The Commission

This is our last sermon in Mark! And we are wrapping it up with a controversial text—the longer ending of Mark. Many have debated its originality, yet it gives us an account of the resurrected Lord we find elsewhere in the Scriptures. 

Mark 16:9–20 reminds us that even those who witnessed the risen Christ wrestled with doubt and unbelief. As we read the text, we are challenged to examine our own reluctance to trust in God's miraculous work. Consider this from our passage:

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. (Mark 16:9–11,ESV)

The very debates surrounding the authenticity of this text serves as a mirror to our own struggles with unbelief, reminding us that even when doubt arises, the overwhelming testimony of Christ’s resurrection is too great not to believe.