The Obstacle
“Now
when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary
Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with
him, as they mourned and wept. And they,
when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed
not. After that he appeared in another
form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue:
neither believed they them. Afterward he
appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their
unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen
him after he was risen.”
(Mark
16:9-14)
 |
| Dr. Rick Flanders |
Verse nine of the sixteenth chapter of
the book of Mark begins a very important passage of scripture, although strangely
and sadly questioned by critics. Taking
a look at the end of Mark in the newer Bibles will show the Christian reader
just how seriously this section is questioned, although an examination of the
evidence in favor of it will demonstrate just how groundless the criticism
really is. And the ending of Mark
focuses in a profound way upon the solution to the world’s problems, and also on
the obstacle to the fulfilling of that solution. It is indeed a very important passage.
Notice the recurring theme in verses 9
through 14. Our Lord “was risen” from
the dead on Easter Sunday, and several witnesses to this fact came to His
followers with the news. First we read
of Mary Magdalene, the one to whom “he appeared first” (verses 9 and 10), who
“went and told them that had been with him.”
The account of her experience is given fully in John 20. But “when they had heard that he was alive,
and had been seen of her, [they] believed not” (verse 11). They wouldn’t believe her.
Then we read about “two of them” to whom He also appeared “as they walked, and went into the country.” This story is told in more detail in Luke 24. When “they went and told it” to the rest of His followers, they wouldn’t believe them. “Neither believed they them” (verses 12-13).
Then we come to verse 14, where we are
told that Jesus appeared to the apostles “as they sat at meat,” and it is
recorded that He “upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart,
because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.” The theme of verses 9 through 14 is the
unbelief of the believers. When the Lord
arose, and witnesses came to the rest of His followers, they consistently
refused to believe. And the risen Christ
rebuked them for their inexcusable lack of faith.
Ironically the factor that has left
the critics in the dark about this very passage is their unbelief. It is their doubt and resulting unwillingness
to take at face value the promise of Jesus in Mark 13:31 that “my words shall
not pass away” that have prejudiced some against the last twelve verses of
Mark. They conjecture that because a few
old manuscripts unexpectedly end the book with verse 8, the original parchments
on which Mark wrote the book must have been damaged with the last page torn and
the ending lost. One of the arguments
they use for this theory is that the wording of the passage they criticize is supposedly
dissimilar to the language of the rest of the book of Mark. But they are wrong about this. A phrase that connects this passage with the
rest of the book is found in verse 14, where we read that Jesus “upbraided them
with their unbelief and hardness of heart.”
Belief and unbelief are recurring themes of Mark, and he alone among the
writers of the first four books of the New Testament, which record the words
and works of Jesus Christ, connects unbelief with hardness of heart. Hardness of heart is presented as causing
grief in Jesus in chapter 3 in the account of the healing of the withered
hand. Neither Matthew nor Luke (who also
record this story) mentions the hardness of the hearts. In Mark 6, Jesus came back to Nazareth and failed
to receive a prophet’s honor from His hometown acquaintances and relatives. Consequently, He “could there do no mighty
work” and “marveled because of their unbelief.”
Later in the chapter He has to deal with the unbelief of His own
disciples, and it is attributed to the fact that “their heart was hardened.” In Mark 8, the Lord’s warning against “the
leaven of the Pharisees” is not understood by His disciples, and He attributes
their confusion to unbelief caused by hardened hearts. “Have ye your heart yet hardened?” (verse
17). Unbelief attributed to hardness of
heart is a distinct characteristic of the record we find in the book of Mark,
and it is found all the way to the end.
The evidence for the integrity of the book as it has been handed down to
us in the vast majority of copies is conclusive. It is only the unbelief of the critics that
blinds their minds to it, and prejudices their judgment of the final verses. And it is unbelief that is the obstacle which
prevents the fulfillment of our Lord’s plan to deliver mankind. It is unbelief in believers, as described in
Mark 9:24 in the words of a man who cried, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine
unbelief.” Unbelief is the obstacle, and
it will be faith exercised by His followers that will be the key to their
accomplishing the task He gave them!
The rest of the passage (and of the
book) also has a clear theme. Verse 15,
of course, records the Great Commission:
“And he
said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature.”
Then He makes some promises. The promise in verse 16 is to the person
“that believeth.” Verses 17 and 18
promise certain “signs” to “them that believe.”
Then verses 19 and 20 state that these were among the final statements
our Lord made to His disciples before going back to heaven, and before they
began the work of evangelizing the world.
We can summarize the message of this passage by saying that verses 9
through 14 rebuke unbelief in Christians, while verses 15 through 20 commend
belief or faith exercised by them. If we
are to carry out our Lord’s plan for the world, we must learn to exercise faith
in Him, to believe.
The plan for the world laid out by the
Lord Jesus is that everybody on earth hears from His followers the Gospel of
His grace and salvation. Men are given
the responsibility to decide for themselves whether or not to receive and
believe the Gospel, but it is His program that all of them hear it. Obviously, this program is failing in our
day. The reason is our unbelief. It is not God’s fault that the mission of
Christ is not known to the sinners He came to save. It is our fault for not believing Him.
Not believing what? First, it is unbelief concerning the Gospel
that stands in the way of fulfilling the plan.
This is where our Lord begins in his recommendation of faith. Look at His words recorded in verses 15 and
16. The one who hears the Gospel,
believes and is baptized “shall be saved.”
