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James (plus some other unnamed women) to announce the resurrection; this incident is followed by the well-loved account of Jesus’ appearance to the two on the road to Emmaus and to the gathered group of disciples in Jerusalem (Luke 24). John has even more: there is the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene in the garden, then to the disciples all gathered together (without Thomas), then again with Thomas, and finally the appearance on the shore of Galilee (John 20—21)...