The two final chapters of Mark could not be more different from each other. One is hard to read for anyone, particularly those who believe that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.

To read of Him being mocked and scourged, hung naked on a cross and laughed at while He hung there is painful.

When He cries to God: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” it rips my heart. It also rips the curtain of the temple and one of the soldiers says “Truly this was the Son of God.”

His disciples leave, bereft.

Chapter 16 on the other hand is short but very sweet.

Three women come looking for Jesus’s body with spices, to anoint HIm, and they find instead the tombstone rolled away, an angel who tells them: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.

“But go, tell His disciples…. ”

Dear Father God, Thank you for giving us Jesus, to be the sacrifice for all our sins and to bring us peacefully to You as Your children. Thank You for the grace to believe this piercing, strange, unbelievable truth. Give us courage to tell others about it, even when it means we are portrayed as idiotic and naive as a result. Thank You that P survived his operation. Please help him now to heal well. In the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen