The Resurrection of Jesus
Easter Sunday – Matthew 28:1-10
28 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’
Fear dominates this passage. The resurrection of Jesus was a fearful event, full of awe, wonder, and trembling. Vs. 4 the military guards fainted away with fear at the sight of the angel; the women don’t, being made of stronger stuff. Vs. 5 the angel tells the women “do not be afraid.” Vs. 8 the women leave the tomb to tell the others “with fear and great joy.” Vs. 10 the risen Jesus says to the women “do not be afraid.”
The linking of fear with great joy is intriguing. Jesus is alive, risen from the dead, this is good news, news that fills their hearts with joy. But if people can be raised from the dead, then the basic assumptions we have about the way the world works are no longer true. If Jesus is alive, then death does not have the final word. If the thing we fear most, the thing that no one has defeated has been defeated, what does that say about the one who defeated death. There is a power at work in the world that is greater than death. There is a power at work in the world in Jesus Christ that has broken death’s hold on human beings.
If Jesus can defeat death, what else might Jesus do? What else might Jesus do that unsettles our lives, disrupting the way we live? Even if those new ways are for the better, the uncertainty, the unknown, the unpredictable nature of the world after the resurrection is unsettling.
This joy unsettles us, because we do not have the ability to imagine just how amazing is the reign of God that is coming. The time when God is enthroned as king, a time when the good news of Jesus is spread to all nations, a time when peace will flow down like rivers. A day so joyously amazing frightens us, because we cannot imagine it or understand it. We are like the women carrying the news from the tomb filled with fear and great joy.
PRAYER:
O Lord, you raised your Son, Jesus Christ, from the dark of the grave, and new light broke into our world. We confess we are filled with great joy and filled with fear, for you have begun to reign and this is too wonderful for us to imagine, and so unsettling that is disrupts our lives. In joy we say, Hallelujah, Christ is risen. In Jesus’ name. Amen.