GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 16:10-11
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10 She went and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that he had been seen by her, they did not believe it.
Mary went off to report to the apostles. Imagine how Mary felt! Of all people, she was the one sent by Jesus himself to tell the apostles the best news they would ever hear! When she arrived, she found the apostles mourning and weeping. How does Mark describe them? “Those who had been with him.” This is a new phrase in the Gospel. It shows that these men, who had been his followers, his beloved companions and whom he called brothers, were now reduced (in Mark’s words) to men “who had been with him.” How many times had Jesus prophesied his resurrection, but his own disciples who had seen him raise people from the dead would not believe? How many of his prophecies or predictions about his death and resurrection failed to come true? Not one. Everything had happened just as he said it would, but here they were, mourning and weeping, acting as if he wasn’t the very Savior they had put their faith in.
They treated her like a fool, a crazy woman. They refused to believe, and we have to admit that the sinful human nature struggles with the idea of life after death, of resurrection; of eternity in any form at all. We who are subject to death, who have lost friends and family to death; who have not one ancient ancestor living who is more than a hundred or so– we are used to death. Some men even speak of death as a terrible companion in their lives. A young man’s end is an untimely death, but the elderly might acknowledge that they wish “unburthen’d (to) crawl toward death.” Death is a part of the life of fallen, sinful man, who forgets that it is a curse (Romans 6:23) and is bewitched by the unbelieving world to consider death to simply be a natural part of life. O unnatural end! God did not design mankind for death, for non-existence, but for life, for existence, and for the everlasting joys of eternity.
Our God wants us to have a place with him, and so he made a place with us (Ezekiel 37:27). He first makes his word dwell in us first (Colossians 3:16), so that his Spirit will take up his dwelling within us (Ephesians 2:22) to guide us to our final destination, which is life forever with God in heaven.
Why, O Christian, do you forget about this? Trust in your Master’s promises! Believe his words.
Here then is a passage in which we have gospel proclaimed first (He is risen! He has appeared to me!) followed by the law: They did not believe it. This is the tragedy of sin in man’s hearts, that unbelief and the sin of doubt will cloud our understanding so much that we refuse to acknowledge the truth. Why do we more readily believe Satan when he terrifies us than Christ when he consoles us? Luther answered this:
“Because we are better equipped to doubt than to hope; because hope comes from the Spirit of God but despair comes from our own spirit. Accordingly God has forbidden despair under severe penalty. That we more easily believe penalty than reward (death over resurrection) is a product of the reason or spirit of man. Hoping and believing are different from thinking and speculating. Reason sees death before it, and it’s impossible for reason not to be terrified by it. Likewise we can’t be persuaded [by our reason] that God gives his Son and loves us so much.”
Since human reason can’t grasp that God would allow his Son to be killed for us, we show just how small and unworthy we are. Yet God is merciful! How wonderful that he loves us despite ourselves. He overlooks even our miserable and dangerous doubts and says, “I will show myself. I will show my glory. I will bring them into Paradise even though I had to gather them from the highways and byways and invite them in as strangers. I will love them unconditionally.”
Oh, that God would love unlovable me, a proud disdainful haggard!
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 16:10-11 Doubt