Today I read Mark 16, Mark's very brief account of the Savior and His doings after He is resurrected. Part of this chapter states that the Savior appeared unto His Apostles as they sat together eating a meal and He upbraids, or scolds them for not believing those who had seen Him. As I was reading this part of the chapter this morning, I couldn't help but wonder how I would react to someone telling me they had seen the Savior. But then again, the circumstances would be completely different. These men and women knew the Savior in the flesh and had watched Him die and have never understood what He meant when He had told them that He must die and be resurrected. So I can understand why they might not believe them, although you would think with 4 of their close friends telling them all that they had seen them that they might believe. It's not exactly the kind of prank that one pulls on friends.
The other thought as I read this part and wondered at the Apostles disbelief was the prophecy of the Savior telling us to beware of false Christs and when some cry he is in the desert or the secret places, believe it not. Of course I had read this part dozens of time before today, but today got me thinking about it. Why would a false Christ need to hide? Well for one thing it is because he/she would be counterfeit. The Lord always has worked out in the open. Even when the Pharisees came to get Him after the Garden of Gethsemane, He bluntly tells them that they could have arrested Him at any time because He taught openly in the market but they chose instead to come and arrest Him at night when no one else was around. Satan is the one who operates under the cover of darkness where no one can watch him. Satan is the one who coaxes us when we are alone to make bad choices. It is Satan who needs to hide, not the Lord.
The other part of the chapter that stood out to me today was the last part where Jesus sends His Apostles and disciples out into the world to preach His Gospel. Mark tells us that signs shall follow them, that they shall speak in tongues and shall cast out devils and shall take up serpents without being hurt and a myriad of others. I have often wondered how some can accuse Latter-day Saints of not being Christians when these same signs follow them. Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints learn foreign languages at a remarkable rate and sometimes at a miraculous rate and any missionary who has learned a foreign language will tell you that they had help. Missionaries have cast out devils, healed the sick, taken up serpents without being hurt and all other manner of like signs, and yet there are those who would declare we are not Christians. I do not understand why they would say such things when the Savior Himself through His Apostles and disciples tell us that such are His servants.
I also wonder why some would say that baptism is not necessary for salvation when Jesus declares it Himself that we must believe AND be baptized to be saved. Sometimes I wonder if people bother to read the scriptures at all! Tomorrow we start the book of Luke which is the last of the Synoptic Gospels. We will read a lot of the same stories and parables we have already read and will gain new insights to them and will read lots of new ones that we have not had a chance to read yet. Through it all, if we read with the Spirit, the Lord will teach us that which He would have us learn. And that is what is most important. Until tomorrow.
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