Giving Space: Mark 16:9-13
God doesn’t expect perfection; He expects an openness to following Him. Who among us is perfect? Who among us doesn’t have questions? Who among us doesn’t tread carefully when trying something new because we are afraid to fail?
The verses presented today give an alternate ending to Mark – possibly even two alternate endings if verses 9-11 and 12-13 are kept separate. There is no reason to feel the need to pick between the endings. They could certainly all be true recollections.
The women left the tomb in fear, struggling to grasp what God has completed as we all would in their shoes. At some point later, Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene to calm her fear. Once Jesus helps her understand God’s hand at work, she goes to the disciples to help them understand. Unfortunately, they struggle to believe her.
Similarly, Jesus appears to two unnamed disciples as they were out walking, no doubt trying to come to grips with what happened to Jesus and what they were going to do moving forward. Like Mary, this pair tries to go back to the other disciples and explain what happened, but they struggle to believe.
At first glance, it feels like these stories – along with the story of the women at the tomb from yesterday - are meant to cast Jesus’ disciples in a negative light. We see people who wrestle with fear and doubt. We see people who fail to receive the message when it is first presented to them. It is easy to wonder what is wrong with Jesus’ disciples when they struggle to keep up with God.
The prior analysis may be true, but there is no need to let these stories cause us to see Jesus’ disciples poorly. If anything, they teach us about humanity. Human beings struggle to keep up with the mind of God. We struggle to get on board when God does something new. We fear failure. We fear new things. We are slow to comprehend until things are made clearer. It’s who we are. It might expose a flaw in our being, but it is who we are.
Following Jesus is not an easy decision. It is a decision we wrestle with over time. Even after we commit to imitating Christ, following God’s call is difficult and full of doubt, fear, and mistakes. Nobody gets it perfect. For transparency’s sake, I seldom get it perfect. I seldom get it right the first time. I get better as I gain more experience, and I repent when I get it wrong. But God needs to hit me with an idea a couple of times before I pick up on what He’s trying to do around me.
That’s what these stories are about. God gave these disciples room to wrestle with their disbelief and reticence to understand. He still used them; He can still use us when we do the same. God doesn’t expect immediate perfection; He expects an openness to following Him.
