Unfinished Journey

by | Apr 30, 2024 | Community, Featured Article (02), General Interest, Magazine

Seeing a New Year

Unfinished Journey

Rev. Jeff Wood, First Presbyterian Church of Sebastian

WeLoveFirst.org & Facebook.com/welovefirstsebastian

Rev Jeff Wood

 

 

  •             Yehudi Menuhin was an American musical prodigy.  He was born in 1916 and died in 1999.  He debuted as a violinist at age 7 in San Francisco and went on a world tour at age 12 launching it from no less than Carnegie Hall.  His memoirs bear the title, Unfinished Journey.  Have you ever felt unfinished?  Some aspect of your story just trails off, or breaks off, rather than ends? 

                Easter, which we recently celebrated, is recorded at the end of each of the four New Testament gospels.  In the gospel of Mark, it is chapter 16.  As you read this section in many, many Bibles you will find many footnotes explaining that the earliest and best manuscripts have a ragged, unfinished ending.  

    Why so unfinished?  Maybe Mark got sick and couldn’t complete his gospel off.  Or he had to flee from persecution and his writing was left incomplete.  We don’t know.  

    There is the possibility that he intended to finish the way he did. That would make sense if he wanted to convey, “Jesus wasn’t in the tomb.  He was resurrected.  Now who knows what that means?  It means something for sure.  Who knows what it means for you?  Every reader must find a way to complete the story taking into account Jesus rose.”  How will you finish off your story with Jesus?  I think we will all be unfinished without him.

    Rev. Jeff Wood, First Presbyterian Church, 1405 Louisiana Ave, Sebastian FL 32958 (772 589-5656); welovefirst.com and facebook.com/welovefirstpresbyterian