Mk 16:9-15
9When [Jesus] had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. 11When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
12After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country. 13They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either.
14[But] later, as the eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. 15He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”
He appeared to two of them: The story of Jesus’ appearance to two disciples walking along on their way to the country has a striking resemblance to the Lucan story of Jesus’ appearance to Cleopas and his companion on their way to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35). With Mark’s gospel generally accepted as the first to be written and serving as a source for Luke, it is surmised that the Emmaus incident is Luke’s dramatic development of Mark’s short note. But the gospel pericope, which is part of Mark’s “Longer Ending,” is considered by scholars to be a later addition. The form, language, and style of these verses militate against Marcan authorship. If added much later by another hand—composed in the first half of the second century—it may really be a summary of the Lucan story.
Told by Mary Magdalene that Jesus is alive, the disciples react with unbelief. After all, Mary is only a “woman,” and probably hallucinating. Two other disciples tell the group that Jesus appeared to them, and being two, their testimony is “legal”—yet they are met with the same unbelief. Jesus then appears to the group and rebukes them for their unbelief. The resurrection is the supreme disclosure of Jesus’ transcendent dignity. It is God’s vindication of Jesus as his Son. While astonishment and fear may be natural human reactions to this revelation, these should give way to faith.