Easter Is For Fear and Great Joy Matthew 28:1-10

Matthew’s Easter story takes us way beyond bunnies, chocolate eggs, and hooray for daffodils. It is up to the shocking message, “He is not here. He is risen!”

We think there is nothing more permanent than death and taxes. And death is the end of it all.

That’s the way we are programmed to think in this world of test and verify—of SpaceX and generative AI.

Matthew’s Gospel story follows two Marys.

They, like us, are obviously full of doubt. But Matthew’s telling suggests there is something else working away inside them. In Mark the women come looking for a corpse to anoint. Matthew omits that detail, and the angel knows they are looking for Jesus—not a corpse.  Matthew probably guesses that these women, despite misgivings, come to see whether Jesus’ incredible predictions came true. They come to see the tomb, and perhaps, just perhaps, it may indeed be empty.

In other words, these two woman  are willing to let their assumptions of the finality of death be punctured in a holy way by signs of God’s power over the forces of death.

This willingness is then met by a divinely given burst of positive emotional energy.

You see, these women are there at the tomb, but not the male disciples. They scattered in Gethsemane, Matthew tells us. That’s what Satan does. He scatters.

But the God of the Bible gathers. And one of Matthew’s main points the Gospel is that the leading edge of God’s gathering is done through those who are weak. The Lord once said to the Apostle Paul, in answer to his many pleas for divine intervention, to take away Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” And so it’s not the Herods, or the High Priest, or Pilate, who channel God to us. It’s lepers, demoniacs, children, and women. In other words, those who have thorns of many kinds in their flesh.

And in Matthew it is especially those who aid others who are weak—who Jesus notes as having “great faith”—that will pass muster in the final judgment.

So, we find out what Easter celebration, and proper worship should look like when the miraculous angel says, “He is not here, he is risen, NOW GO!” The two Marys quickly do “with great fear and joy.”

It’s a good mixture of fear and joy that spices good worship and good lives. Both the angel and Jesus say “Don’t be afraid,” because there is such a thing as fear that saps trust in God—fear that paralyzes. Joyful fear is fear of the God of love alone. That kind of fear frees us from fear of bullies in school, bullies in the office, and bullies in government. Worshipping God with fear and great joy frees us to know nothing can kill us because we have already died to sin and evil in our trust and in our baptismal journeys. We have been raised again to live lives of compassionate courage.

And fearful joy turns shallow faith into truly genuine faithfulness. We don’t whistle our faith in the spooky old churchyard, or wear our religion like a costume, but we joyfully do our best and leave the rest to a just and loving God.

Yes, God laid the foundation for the church on our crucified Lord. But the very next layer was made up of women who dared to see if Jesus’ promises are true, and who then responded rightly in fear and great joy.

Because they did go and witness to the men, the men woke from their fear, the church grew, and the church goes on growing, sometimes mysteriously, to this day.

But women and children and lepers and demoniacs and people who help people aren’t the only ones who are weak and powerless. We all have our moments. We all have times when we tell ourselves, “You aren’t good enough. No one really loves you. You are losing your edge. You are getting old. You haven’t much time left.” And all these voices scare us and take away our sleep…our breath…our trust in God.

In the final analysis what does it take to not fear, but come to the tomb, or to the church, and celebrate the good news, “Christ is Risen?”  Is it helpful to ask, “Did he literally walk out of that tomb? Did he rise into the air? Can I, or anyone else prove it?”

Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” show us:  Go quickly in fear and great joy. Get busy loving people in Jesus’ name. Then and there you WILL SEE HIM!