Mark's Story (6 page)

Mark drifted off, confident that going was the right thing.

T
hey won’t believe us!”

“I hardly believe it myself!”

“I
don’t
believe it!”

“But they were angels!”

Mark’s eyes popped open at the sound of the excited women’s voices. They flew past his window and lifted their skirts as they raced up the stairs. And he realized he had slept past dawn and missed his opportunity to go with them to the tomb.

What could they hardly believe, and what was that about angels? Whatever it was, they felt it justified racing straight to the upper room without even announcing themselves to the mistress of the house. Now they were rapping at the door above, and Mark heard murmuring and footsteps. He grabbed his cloak and slung it over his shoulders as he too headed upstairs.

By the time he arrived, the disciples—plus several of their greater company from Galilee who had come for Passover—were covering themselves and rubbing their eyes, seeming overwhelmed by Mary of Magdala, another Mary, and several others.

“What is it?” Peter said.

John, the last to rouse, squinted at the women as he approached, pulling on his sandals. They all seemed to talk at once until John held up a hand. “Please, please,” he said. “Sit and tell us all that has happened.”

The others looked to Mary Magdalene. “I hardly know where to begin,” she said, “and if we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, we would not believe it ourselves. We went to the sepulcher just before dawn with our spices and oils, prepared to anoint Jesus’ body but wondering whether—even with all of us working together—we could roll away the huge stone. We arrived to find it already rolled away.”

“Oh, no!” a disciple said. “What more can these people do to us, to Him?”

“Was the body still there?” someone else said.

Mary Magdalene took a deep breath. “We entered the tomb to see and were met there by two angels who—”

“Angels!” Peter roared. “How do you know they were angels and not grave robbers? They could have been—”

The women shook their heads, and Mary of Magdala said, “Their countenance was like lightning and their raiment white as snow. We were scared speechless and hid our faces, but these men actually spoke to us!”

“They spoke? What did they say?”

The women all began to talk again, but finally Mary silenced the others. “They told us not to be afraid and that they knew we sought Jesus, who was crucified.”

“You’re dreaming,” someone said. “Why defile our memory of the Lord with fanciful tales?”

“Let me speak,” Mary said.

“Yes, let her finish!” John said.

“One of the angels said, ‘He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Remember how He told you when you were yet in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, but the third day would rise again. Behold the place where they laid Him.’ We looked, and He was not there.”

“Nonsense!”

“Foolishness!”

“Believe it or not at your own peril,” Mary said, “but the angels told us to come and tell you that you would soon see Him.”

“Idle tales!” someone raged, but Mark noticed Peter and John lock eyes. Then they burst from the room and flew down the stairs.

Mark turned to follow them but ran into his own mother. How much had she heard? Apparently enough to know that she didn’t want him following Peter and John. No matter how much he pleaded, she was resolute. “Son, you will stay right here with me until they return with a report.”

Mary Magdalene, however, slipped away alone and headed from the house.

M
ARK
’
S MOTHER INSISTED
that he and the servants prepare breakfast and serve everyone while waiting for John and Peter to return. It was all Mark could do concentrate, but he had to admit he found himself agreeing with the disciples who chose not to believe the women’s report. He didn’t know what to think. He wanted to believe this, but it was so far-fetched! But could they all have conspired on such a tale, deluded by their grief and hope? Had Jesus predicted His own resurrection? And if so, why couldn’t Mark believe it any more than His friends chose to?

As they sat eating in the upper room, it was clear the other women were offended by the men’s skepticism. And yet it did not seem to dampen their enthusiasm. Mark made sure he stayed close enough to hear them recite over and over the astounding events of the early dawn.

Presently a servant stood in the doorway. “The men have returned!”

As one, those in the upper room rose, and Peter and John stomped up the stairs. Peter proved mute due to breathlessness. John, gasping and grinning ear to ear, held up a hand for silence.

“It’s true, beloved! It’s true!”

Peter, catching his breath, gushed, “The youngster beat me to the tomb, but I ducked in ahead of him. The grave clothes remain intact, but the body is gone!”

“Are you sure?”

“I say He is risen!” John said.

“We don’t know that,” Peter said.

“Did you see angels too?”

“Can it be?”

