Mark 16:14
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
After His resurrection and just before His ascension Jesus appeared to the eleven while they were eating and rebuked them for unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He was risen. That rebuke came as He was about to leave them with a work to be understood and taken hold of intelligently, and it leads directly into His command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The commission promises salvation to him who believes and is baptized and condemnation to him who believes not, promises signs following believers, and is followed by His reception up into heaven to sit at the right hand of God while the disciples went forth and preached everywhere with the Lord working with them and confirming the message. Unbelief always hardens the heart, and if cherished brings it to a state where it is unresponsive, while faith trusts what is hoped for and gives assurance of what cannot be seen. The disciples met this failure with repentance and confession, were comforted by remembering His words and knowing they were forgiven, and resolved to make amends as far as they could by bravely bearing witness to Christ before the world, assured that He is with His workers to the end and will impart grace to perform whatever He assigns.
Setting and Rebuke
After the resurrection and just before the ascension Jesus appeared to the eleven while they were eating. That meal gathering was the setting in which He confronted them with their failure.
He upbraided them with unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He was risen. The reproof included Thomas, who had refused to accept his companions' report of the risen Lord. Their unbelief shows they were not gathered to celebrate the resurrection as a holy day.
The disciples later faced this failure with repentance and confession. Remembering His words helped them understand what they had misunderstood, and they were comforted by knowing they were forgiven. They resolved to make amends as far as they could by bravely bearing witness to Christ before the world.
Gospel Commission Entrusted
The rebuke was given when He was about to leave His disciples and entrust them with a work to be understood and taken hold of intelligently, and it leads directly into His command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That encounter after the resurrection, while the eleven were eating, thus becomes the setting for the worldwide gospel commission.
That commission promises salvation to him who believes and is baptized and condemnation to him who believes not, promises signs following believers, and is followed by His reception up into heaven to sit at the right hand of God while the disciples went forth and preached everywhere with the Lord working with them and confirming the message. The disciples' task of teaching and baptizing connects with the gospel ministry's work of carrying God's final warning to the world.
The verse assures present workers, including preachers and canvassers, that Christ is with them to the end and will impart grace to perform whatever He assigns. He works through those who are true and whole-hearted, so that with God nothing will be impossible and all sufficiency is of God. Yet lack of faith among God's people can leave that missionary work nearly at a standstill. When believers who are clustered together are converted they will hear and heed this commission and go out to work for sin-cursed cities. Accepting Bible truth brings new hearts and changed speech, and believers go out preaching while the Lord works with them and confirms the message.
Unbelief, Faith, and Warning
Christ's rebuke for unbelief and hardness of heart because they would not believe the evidence of His resurrection presented to them shows that unbelief always hardens the heart. If cherished, it brings the heart to a state where it is unresponsive. In the disciples' case the resurrection was such good news they dared not believe it true lest they be disappointed. Even when there is sufficient evidence to encourage faith, the mind seizes everything that would create darkness, and in their afflictions the Lord lets people remain in unbelief.
Unbelief is the occasion of all sin and the bond of iniquity, and its work is to twist what is straight and make crooked things that are straight. Faith, by contrast, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, trusting what is hoped for and giving assurance of what cannot be seen. When people become as little children, sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning of Him self-denial and what it is to live by faith in every word of God, then the soul finds rest and peace.
A woe rests upon all such unbelief and criticism. Those who persist in that course of unbelief erect a barrier that shuts out the great salvation and the riches of divine grace offered to them. Their failure to accept the testimony of those who witnessed His resurrection is a lesson for Christ's messengers: they must learn from Him and then faithfully preach the gospel He commanded.