No More Fear
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
I remember once as a student sending a ladies group at a church into shock. I was doing my internship, and they asked me to come to talk to them about the history of Christmas. I certainly agreed, prepared some notes and handouts and away I went. I began the presentation by sharing with them that the church survived for the first few hundred years of its existence without actually celebrating anything on December 25th. The gasps were audible… I then became a bit worried that I might be burnt at the stake.
I went on to explain that it’s entirely true… the earliest historical evidence of Christmas being celebrated in Rome was in 354 AD. It never became widespread until even a few decades after that… all at a time when Christianity was not only legal, but had become the official religion of the Roman Empire.
By contrast, we know that Easter has been celebrated since day one. The precise method for determining when Easter falls took a bit of time to develop, but Easter, the celebration of the resurrection has been there from that first, brightest day. It is why we gather together on Sunday mornings, the first day of the week, as a weekly commemoration of Christ’s resurrection. Every Sunday is really a mini Easter.
Yet in today’s society in how even the church approaches both Christmas and Easter, one would think it was the other way around. But today IS the day, the brightest day. It is the day that makes all the difference in the world… and it is the day and the celebration without which our faith would simply not exist.
It is such a contrast to the past week. It is the surprise ending that nobody expected. Granted, we have told this story on once a year for nearly two thousand years, and yet it never gets old. The story of the Resurrection is the blinding light erupting out of the darkness that seemed to have its final say on Good Friday. If it seems to be the routine, then maybe we’re not paying close enough attention. There is nothing routine about what Easter represents.
As Matthew tells it, he does so with a bit more flair and style than any of the other gospels. The vision of a descending angel, an earthquake, awestruck guards are something unique to his telling of the story. Maybe it’s that show of power that we were longing to see and experience on Good Friday.
But the core story remains very much the same. The two Mary’s come to the tomb early in the morning on that first day of the week. Amidst the flash and spectacle, the angel says to them, “Do not be afraid; I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised as he said. Come… see the place where he lay.”
Sure enough, the tomb is empty. The angel tells them to go and tell of the good news…
But what really stands out is that not once but twice in this passage do we hear the words “Do not be afraid!” –the first, from the Angel, the second from the risen Lord himself: “Do not be afraid!”
At one time, I think I was quite puzzled by this. This is a happy occasion, this is the brightest day, why is there so much fear present in this story? Do they not get what has happened? Jesus is risen! Sing to the Lord, Hallelujah! It’s time to celebrate!
But I think they do realize what has happened. The women at the tomb do get it… and that is precisely why they’re afraid. Up until now there was a certain order to things. Everyone knew how it worked. Up until now, Death was the final say… that was it… The authorities had the power of life and death, and the crucifixion was a horribly graphic demonstration of that. Sure, there were the expressed hope of resurrection, but it was for some day, far off in the future. Jesus was just another wayward prophet that had gotten to be too much of a nuisance… and it was time to shut him up. Up until now, that tactic would have worked. Kill the leader of a movement as an example, the movement dies…
But this is something different. How can one silence God? If God has indeed acted in this moment, that Jesus is raised from the dead, it means that everything has been turned on its head. This is not something that the powers-that-be can silence. They have no power over God… death is no longer the final say. The hope of resurrection was no longer a distant thing in the future, but something that we can experience in the here and now. Jesus is risen, and the order of things that we have come to expect is suddenly turned on its ear.
When we gathered here on Good Friday, it was marking that Darkest Day. Where humanity, the world, evil itself, threw everything it had at God. Yet despite those who taunted Jesus, and said “he saved others, let him save himself!” he took it all. The attempt to silence God had failed miserably. Now the message is go, and tell… go and tell the world that we’re no longer enslaved by the powers that be. Go and tell that “the way it is” doesn’t mean that it’s the way it has to be. The message of resurrection means there are opportunities to experience new life, and that nobody except for God alone has any power or say over who we are. As Paul would later write in his letter to the Romans, “nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ.” Nowhere is that more forcefully shown than in the Resurrection.
That’s the surprise of the resurrection... that if it's really true, it completely overturns everything. The powers that be, the order of things, the way things are… all overturned. That’s why the fear… because the world is now different… and the vast potential and possibilities open up a dizzying prospect of how things can be better. It means that all those things that we find ourselves at the mercy of have no real power over us. People like Pontius Pilate, or that annoying guy at work has no real power over who we are. Sure, they can do their absolute best to make our life miserable… even to the point of death… but they can never have the final say. Only God does…
It means we don’t have to be afraid anymore.
Yet, ironically it’s a fearful prospect… because it means we need to let go of our way of seeing the world around us. Maybe we’ve developed a kind of unhealthy dependency on accepting the way the world is… preferring to complain about it, rather than living as people freed from all of that. Like the alcoholic that is afraid to put down the bottle… we’re afraid to let go, and to truly see what resurrected life is truly like. It’s the reason why, some two thousand years later, the proclamation of resurrection is still so incredibly revolutionary. The challenge for us is to be able to let go and to truly embrace the resurrection so we can take the words of Jesus to heart… That’s why we need to hear the story again and again, so that we can learn the truth:
We don’t have to be afraid anymore.
This is why Easter is the brightest day. To borrow a text that is more commonly read at Christmastime, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2) On this brightest day, God calls us to remember what really matters, and to live like it. It’s not enough to say that Easter is the center of our faith, Easter is our faith.
Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed. Praise God!
