The disciples on Resurrection Sunday: caught between the 'disaster' of Good Friday and the 'triumph' of the Resurrection

We don’t have to have much imagination in hearing the account of the story of the discovery of the empty tomb in Mark’s gospel to realize that, far from the disappearance of Christ’s body being a conspiracy organized by Christians (which is what some non-believers said at the time), the first disciples of Christ were dumbfounded by what they saw and heard: ‘they would not believe it.’ It is quite likely that Mark’s description of the initial response of the disciples is correct. Until the post-resurrection encounters with Jesus reassured them, the disciples probably did not know what to think.


The proof of the resurrection lies not in the empty tomb. It lies in the ten resurrection encounters of the disciples with the risen Christ which are recorded in the gospels (more are recorded in the NT as a whole).


It is on the account provided by those witnesses that our faith rests. We may not have a precise timeline of the encounters, although some have made suggestions. What we do have, however, is one indisputable fact: from the terror which is recorded in the original ending of Mark’s gospel (Mark 16:8), there was a rapid transformation in the disciples’ attitudes. From being fearful and uncertain, they become confident and cast away human and worldly considerations to preach the gospel throughout the known world and establish the embryonic church. The gospel train was set in motion. And the work of the disciples still provides us with the best account we have of how to spread the Word in an apparently unreceptive world.