Mark 16:9-11

‘Now when he was risen early on the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom he had cast out seven devils. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they heard that he was alive and had been seen of her disbelieved.'

Note the abrupt connection and the introduction of Mary Magdalene as though she had not been mentioned earlier.

The appearance first to Mary Magdalene agrees with John 20:11. Jesus seems deliberately to have appeared to the women first in order to test the faith of His disciples in view of what He had previously told them. But they refused to believe them. It was the reception of the Holy Spirit that would change their whole understanding and perspective (John 20:22; Luke 24:45). They needed such humiliation so that later they would not become over-exalted.

‘They mourned and wept.' There was no expectancy in their hearts. They were just broken men.

For this appearance compare John 20:11. For ‘cast out seven devils' see Luke 8:2.