“They ran out of the tomb shaking and terrified, and out of fear said nothing to anyone” (Mark 16.8).
Sue Grafton, author of the Kinsey Millhone “alphabet” mysteries, passed away a few years ago, leaving her long-running series unfinished. Her last published book was Y is for Yesterday, and in a statement following her death, Grafton’s family made it clear that they had no intention of hiring a writer or allowing someone else to write book “Z” in the series. For them, they said, the alphabet now ends in “y”.
This is rather radical in today’s publishing environment. The giant, conglomerated companies that spend millions each year publishing a very limited amount of writers are always looking for a sure thing, a safe bet for their investments. So, when one of those guaranteed best-selling authors pass, you can almost expect to see their names on the covers of new books years and even decades after their deaths.
I do understand that this feeds a need, a curiosity in readers. Would I like to know how Kinsey wrapped up her final case and the life she pursued when she, perhaps, closed down her investigative business? Sure. Characters like her are ones you come to care about and you want to know what happened to them. Unlike real life, you’re not left hanging, wondering what became of a person.
Mark’s Gospel, as far as we can tell, ended at verse eight. The words that follow appear to be later additions by writers who brought the book more in-line with the other Gospels. And, that makes sense. The Resurrection accounts are strange enough without having one that closes with people running off in fear into silence. But what if this vague, strange, incomplete ending was what the author wanted?
What if, unlike the other, later Gospels the author didn’t want to tie up everything in a neat bow where Jesus’ ministry ends in an ascension from a mountaintop with a promise of his return? What if the intent was to leave the reader wondering what it all meant, what was going to happen next? Where was this Jesus? Was he gone to heaven or walking up the next bend in the road?
It’s no wonder, I think, then and now that some readers, editors, and publishers don’t like dangling endings like Mark’s Gospel and deceased authors leave. Without a real conclusion, a true final page it’s almost like the story goes on and on, and there’s no authority on how or where it ends.
Instead we’re left with an incomplete ending that’s daring us to fill in the blanks for ourselves, discern a meaning to all that has gone before. Or maybe even decide that the tale continues on leaving us with the tension that the conclusion has yet to be written, that there’s something left to say.
You know, like an alphabet that ends in “y”.
Jesus, help us live into the mystery.