Reflection on Matthew 28:1-10

Early on in Matthew's gospel Jesus tells his followers:

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?

(Matthew 7:7-9)

Keep that in mind: searching and finding, doors opened, and bread instead of stones, because near the end of Matthew we see Mary Magdalene and the other Mary searching the tomb, the door of the tomb being opened by an angel through the power of an earthquake, and finally the two women finding Jesus, the bread of life, instead of a stone.  “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

“I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised,” the angel declares to the amazed women (Matthew 28:5-6).  Jesus Christ is not dead, but alive!  He has been raised from the dead and he has gone ahead of you!  Alleluia, Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

And, when the women run to tell the disciples all that the angel had said, they have to stop in their tracks because they find that Jesus is right there!  He meets them right there on the road.  “Everyone who searches finds.”  And, seeing their Lord alive, seeing the Lord who has overcome sin and death, seeing the risen Jesus with their own eyes fills them with great joy.  They are filled with so much joy that they simply drop in front of Jesus and worship at his feet.  There is so much joy to be shared over his resurrection.  There is so much joy to be had when new life springs up from dark and dead tombs.  There is so much joy found in our Lord Jesus.

And, we have joy in abundance today!  Our songs are filled with joy!  Our readings are packed full of joy!  The kid’s excitement over Easter has so much joy that it can barely be contained!  And, the promise of life eternal in the eyes of those for whom the prospect of death lingers ever more near sparkles with a deep eternal joy that can only be understood by those who know the reality of death and tombs.

I am right there with you this morning.  I am right there having known the joys of new life and new birth.  I am right there with you, celebrating this promise that death does not get the last word.  I am right there with you in celebrating with some unbridled joy!

But, I am also with those women who fall at Jesus’ feet, because they not only have joy, but they also have fear.

It is easy to miss with all the earthquakes, angels, celebrations, and worship, but it is there.  Just after the angel delivers the good news the Bible says that the women, “left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy” (Matthew 28:8).

I do not think that most of us fully get, or properly understand, that fear is almost always mixed in with joy when something new is taking place. 

Take the birth of a first child.  When you hear those first cries of life, those first breaths from the child, you cannot help but break down in tears of relief and joy and fear.  Because, as you take the child into your arms, it finally sinks in that everything is now different.  Everything is new.  And, how do you raise a little one anyway?  What do you do if they do not stop crying?  The cry that just delivered tears of joy now delivers tears of panic and fear.  You look around the room for help!  The prospect of new life is at the same time filled with joy and a profound fear.

There is nothing right or wrong about it, it just is.

Just the other day I sat with someone who is facing the end of life.  Do not worry, you do not know them.  As we sat and talked they expressed that they have come to a sense of peace and even joy that death would come and they could finally live a new life with Jesus in eternity. 

“I am actually happy about all of that,” they said with a smile.  “But…” they stated, allowing the word to linger in the air.   “But, I am still scared.  Pastor, I am scared.  How can I be joyful and scared at the same time?”

I did not know what to say other than to mention that it is just true.  It is right here is the Holy Scriptures, our source of truth.  The scriptures say that the prospect of new life, of encountering the resurrected life, is full of both fear and joy all at the same time.

People who leave their old, terrible jobs and terrible bosses for a new, better job are filled with both fear and joy, at the same time when they start their new job.  Children who are finally adopted after years of praying and waiting are filled with both fear and joy while going to live with their new parents.  Parents who prayed for a baby are filled with both fear and joy when the baby finally arrives.  People who have suffered pain so severe that they just want it all to end also fear it ending, even if the ending means great, eternal, joy.  Congregations who decide to go in a new, life giving direction are filled with both fear and joy as they venture into new territory, doing new things that they have never done before.  And, the women are filled with both fear and joy as they run to tell the others about the risen Christ.

Do you want to know how Jesus answers our mix of fear and joy when faced with all that is new?  Do you want to know how Jesus addresses the women’s fear and joy?  Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Jesus promises that he is there in Galilee, right where his followers are going.  Jesus promises us that he is right there, waiting ahead of us.  We do not face the future alone!  We do not need to figure it all out by ourselves.  A part of the resurrection promise is that resurrection means being with Jesus.  He is there! 

He is right there in that joyful and fearful future.  He is right there in your future where you know that what is to come will be better, but you are afraid because you do not know what you will do once you are there. 

Jesus promises that he will already be there.  He is the resurrected one.  He is the one who has gone to the other side and returned.  The resurrection promise means that Jesus is in that new place, wherever that may be.  He is at that new job.  He is in that new location.  He is in that new ministry.  He is in that new life.  And, yes, he is there waiting when the pain is finally gone and life is over.  He is there in the resurrected life.

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus promises in John 11:25.  Jesus is there ahead of us.

So, do not be afraid.  Your mix of joy and fear at the prospect of something new is very, very human.  Do not be afraid, rejoice, be filled with joy!  Jesus is going ahead of you into your new life; there you will see him.