Mark 16 recounts the miraculous resurrection of Jesus and the events that follow. Early on the first day of the week, several women go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body. Upon arriving, they see that the large stone has been rolled away. They encounter a young man dressed in a white robe who declares, “He has risen; He is not here” (Mark 16:6). This command to witness the empty tomb emboldens them, although they initially experience fear and astonishment.

This chapter underscores Jesus’s victory over death and the fulfillment of His own prophetic words to the disciples, tying back to His predictions of suffering, death, and resurrection given in the earlier chapters of Mark (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34). The resurrected Jesus later appears to Mary Magdalene and to two disciples walking in the countryside, demonstrating that the miraculous had truly occurred. These appearances serve as proof of His divine power and the completion of His earthly mission.

In the region around Jerusalem, a city significant due to its deep historical and religious roots for the Jewish people, Jesus’s resurrection marks a turning point that reverberates throughout the entire Gospel narrative. Though Jerusalem had seen centuries of rulers come and go, none in its long history—spanning from King David in approximately 1000 BC to Roman governors like Pontius Pilate in AD 26-36—wielded authority over death itself. Jesus’s rising from the grave establishes Him as divine, confirming His identity as the promised Messiah who triumphs over sin and death for all who believe (Romans 6:9).

The final instructions in Mark 16 call believers to carry out a commission that sends them “into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). This great command resonates with the broader message of the New Testament, where the gift of eternal life is open to everyone through faith in Jesus’s death and resurrection (John 3:16). Thus, Mark 16 closes the Gospel by affirming Jesus’s lordship and by urging His followers to proclaim the hope of salvation to the ends of the earth.