Saturday within the Octave of the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord

Scripture: St. Mark 16:9-14 (NKJV)

16:9 Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. 11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. 13 And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.

14 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.

Devotion

The disciples believed neither Mary Magdalene, nor the disciples who ran back to them from Emmaus, though the reports were exactly what Jesus had prophesied! Now, Jesus appears to them and rebukes them for their hardness of heart. If they didn’t believe this joyous news, how would they trust in Him through the adversity that would come upon them, when putting them out of the synagogues and killing them would be thought of as doing service to God?

We derive great benefit from the disciples’ slowness to believe. First, it shows how thoroughly the resurrection was confirmed to them that they would later believe so strongly, even unto their own death for clinging to it. Second, we see that we also can be forgiven for sometimes lacking in faith. We have heard the Word of God given through these former doubters and have believed it. Yet, our flesh also has trouble believing the Word of God. We live in the reality of being a new creation in Christ, and we must live out what Baptism signifies: “that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil desires, so that a New Man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise, to live forever before God in all righteousness and purity.”

Prayer: We thank You, O Triune God, that you have saved us not by any works of righteousness we have done, but by Your mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which is not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward You, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.