They said nothing

Mark tells us that the women at the tomb did not tell anyone because they were afraid. Of course, this raises the issue, how do we know that? (Obviously the eventually told!) The other Gospels do not present us with this sort of dilemma. They spell out the appearances and trace some of the communication. The radical differences between these Gospel accounts is far beyond an simple "difference in persepctive." The accounts are jarringly different.

Earthquakes, angels rolling rocks, quaking soldiers (the details in today's Morning Prayer from Matthew) and the women leaving in fear and joy cannot be easily reconciled with Mark's dark vision.  For Mark it ends in silence and fear.

I do not always know what to do with such things. I think it is fair to say (Divine inspiration included) that the amazing events of that Sunday (and the days that followed) are not being conveyed simply as historical facts. The authors are also trying to convey meaning. I think that this is the normal way that humans communicate. We always give truncated summaries, change some details to make an emphasis, sometimes conflate different events into one, etc. After all, there were numerous appearances of Jesus and in the decades following attention to details ("hey, He said that the third time He appeared!") probably was not the first priority. The limited space and the incredible demands of the writing process also must be factored in.

NT Wright suggests that perhaps Mark is offering an explanation for why more people in Jerusalem did not know about the resurrection. The women kept it quiet. Obviously, many in the early church who were there already knew. What Mark is conveying to his audience is less clear. We do not know why he wrote, to whom he wrote or what reason motivated his writing.

The women are a challenge to us, whatever the answers are to the other questions above. The remind us of our tendency to be unfaithful because of fear. They remind us that there is a mission. And they provide us with hope that Jesus will be able to do His work with today's church (fearful and unfaithful as it is) just as He did with those cowering first believers.