One of the women asked if either of the men had seen Mary of Magdala.

“We thought she was here,” Peter said.

So the women left to search for her.

As the disciples talked excitedly among themselves, Mary Magdalene arrived and stood in the doorway at the top of the stairs. The men fell silent and stared at her.

“I saw the Lord,” she said, barely above a whisper.

Thomas rushed to her and helped her sit. “What? Tell us everything!”

“I was crying outside the tomb, fearing we had all been mistaken and that someone had taken Jesus’ body. But as I stooped to look into the tomb, the angels were still there—one on each end of where He had lain—and they asked why I was weeping. I said, ‘Because they have taken my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.’

“I backed away and turned to see a man I assumed to be the gardener standing there. He said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’

“I said, ‘Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’”

Mary stopped and pressed her lips together, fighting tears. “Then He said to me, ‘Mary!’ and I knew. I said, ‘Teacher!’ He told me not to cling to Him, for He had not yet ascended to the Father, but He said, ‘Go to My brethren and say to them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” ’”

Mark had never seen anyone so radiant as Mary. John had been excited, thrilled to find the empty tomb. Peter still seemed to doubt. But Mary said she had talked with Jesus! Mark wanted to believe her so badly.

Just then the other women who had been at the tomb arrived with a similar story. “Jesus met us on the road,” they said. “He told us to rejoice! We fell and held His feet and worshiped Him. He said, ‘Do not be afraid,’ and told us to tell you that you will soon see Him too.”

T
HE REST OF THE DAY
was spent reviewing all the accounts, the eleven disciples and many of their associates from Galilee arguing among themselves how much could be believed and what should be discounted. Many ventured out, hoping to see Jesus, but most of the eleven, fearing they would be recognized, stayed in the upper room.

Late that evening, all those who were closest to Jesus—save Thomas—sat around the table, eating and trying to make sense of the day’s events. There was a knock on the door, and two of the Galileans entered with haste.

“We must tell you what happened!” one named Cleopas said. “We were walking the seven miles to Emmaus—conversing and wondering aloud about all that has happened—when a man drew near and walked with us. We did not know him. He said, ‘What kind of conversation is this that you are sad?’

“I said, ‘Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem and know not the things which have happened?’

“He said, ‘What things?’

“I said, ‘The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.’ I told him we had been hoping that it was He who would redeem Israel, but that it had already been three days since these things happened. I added that certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us with their report that they did not find His body, but that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. I told him that certain of those with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but that they did not see Jesus.

“And then, gentleman, this stranger said, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he expounded to us all the Scriptures concerning the Christ.

“When we drew near to Emmaus we begged that he abide with us, for it was toward evening and the day was far spent. And he stayed with us and sat at the table with us. My friends, when he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to us, our eyes were opened and we knew Him. It was the Lord. And He soon vanished from before our very eyes.

“We said to one another, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’ We rose up immediately and rushed here to tell you, the Lord is risen indeed!”

It had to be true, Mark thought. It just had to be. And yet he could tell from the looks of the disciples that even they weren’t sure. But as they all sat pondering, suddenly Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said, “Peace to you.”

Mark froze, terrified that he was seeing a spirit.

Jesus said, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you clearly see I have.”

He showed them His hands and His feet, but Mark sat like all the rest, overjoyed but still finding it hard to believe. And Jesus said, “Have you any food here?”

John immediately rose and gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb, and He ate. Mark noticed Peter, pale and wide-eyed, and yet appearing afraid to meet Jesus’ gaze. Everyone else just stared, unmoving.

“These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you,” Jesus said, “that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

And Jesus disappeared from their midst.

Soon Thomas arrived.

“We have seen the Lord!” the others told him.

He looked warily at them and shook his head. “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

Mark was at first nearly as disappointed in Thomas as he had been with Peter. But he had to admit that even he would not have been able to take the word of these men and women he knew and admired and trusted. Had he not seen the risen Jesus with his own eyes, neither would he have believed it.

F
or the next week the excited disciples didn’t dare venture far from Mark’s mother’s home. Jerusalem abounded with rumors and danger, and much of the disciples’ time was spent planning their return to Galilee. Mark, unknown to the authorities as an associate of the crucified Jesus, ran errands with the servants, buying foodstuffs and taking care of the disciples’ needs. His heart was full to bursting, since he himself had seen the risen Jesus and knew he could never again be dissuaded from believing.

