The End of the Beginning

The very first verse in the Gospel According to Mark is "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." In my first blog post I commented that these words are more than an introduction to the book. They are a description of the entire work. The whole sixteen chapters describe the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.

With this in mind, then, Chapter 16 marks the end of the beginning. And the beginning ends with an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene and her companions find the tomb empty and Jesus gone. A young man in a white robe tells them that Jesus is no longer there but is going ahead of them to Galilee. In other words, Jesus is "out there" somewhere. He is busy with the Father's work. He will not be contained, not even by the grave. What a glorious image!

If the beginning has ended, then the rest of the story is unfolding. Jesus is "out there" somewhere, and he is at work loving and healing and calling people to repentance, to forgiveness, and to true life. The good news is spreading. As C.S. Lewis says, it is like a good contagion - infecting a sick world. The Gospel is contagious, and when we catch it (and it catches us!), we discover we've been infected with real and lasting life.

And we are invited to be part of the unfolding story of grace.

I find this to be an incredibly hopeful thought. You and I are part of the rest of the story. Jesus is still at work. He is "out there" somewhere, and his Spirit is "in us." As he writes the rest of the story, you and I get to be a part of it. We carry the good news of Jesus forward into our circles of influence, and we discover that Jesus meets us there. He is already at work. As we join him in his work, we will be drawn deeper into the fullness of his love, the solidity of his joy, and the blessedness of his life.

And that is good news.