Amen.
I remember once as a student sending a ladies group at a church into shock. I was doing my internship, and they asked me to come to talk to them about the history of Christmas. I certainly agreed, prepared some notes and handouts and away I went. I began the presentation by sharing with them that the church survived for the first few hundred years of its existence without actually celebrating anything on December 25th. The gasps were audible… I then became a bit worried that I might be burnt at the stake.
I went on to explain that it’s entirely true… the earliest historical evidence of Christmas being celebrated in Rome was in 354 AD. It never became widespread until even a few decades after that… all at a time when Christianity was not only legal, but had become the official religion of the Roman Empire.
By contrast, we know that Easter has been celebrated since day one. The precise method for determining when Easter falls took a bit of time to develop, but Easter, the celebration of the resurrection has been there from that first, brightest day. It is why we gather together on Sunday mornings, the first day of the week, as a weekly commemoration of Christ’s resurrection. Every Sunday is really a mini Easter.
Yet in today’s society in how even the church approaches both Christmas and Easter, one would think it was the other way around. But today IS the day, the brightest day. It is the day that makes all the difference in the world… and it is the day and the celebration without which our faith would simply not exist.
It is such a contrast to the past week. It is the surprise ending that nobody expected. Granted, we have told this story on once a year for nearly two thousand years, and yet it never gets old. The story of the Resurrection is the blinding light erupting out of the darkness that seemed to have its final say on Good Friday. If it seems to be the routine, then maybe we’re not paying close enough attention. There is nothing routine about what Easter represents.
As Matthew tells it, he does so with a bit more flair and style than any of the other gospels. The vision of a descending angel, an earthquake, awestruck guards are something unique to his telling of the story. Maybe it’s that show of power that we were longing to see and experience on Good Friday.
But the core story remains very much the same. The two Mary’s come to the tomb early in the morning on that first day of the week. Amidst the flash and spectacle, the angel says to them, “Do not be afraid; I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised as he said. Come… see the place where he lay.”
Sure enough, the tomb is empty. The angel tells them to go and tell of the good news…
But what really stands out is that not once but twice in this passage do we hear the words “Do not be afraid!” –the first, from the Angel, the second from the risen Lord himself: “Do not be afraid!”
At one time, I think I was quite puzzled by this. This is a happy occasion, this is the brightest day, why is there so much fear present in this story? Do they not get what has happened? Jesus is risen! Sing to the Lord, Hallelujah! It’s time to celebrate!
But I think they do realize what has happened. The women at the tomb do get it… and that is precisely why they’re afraid. Up until now there was a certain order to things. Everyone knew how it worked. Up until now, Death was the final say… that was it… The authorities had the power of life and death, and the crucifixion was a horribly graphic demonstration of that. Sure, there were the expressed hope of resurrection, but it was for some day, far off in the future. Jesus was just another wayward prophet that had gotten to be too much of a nuisance… and it was time to shut him up. Up until now, that tactic would have worked. Kill the leader of a movement as an example, the movement dies…
But this is something different. How can one silence God? If God has indeed acted in this moment, that Jesus is raised from the dead, it means that everything has been turned on its head. This is not something that the powers-that-be can silence. They have no power over God… death is no longer the final say. The hope of resurrection was no longer a distant thing in the future, but something that we can experience in the here and now. Jesus is risen, and the order of things that we have come to expect is suddenly turned on its ear.
When we gathered here on Good Friday, it was marking that Darkest Day. Where humanity, the world, evil itself, threw everything it had at God. Yet despite those who taunted Jesus, and said “he saved others, let him save himself!” he took it all. The attempt to silence God had failed miserably. Now the message is go, and tell… go and tell the world that we’re no longer enslaved by the powers that be. Go and tell that “the way it is” doesn’t mean that it’s the way it has to be. The message of resurrection means there are opportunities to experience new life, and that nobody except for God alone has any power or say over who we are. As Paul would later write in his letter to the Romans, “nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ.” Nowhere is that more forcefully shown than in the Resurrection.
That’s the surprise of the resurrection... that if it's really true, it completely overturns everything. The powers that be, the order of things, the way things are… all overturned. That’s why the fear… because the world is now different… and the vast potential and possibilities open up a dizzying prospect of how things can be better. It means that all those things that we find ourselves at the mercy of have no real power over us. People like Pontius Pilate, or that annoying guy at work has no real power over who we are. Sure, they can do their absolute best to make our life miserable… even to the point of death… but they can never have the final say. Only God does…
It means we don’t have to be afraid anymore.
Yet, ironically it’s a fearful prospect… because it means we need to let go of our way of seeing the world around us. Maybe we’ve developed a kind of unhealthy dependency on accepting the way the world is… preferring to complain about it, rather than living as people freed from all of that. Like the alcoholic that is afraid to put down the bottle… we’re afraid to let go, and to truly see what resurrected life is truly like. It’s the reason why, some two thousand years later, the proclamation of resurrection is still so incredibly revolutionary. The challenge for us is to be able to let go and to truly embrace the resurrection so we can take the words of Jesus to heart… That’s why we need to hear the story again and again, so that we can learn the truth:
We don’t have to be afraid anymore.
This is why Easter is the brightest day. To borrow a text that is more commonly read at Christmastime, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2) On this brightest day, God calls us to remember what really matters, and to live like it. It’s not enough to say that Easter is the center of our faith, Easter is our faith.
Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed. Praise God!
Amen.
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