E
IGHT DAYS AFTER
J
ESUS
had appeared to them in the upper room, the disciples were again inside, this time with Thomas present. With the door shut, Jesus once again appeared in their midst and said, “Peace to you!”

He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

Thomas, clearly overcome, fell to his knees and said, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

And again He was gone.

T
HE DISCIPLES FINALLY
packed up and stole away to Galilee in the middle of a balmy night, and Mark felt terribly alone. Many evenings he sat up with his mother, pondering over what had happened during the previous several days. His spirit had been so invigorated that he found it almost impossible to sleep. He had become a believer in Jesus the Christ, and yet he had no idea what that meant for his future.

“This has made everything I do seem wholly insignificant,” Mark said.

“Oh, on the contrary,” his mother said. “I should think it would make you want to study all the more and be prepared to live for God as never before.”

“But reading ancient texts and memorizing seems so mundane and boring. I want to be a disciple. Why don’t they tell the world what they know of Jesus, that they saw Him risen, and that He truly is the Son of God?”

“You would do that?”

“I would love to!”

“But didn’t the Lord Himself tell them to remain in Jerusalem until it was time to return to Galilee and see Him again, where they would be endued with power? Perhaps that is a prerequisite to their telling anyone of Him.”

“I wish I were older, like Joses. Then I would travel with the disciples. Mark’s cousin Joses had moved to Israel when he reached adulthood.

“I am glad you are not. I need you here.”

Mark grew thoughtful. “What of Peter?” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“He denied the Lord, but then saw Him alive. Yet Peter seemed to hide from Him.”

“Wouldn’t you, Mark? When he and John saw the empty tomb, John believed. Peter withheld judgment until he saw the Lord with his own eyes.”

“If I were him, I would want to plead for the Lord’s forgiveness.”

“I’m sure Jesus knows his heart.”

“Mother, you must let me go to Galilee. How can I miss what is to come?”

“I will do nothing of the sort. You have already been exposed to much more than anyone your age should be. It is time for you to continue to study and learn and grow, preparing yourself for whatever God might have in mind for your adulthood.”

Mark could think of little worse. He prayed more than ever, and he did apply himself seriously to his studies—but then he always had. Daily he listened for any news from Galilee about the disciples or about Jesus, but all he heard were the claims of the Roman guards who swore they had fallen asleep and that Jesus’ friends had stolen His body.

F
INALLY,
forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, the day came when Mark’s mother interrupted his studying to tell him he had a visitor.

“Who?”

“Listen to me, John Mark. It is Peter. Now, don’t look at me that way. His feet are being washed as we speak, and I want you to hear him out. The disciples are back from Jerusalem, but he came here first, expressly to see you and talk to you. Give him the benefit of the doubt, will you?”

Mark wasn’t sure he could, but he promised to try.

Peter greeted him with an embrace that Mark barely returned. The fisherman asked if they could speak privately, then led Mark to the upper room.

“Amazing things were shared here, were they not?” Peter said.

Mark nodded. “I shall never forget.”

“Nor I. Son,” Peter said, pointing to a bench, “please sit and hear me. I am deeply troubled in my spirit about the impression I left on you.”

Mark could only nod.

“I can only imagine what you thought of me after we had become so close. Or had I misunderstood our esteem for each other? I certainly more than held you in high regard, son.”

“I treasured our friendship,” Mark managed, unable to look at the man. “But—”

“However disappointed you were in me, multiply it a hundredfold and imagine what I thought of myself. When the Lord said I would deny Him, I would have bet my life I would not have. I believed in Him and loved Him with my whole heart, and yet I let fear for my own life rule me.”

“Have you been able to apologize to Him?”

