Kata Markon

["S.J.Pimlott" <S.J.Pimlott AT bham.ac.uk>]

I don't think that (Isaiah 47:3, Lamentations 1:8) could be the background 
references to the 
young man who runs away naked. They would require a female.

I would like to make the following suggestion and would be pleased to hear 
people's reactions.

I think Mark has in the back of his mind Amos 2:16 'and he who is stout of 
heart among 
the mighty shall flee away naked in that day," says the LORD.'
This would mean that the young man represents the the bravest, the pinnacle 
of 
the old Israel, but even he runs away naked. The young man then reappears in 
the tomb and becomes the link man between the old and new Israel as he points 
the reader to Galilee and the risen Christ.

A feature that is strange about the women coming to the tomb on that first 
Easter 
morning is that they are coming with spices to annoint the body, but that 
they 
know they cannot get to the body because there is a hugh stone over the tomb 
which is too big for them to move. The strangeness of this alerts the reader 
to the 
fact that there is something more going on than what is contained by a 
surface 
reading. Rolling the stone away recalls Jacob and the betrothal scene by the 
well 
in Genesis 29. The young man points the women and the reader to Galilee to 
meet the risen Christ. In other words he points the reader back to the 
beginning 
of the Gospel to read it again with new eyes, this time to see the risen 
Christ. 
When he turns back to the beginning of the Gospel, what does the reader see, 
but Jesus coming up out of the water at his baptism (out of the well, out of 
the 
tomb, as the bridegroom coming to meet his bride, the new Israel, the 
Church). 
So Mark, far from not having an account of Jesus' resurrection allows the 
reader 
on his second reading into the tomb to watch the resurrection take place as 
he 
sees Jesus come up out of the water at his baptism. 

When one sees it this way, the strange ending of Mark at 16:8 falls into 
place and 
also the reason why Mark does not want to include the birth and infancy 
narratives.

I should be interested in any reactions to this.

Fr. Stephen Pimlott
Catholic Chaplain
Birmingham University