Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. After hearing in detail Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances from the other three evangelists in the course of the week, today we turn to the evangelist Mark for a summary of the appearances. Unlike Matthew, Luke or John, Mark doesn’t go into the details. Rather, in a move that is characteristic of Mark, the evangelist reports that the appearances all ended in the disciples’ refusal to believe. For Mark, the disciples’ refusal to believe seems to be intentional, or rather, the refusal furthers the theme that has been running throughout Mark’s writing: the disciples’ hardness of heart. This is an important point that Mark makes because ordinarily, one would have expected the disciples to begin “getting it” following this greatest of all signs that Jesus performed. Having the disciples believe the resurrection at this juncture would have prematurely concluded the story, yet the story was far from over. There was one final act that Jesus had to perform. The disciples’ refusal to believe the news of the resurrection “force” Jesus to make himself present when the eleven were all together at table and, as he had always done, he reprimanded them for their hardness of heart. Following the reprimand, Jesus then proceeded to the main agenda of his appearance: commissioning the eleven to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. We can only presume that the disciples had finally come to “get it,” because the good news they were charged with proclaiming consisted in reporting with conviction all that they had seen Jesus do: performing signs.