SEEING IS BELIEVING
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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Gracious God, for your Word. Please use it to teach me, to inspire me, to convict me. Use it to build my faith and to show me how to better serve you.
Read MARK 16:9–20
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
9 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. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
14 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.
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 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.”
19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Easter is amazing. How do you follow that?
Yesterday’s reading felt somehow unfinished, lacking a denouement to the Jesus story. Three frightened women fled—but who knows where? Mark’s early audiences knew that it didn’t end like that. Today’s passage is missing from some manuscripts, but it is important as a transition to the era that includes us. If it reads like a brief summary of Luke/ Acts, then that’s because it unifies the experience of the early church.
Mary Magdalene is the one who eventually takes the surprising news to Jesus’ followers. Do they greet it with overwhelming joy? Not a chance (see v. 11): ‘Please, Mary, we know you mean well but… .’ A report by two disciples of an encounter on a country road fares no better (v. 13). It takes a manifestation to the whole inner group, accompanied by a rebuke from Jesus, to convince the remaining eleven (v. 14). Turning the situation around, Jesus then commissions them to take this same gloriously unlikely message to the whole world of cynical and doubting humanity. Now, however, signs and wonders will accompany the gospel that they, and we, are to take (vv. 17, 18). If people then don’t believe, be it on their own heads (v. 16).
Is this the end (v. 19)? Well, not exactly, for the story never ends. We’ve read the next events in Acts and followed the legends of the saints down through the centuries. Now, in 2025, this is our truth: Jesus, who was raised to life and ascended into heaven, is still seated at the right hand of God. His story of salvation is the same. His Spirit inspires us and our audiences with words, healings, and wonders. The next chapter belongs to us.
Apply
How does your next chapter begin? Read again Jesus’ commission (vv. 15–18) as if addressed to you (as it actually is!) and look forward to the day ahead.
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, help me to pursue my part in the Great Commission with wisdom, with zeal, and with expectation. Lead me and use me; build in me vision for going into the world and sharing the gospel.
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