“I have. Let me tell you what has happened since last we saw you. As you know, the Lord told us to return to Galilee, but when we arrived, we didn’t know what we were to do. I have never been one for sitting around. So one day when I was with Thomas, Nathanael, the brothers James and John, and a couple of the others, I decided that while we waited, I would go fishing on the Sea of Galilee. The rest seemed to like that idea, so we went out and immediately climbed into a small boat. We fished the rest of the day and all that whole night, but we caught nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Not one fish, can you imagine? Fishermen we were, but we failed miserably! We even joked about being so out of practice, but soon it became serious. We had not even caught anything to eat. Well, when the first light of the sun appeared on the horizon, I saw a man on the shore. He called out to us the strangest question. He said, ‘Children, have you any food?’ Can you imagine, calling grown men children? We told him we had caught no fish. And he said, ‘Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’

“Let me tell you the truth, John Mark: I followed his suggestion on a lark. Do you think we veterans of the sea had not cast on both sides of the boat all night? Of course we had. But to humor the stranger, and because certainly nothing else had worked, I supervised the casting of the nets on the right side.

“Oh, son, I wish you had been there with us! The multitude of fish was so great we could not, even all seven of us, draw the nets back in! I tore off my cloak, and we pulled and strained and laughed at our good fortune. Then I noticed John studying the shore. He said, ‘Peter, it is the Lord!’

“Was it possible? I had not recognized Him or His voice, but how I had missed Him and longed to see Him! I threw on my cloak and leapt overboard, splashing and swimming until I could touch bottom, then slogging the rest of the way—about two hundred cubits—to the shore. The others arrived in the boat, dragging the net with all those fish.

“They could see as well as I that Jesus had started a fire of coals with fish and bread already cooking. He said, ‘Bring some of which you have just caught.’ I went and helped drag the net to land, and do you know, Mark, we counted one hundred fifty-three large fish, and yet our net was not broken.

“Jesus said, ‘Come and eat breakfast,’ yet none of us dared ask Him who He was, though we knew it was the Lord. This was the third time Jesus showed Himself to us after He was raised from the dead. He took the bread and gave it to us, and likewise the fish.”

Mark just sat shaking his head.

“Now, son, let me tell you what happened when we had finished eating. I had wanted to embrace Jesus and to fall on my face before Him, pleading His pardon for my egregious sin. But He turned to me and said, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’

“Why, I was so overjoyed to be asked that I said, ‘Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.’

“And He said, ‘Feed My lambs.’

“Then, a second time He said to me, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’

“I said, ‘Yes, Lord. You know that I love You.’

“He said to me, ‘Tend My sheep.’

“And yet a third time, He said, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’

“Mark, by now I was grieved because He had asked me three times. I cried, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’

“Jesus said to me, ‘Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. Follow Me.’

“Mark, I was puzzled. When I was old another would gird me and carry me where I did not wish? That made me wonder about John, and I said, ‘But Lord, what about this man?’

“Jesus made it clear to me that John’s future was none of my business. He said, ‘If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.’”

“What do you make of the conversation?” Mark said. “Did you feel He had forgiven you?”

Peter nodded. “All I know is that I denied Him thrice, and thrice He asked me to affirm that I loved Him. And I do.”

“Where is He now, sir?”

“He has returned to the Father. But not before He left us with His power and His charge. A few days later—just yesterday, in fact—Jesus told us to meet Him again on the Mount of Olives. When all eleven of us saw Him, we worshiped Him, but some still seemed to be doubting.”

“After all this?”

“As I have often said, Mark, we are but mere men. But it was there that He commanded us not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’”

“What does that mean, Peter, baptized with the Holy Spirit?”

“Well, we don’t know yet, do we? Believe me, I will let you know. While we were with Him, we asked if He was about to restore the kingdom to Israel.”

“That’s what everyone who believed Him to be the Promised One has been wondering. What did He say?”

“He told us it was not for us to know times or seasons, which He implied were under the purview of the Father. But He said, ‘You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.’

“And it was then that He seemed to open our understanding so that we might be able to comprehend as never before the truth of the Holy Scriptures. Our eyes were opened, and He said, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.’

“He then lifted His hands and blessed us, saying, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’

“While we watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of our sight. And while we were staring toward heaven as He went up, two men appeared in white apparel, saying, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’

“We returned straightaway with great joy the half-mile journey to Jerusalem. Your mother has again graciously invited us to lodge in the upper room, but daily we will be continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.”

“And you do not fear the authorities?”

Peter smiled and stood, putting a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Tell me, young one: had you experienced what we have, would you fear any man?”