From Mark 16:9-20 / The heart of unbelief – Most scholarship today agrees that verses 9-20 are not part of Mark’s original account. It seems that Mark ends his gospel as abruptly in vs. 8, as he began it in Ch. 1. His clipped style pervades the book. Even though the 2 oldest manuscripts we have do not contain 9-20, many others do. In any event, virtually all contained in these verses, can be found elsewhere in the Gospels, and thus reiterate facts already accepted as genuine. Who made this addition remains a mystery. But what is clear, is that he makes no heroes out of the Disciples. This is no way to make them look like power-brokers looking to hold sway over the masses. In vs. 10, they did not believe Mary Magdalene. In 13, they did not believe the 2 on the road to Emmaus. Thus in 14, Jesus appears and rebukes them soundly for their hardness of heart and failure to believe. Luke gives us even more examples of their unbelief. And yet, it is these very ones Jesus ends up commissioning to take His Gospel into the whole world to make disciples. And so it is that everyone who professes Christ once walked in unbelief and in the hardness of their hearts. And we who are believers now, are called to make His gospel of saving grace known. And by means of the example here, we ought neither to be surprised nor discouraged when those we tell the Good News to don’t believe either. Our call is to go and proclaim. And it is His job, by the Spirit, to open the hearts and minds of those who hear. We pray, we communicate the Gospel, we point men to Christ, and we trust the Spirit to overcome unbelieving hearts. We do not seek, nor do we have magic-bullet arguments to convert them. But we have a sovereign God, whom we know by personal experience has overcome our hardness. And I don’t know about you, but I know this – if He could overcome my wicked heart – no one is beyond His reach. No one. And if you not yet His – even you.