Mark 16:12 Commentary and Bible Study

After this there was unbelief also in the two on the road to Emmaus. In the longer account found in Luke’s Gospel, the two confirm the unbelieving reception which the women were met with: ‘Certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; ²³ And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive’ (Luke 24:22-23). Christ reproves the two travellers themselves, though Mark does not comment on this. They too are failing to trust. That was the whole reason for their journey: ‘We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel’ (Luke 24:21), but their hope had collapsed. He says, ‘O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ²⁶ Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? ²⁷ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself’ (Luke 24:25-27). They were astonished, for in no way did they expect a resurrection. They went back to Jerusalem and told the disciples – this is the point that Mark notes – and they too were not believed. ‘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.’ That is the significant thing; the eleven did not believe those two disciples either. The two on the road to Emmaus were not among the eleven, they were secondary disciples, if you like, but they were not believed. Some critics protest that Luke’s Gospel says they did believe them. The two returned to Jerusalem and ‘found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, ³⁴ Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon’ (Luke 24:33-34). However Luke has more to say about their state of mind in what follows. Clearly the majority of the disciples did not believe even though they acknowledged what Peter reported, because when Christ subsequently appeared in their midst, they were terrified out of their wits and they thought they had seen a spirit. The Lord had to show them his hands and feet – and the wounds in them – and to eat food in front of them before they began to believe. Even then, Luke says, ‘they yet believed not for joy, and wondered.’ So Mark’s statement is perfectly accurate. When the two returned and told the residue they had seen the Lord, they certainly say yes, he has appeared to Peter also, but they did not believe it; they did not really take it in. They said these things in a rather metallic way, but they did not believe them and accept them. Then also Thomas, who was not present at that first appearance of the Lord to the eleven, refused to believe and was admonished by the Lord (John 20:25-27). But Thomas wasn't the only doubter; they all had a hard time taking in that the Lord was risen from the dead. So unbelief was characteristic of the disciples following the resurrection and this is Mark’s theme in these verses.