Mark 16:15-20

The feast of St. Mark the Evangelist falls on April 25 the anniversary of his martyrdom in Alexandria. It also happens to be my birthday. This coincidence seems to take me surprise every year.

Curiously I have never undertaken a reflection on the scripture passage associated with the feast day primarily because I find the verses particularly challenging and, frankly, distasteful. 

Since evangelism has been the subject of at least three presentations I have made this year, I guess I should finally admit there is reason why I was born on the feast day of St. Mark and attempt to unpack the meaning of the passage chosen by the church to honor Mark.

Let’s first look at the specific verses that give me heartburn:

These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

 The first thing that comes to mind for me is a visual image of a traveling hillbilly revivalist who travels from town in a horse drawn wagon proclaiming his faith and belief in Jesus by letting rattlesnakes crawl over him and drinking poison” without ill harm.

These images do not evoke a picture of Christian practice that is attractive or appealing to me. As for the charlatan like practice of faith healing? Uhmmm, I don’t think that should be our guiding image. As for speaking in new languages?  What comes to mind is speaking in tongues we encounter in charismatic Christian practice. There is no way I going down that hole because no matter I say will be wrong to one person or another.

For many Christians, Mark 16:17-18 is the foundation of an end of days theology. They preach that what is found in the 17 and 18 is what will happen at the end of time. I can’t really wrap my arms around that thought either because I belief that focusing on the end of times distracts us from what we should be doing today which is to preach the gospel in the manner we are called to do.

I tend to look at this passage as being largely symbolic rather than literal. We are called to go out to preach the gospel to the world and the Lord will provide us with what we need. As evangelists we are given the tools we need to address the evils that pervade the world. We will be given the words we need to communicate the good news. We will be granted the ability to encounter evil and disbelief without injury.

Think about this. When Eve encountered the serpent she failed to overcome temptation but we will have the faith to be challenged by temptation but not succumb to it.

We also have to understand the context of the time in order to see the passage with clarity. The disciples were the first evangelists who went out to bear witness to a world unprepared for the revolutionary message being delivered. There was real danger involved. There was a need to offer the message in the language of the location being evangelized. The ability to work miracles of healing bodies and souls was needed for the message to be validated and understood.  

I don’t believe we are called to a hellfire and brimstone brand of preaching. Instead we preach about love and being loved. We are asked to proclaim awesome gospel of attraction rather than awful gospel driven by fear of condemnation.

Pope Francis’ first encyclical exhorted us to embrace Evangelii Gaudiam – the joy of the gospel. Looking at the last verses of Mark from that perspective suggests, no instructs us that we are to bring a joyful message to the world and not one of fear. Peace