Mark 16:1-8
Truth and Faith Has Risen
1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
John 20:24-29
Doubting What We Cannot See
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." 28Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
After chapter sixteen verse eight in my Bible, it says "The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20."...Many experts think the writing style of Mark's gospel changes after verse eight, and the final verses have to be that of another writer...Some think that the ending of Mark at verse eight is an abrupt ending...It needs something else, it needs (or the reader) needs more information...
There are several reasons given why Mark might end this way...One is that the author had died before finishing the Gospel According to Mark...Another theory is that the final pages and verses of the Gospel According to Mark, simply got lost...After all they would have been passed around and passed around, read and re-read and would become fragile, frayed, and torn...So maybe the last verses tore away and just got lost (my first Bible is frayed and frayed and in pieces and sections, so I can see how this could happen)...Another theory is that after years and years of reading the other three gospels, this gospel seemed incomplete at verse eight to some or one of Jesus' followers and they added verses nine through twenty...It now has a similar ending to the other three gospels...Another theory is that this was the way the author wanted the book to end...He wanted to end the Gospel at verse eight, with the women trembling, having nothing to say, and were afraid of what they had just seen and heard...Could it also be possible that the original author did become so taken away about His writing of the LORD and remembering the resurrection, that his writing style, vocabulary, and themes are filled with the Holy Spirit, and might change a bit?...
I think this is how God wants it...I think this is part and parcel, of God, and His Style...He wants us to seek Him, but He also wants us to have questions...He wants us to use our faith...These questions give us hope, and give us our faith...If we were there with Jesus, and like Peter, Thomas, and John they saw our LORD before His death, then they saw Him after His death...This is their Truth, they were eyewitnesses to His Majesty...Truth is more than a mere set of facts, and events that are seen and heard...Truth is and became a Man...Faith became a man that day for them, when they talked to Him after the resurrection...Faith is where reason and truth meet...Peter, John, Thomas, and the other disciples got to see Truth...But they also for the first time in history, got to see Faith come to life, and die on the cross, and then resurrect back to life...And their Faith lives on...Faith is something abstract that cannot be seen, yet the disciples (and some others) saw their Faith rise from an empty tomb...Their Faith was completely proven and seen...
The disciples not only saw truth in the flesh, but they saw faith in the flesh...Jesus reminds us because those who had seen Him resurrect have believed (and have no reason not to believe), but blessed are those who have not seen Him and believe...