And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. (Mark 16:11-14)

They Did Not Believe

Resurrection was not a new idea to the early disciples of Jesus. At least they could believe in the possibility of raising the dead from the story of Abraham and Isaac. During the ministry of Jesus, people were raised from the dead. The apostles had the power to raise the dead. Lazarus had been in the tomb after the body decayed and Jesus raised him. Nearing the end of His ministry, Jesus often told His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and raised on the third day. It seems no one was listening.

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went to the disciples who were still reeling from the sudden death of Jesus and told them He was alive. They would not believe her. She pleaded with them to believe she saw Jesus and talked with him, but they were too distraught to accept it. Jesus appeared to some men on the road to Emmaus and spoke with them at length. The men returned and told the eleven what happened on the road and how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread. No one believed the two men. They thought what the witnesses were saying were idle words.

Jesus appeared to ten apostles on the evening of His resurrection, and they believed. Thomas was not there when Jesus came the first time. A week later, when Thomas was with the ten, Jesus again appeared and spoke directly to Thomas. He wanted to see the scars identifying Jesus as Lord. Thomas believed when shown the evidence. The eleven (and others) must have seemed foolish in not believing Mary and the others who testified they had seen Jesus but were rebuffed.

The testimony of those who had seen and talked with Jesus came from credible sources. These were not the enemies of Jesus but disciples of the Lord. They must have been discouraged from being so excited about seeing their Lord and the apostles not believing. Maybe that is why Jesus first appeared to them and not the eleven. Their faith readily believed what they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears that Jesus was alive. As impossible as that seemed, it was real.

Faith is more than a shallow acceptance of a few facts. To have a deep faith, the heart sometimes must believe in the impossible. For Mary and the two men, they were talking to a man who had been killed by the Romans three days earlier. They knew Jesus was dead, buried, and guarded by a complement of Roman soldiers. Jesus did not fain death. He was dead. There was no question. The empty tomb puzzled Peter and John but left them disbelieving the testimonies of those who saw Jesus alive. Jesus was alive. How difficult it would be for those who saw Jesus to be unable to convince others of the truth. They saw the truth and testified of the truth. No one believed them. The unbelief of the apostles did not change the truth. Jesus was alive.

The Bible is the divine revelation of God. All truth is found within its pages. It is a testimony created over 1500 years by forty individuals with diverse backgrounds and lives. The Bible is a complete harmony of context, purpose, and design. It shows the story of Jesus Christ from Genesis to the Revelation. Sadly, the message of salvation told from the pages of the Bible is treated as a children’s story or a fanciful myth. People do not believe. Their unbelief does not change the fact the Bible is all truth. When Jesus appears, then they will know His word is truth. What do you believe?