GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 16:13
Click to listen to this devotion.
13 They returned and reported to the rest, but they did not believe them, either.
Can there be gospel in the doubt of the apostles?
Human doubt mixed with fallen, flawed, sinful human reason can quickly become an internal liar; the very worst kind of influencer in a person’s life. When a man’s own skepticism becomes mixed up with misunderstood information, we have a great capacity to jump to the worst possible conclusions. We abandon God’s promises altogether. The sinful heart wants to scold God: “There, you see? Your promises must be worthless, God. Jesus said he would suffer and die and rise again on the third day, and here it is, the third day, and I haven’t seen him yet in my locked room that I haven’t left for two days. He must have been a fraud.”
This was the kind of audience that the two disciples met when they went back to report. Did their joy turn to frustration? They had spoken with Jesus, seen him, rejoiced with him, and worshiped him in person. Then they went back to tell the apostles! But the apostles “did not believe them, either.” In verse 11, we were told that they didn’t believe Mary Magdalene when she reported the risen Christ. Now, they didn’t believe these two, either. What would it take?
This brings Mark’s words about the first group of Jesus’ resurrection appearances to a close. This first group of appearances all took place on Easter Sunday itself. John presents one more appearance from that first day in John 20:19-23, the one in which Thomas was not present. But let’s learn a valuable lesson from Mark’s text here in verse 13; something that may help those who doubt or who are misled by their own fallen, flawed, sinful human reason. The disciples “did not believe them, either.” The apostles of Jesus Christ were the very first skeptics of his resurrection. The doubts of Thomas were not unique to Thomas. All eleven “did not believe.” What does this prove? It proves that the resurrection of Jesus could not have been an invention of his apostles.
Until they actually saw him; until he appeared to them behind the locked door and “showed them his hands and side” where the marks of his crucifixion were still present, they didn’t believe.
So from the very beginning, the world’s casual dismissal of the resurrection is shown to be false, built up from false and flawed reasoning. How do we know that Jesus really rose from the dead? The world will try to say, “He didn’t rise; his apostles just made that up. They stole his body and buried it somewhere else and then spread the story that he had risen.” But they were the most surprised that his body wasn’t in the tomb. The very first people to arrive at the tomb, the women, could not have moved the stone. They admitted that themselves, wondering how they would even get past it to anoint his corpse. But after Mary reported his resurrection, and after these two others reported the same thing, his apostles, “those who seemed to be important” (Galatians 2:6), “those reputed to be pillars” (Galatians 2:9), did not, could not, and would not believe.
But Lord, “you show your strength when people doubt the completeness of your power, and you rebuke any insolence among those who know it.”
The Confession of our Church (the Apology of the Augsburg Confession) says this about the preaching the pure gospel: “What we have shown… is to make clear that by faith alone we received the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, for through this faith alone we recognize Christ’s work and receive his blessings, and faith alone provides a sure and firm consolation for devout minds. And there has to be a proclamation in the church from which the faithful may receive the sure hope of salvation. Our opponents give men bad advice when they urge them to doubt where they have received the forgiveness of sins. For in the hour of death, what will sustain those who have heard nothing about this faith and who believe that they should doubt?” (AP IV:117-119).
So let the initial unbelief of the apostles stand as a true fact, and let God the Holy Spirit use their momentary unbelief to proclaim this gospel truth to us: The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was not and could not possibly have been the invention of his apostles; they did not believe it when it was reported to them. Only when the risen Jesus himself came and showed his risen body did they finally believe, and even then there was the lingering skepticism of doubting Thomas to show this truth: Jesus truly rose from the dead, just as he had raised others, he was himself also raised.
When we encounter people who doubt the existence of God, the place to begin can well be the resurrection. For many of them, that’s the real point that they wonder about; the question that drives all of their curiosity. Jesus had to prove his resurrection to his closest friends: they did not believe an angel’s message, nor Mary’s, nor even two of their own number. Only when he showed his body to them himself did they believe– or rather, only when he displayed his risen body to them was their faith restored, for they had certainly believed in him before his crucifixion.
If Christ is not risen, our faith is for nothing (1 Corinthians 15:14). But Christ has indeed been raised, and this seals everything he said and did as the truth. He is the Savior from sin. Sin and its consequence, hell, are real and true and truly to be feared. And all of God’s promises are therefore true, as well. The miracles of the exodus and the whole Old Testament are true accounts and just as real as the rising sun. And the account of the creation is true as well. And finally, or rather, first and foremost, God’s existence is thus proved as well from this single event: Jesus Christ his Son rose from the dead. It is no invention. It is no dream. The truth of the resurrection shows that all our doubts are lies whispered in our ears by the devil. All his influence is crushed and pulverized by the empty tomb of Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is the truth, for us to trust in and to put our faith in. And through this faith, we are saved. “Do not doubt,” Jesus said to Thomas, “but believe.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online.
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel:
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 16:13 They did not believe them, either