On the other hand, the one “that believeth not shall be damned.” Notice that it is the Gospel that is the key
to saving the world. The word “gospel”
means good news, and the Gospel is news about something that God has done for
us. It is historical. It informs us about something that has
happened. The Gospel is not a church to
join, or rules to keep, or just a creed to recite. It is news about what God did to rescue the
world from its sin and misery. The God
Who created and rules the universe does not stand aloof somewhere in space,
cold and unresponsive to our plight. He
did something about it, two thousand years ago.
The fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians spells out the Gospel as the
news “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he
was buried, and that he rose again according to the scriptures.” On the cross and at the empty tomb God’s Son,
the Savior of the world, remedied the damage and undid the consequences of
Adam’s sin, and all of man’s problems were solved potentially by what He
did. The Gospel of Christ is the
solution to the problems of every man (“every creature”) in the world, and we
must believe that. But do we?
Believing or not believing in the work
of Christ spells either salvation or damnation for sinners who must all face
judgment for their sins. This is clear
in verse 16. Those who hear but won’t
believe will be damned. But the verse
also says that “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Now baptism is not required for deliverance
from eternal damnation. Those who use
this verse to argue that it is do not see or refuse to admit that it does not
deal with the case of somebody who believes but is not baptized. It deals with the one who does not believe,
and says he will be damned. The question
of what happens to the true believer in Christ that for some reason doesn’t get
baptized (such as those mentioned in Luke 23:39-43, John 12:42, and John
19:38-39) is not handled here (although faith in Christ for eternal salvation
is presented as the only requirement in passages such as John 3:16, John 3:36,
John 6:47, Acts 16:31, and Romans 5:1).
However there is another kind or level of being saved mentioned in verse
16. There is a salvation from eternal
damnation, and there is also salvation from a worthless life. Read about this second kind, also wrought
through Christ and His cross, in Matthew 16:24-25, Acts 2:38-40, Romans 6:1-14,
and Galatians 2:19-20. The one who goes
“all the way” through surrender to God, baptism and what it symbolizes, and the
living of a victorious Christian life is saved from the domination of sin in
his life, and lives this way by faith.
The Gospel offers us both deliverance from the penalty of sin, and from
the power of sin, and its deliverance is accessed by faith. It is unbelief that prevents the victory and
holy living. It is unbelief that is the
obstacle to a consistent, credible, and powerful Christian life.
Next the passage says that we must
also believe in the power of God. Read
again verses 17 and 18. Those who have
read the book of Acts recognize that these “signs” are matters of fact and history,
and not matters of doctrine and practice.
The promise does not justify Pentecostalism or snake-handling. But it does describe the response of faith to
the challenges of evangelizing the world.
The apostles did these things, not to show off, but to meet the
challenges of language barriers, devil-possession, and life-threatening
danger. When they faced the problem of
language when a great opportunity for evangelism presented itself on the day of
Pentecost, the band of believers did not shrink back and say “we can’t.” They went forward in faith. When Paul was bit by a poisonous snake, he
did not assume that he was going to die.
He trusted God and kept on doing his duty. God may not do the exact things for us that
He did for His servants in the book of Acts, but our responses to challenges
must be borne of faith rather than unbelief.
Even the possibility of evangelizing the world is questioned today by
people who are oddly called “believers.”
And yet the Great Commission itself implies the promise that it can be
fulfilled! Read again verse 15. He said “all the world” and “every creature”
and He said it to the men who stood before Him, “Go ye.” Did He mean that they in the power of God
could evangelize the world in their lifetimes?
Obviously, this is what He was saying.
And it is what He is saying to us!
So we must respond by faith! We
must believe that it can be done.
But many are giving up, coming back
from the mission field, refusing to venture out on ambitious evangelistic
efforts, backing off for lack of finances, contenting themselves with failure,
and doing what they do under the dark cloud of unbelief. Unbelief is the great obstacle to New
Testament Christianity, and to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
The commission Christians received
from the Lord is to be fulfilled in the same way that Israel was to fulfill
their divine commission to conquer the land of Canaan. They were to do it by faith. The odds were certainly against them, but
they would succeed by divine intervention and supernatural power as long as
they marched on by faith. It is in this
way that we are to evangelize the whole world.
The odds are clearly against us, in the purely natural and human
assessment of our situation, but we were never expected to fulfill the Great
Commission without supernatural help.
The Holy Ghost was given so that we would have “power” to be witnesses
for Christ to the ends of the earth. And
we have power when we move by faith. A
great man encouraged his co-workers to go forward on their knees. The days of doing the work of God by natural
means ought certainly to have ended. We
have seen so much failure. Let us
confess to Jesus the sin of our unbelief, and decide to believe every word of
the Bible, and to anchor our lives and our work on its trustworthiness.
Mark 16:19-20 teaches us that we must also
believe in partnership with God. “They
went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.” How often did the Lord Jesus speak of us
working in partnership with Him! We are
to take His yoke and do the work in partnership with Him (Matthew
11:29-30). We are to bear fruit by
abiding in Him (John 15:5). We are
laborers together with Him (First Corinthians 3:6-9). He said that as we obeyed the commission, He
would be with us always (Matthew 28:19-20).
Don’t you think that if we partnered with God we could succeed in
evangelizing the multitudes, winning men to Christ, planting New Testament
churches, sending missionaries to the uttermost part of the earth, and
evangelizing the whole world? But we
must believe in His offers to be our Senior Partner, to fill us with the
Spirit, to go with us to places we have never been because our unbelief held us
back. Belief will be the key, as
unbelief has been the obstacle.
Dr. Rick Flanders
