The bulk of the chapter is devoted to unbelief. The women at the tomb did not believe, the apostles did not believe Mary and the disciples did not believe the two. Jesus had to appear and rebuke them to spark belief. Once they believed, they went out and shared a message that changed the world.
So what would this look like today? How much of our lives are filled with unbelief? God works to speak to us through others but we ignore them. He probably uses mass media (a song, a movie, an article, a blog) but we miss the point. He gives us experiences but we don't slow down to process them. We move through life at such a pace that we don't hear or see God; the result is that most of our lives look like chapter sixteen, i.e., long accounts of unbelief.
The apostles changed when Jesus met face to face with them; then they changed the world. I wonder what it will take for us today? In each of our lives there are probably countless God-encounters today where he rebukes us and commissions us. May we be alert enough to recognize them and faithful enough to respond to them.
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