Day 47 – What next?
Mark 16:9-19
When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Owen Lynch writes:
My Bible (paper version) has these verses in italics, because scholars don’t think that they were written by Mark. If that’s true, then either Mark is not very good at finishing his account of Jesus’ life, or the last part has been lost! Either way, 16:8 is a rather abrupt end to the story right!?
Does this mean that verses 9-19 are not an accurate description of what happened? Well, no because the verses correlate well with the other accounts of Jesus’ gospel. But verses 9-19 are a short abridged version of the story that is better told by Luke and Matthew, so if you want the fuller story take a look at those accounts.
I want to leave you with two thoughts to reflect on. The resurrection of Jesus led to two key doctrines/foundations for his followers that have been passed on from generation to generation all the way to you and me!
The first doctrine/foundation is that Jesus lives. Mark 16: 9-14 emphasises that Jesus had come back to life appearing to all his disciples at different times. But then in 16:19 it says that Jesus was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God. Strange imagery and a pretty incredible/mind stretching idea that has perpetuated the idea that heaven is somewhere up in the sky! Whatever happened, the point is that Jesus never died again after he was resurrected and is alive right now!
The second doctrine/foundation is that Jesus is Lord. If you or I had an experience of a dead relative visit us, like Jesus visited the disciples we would not infer that our relative was Lord. But the followers of Jesus did, which is I think, related to their experience of him before he was killed. After the resurrection they connected the dots - all of his teaching, the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, the hundreds (possibly thousands) of healings (and a few resurrections), the power over the weather, the ability to feed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and a few fish!!
Jesus is Lord means that Jesus is Yahweh (the Jewish name for God). This was blasphemy to other Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. And this was political insurrection to the Romans who proclaimed that Caesar was Lord. No wonder the early followers of Jesus were hunted down and martyred for stubbornly claiming that Jesus is Lord!
What do those two doctrines/foundations mean for you?