He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
Matthew 28:6

Matthew 28:1–10 – Matthew
Easter Sunday – April 12, 2020 (am)
   

A lot of things can frighten us in this life. When I was a child there was a big, abandoned house on an overgrown lot with many broken windows just across the street. My friends said it was haunted! And I believe them. That was [fearful]! When I was even younger there was this big, slobbery bulldog that hung out in front of a convenient story. She would chase my sister and me. Her name was Lady—like no lady I’d ever seen! That was [fearful]! When I became a pastor, I encountered fear on a whole new level, with people—financial reversals that threaten family stability, medical diagnoses that threatened life itself, or quality of life, uncontrolled appetites that swallow up people so completely they wish for death! Losing someone close to you—experiences like this are [fearful]! Coronavirus is [fearful]! These days are so strange….

But things could be worse. Let me ask you, is there someone in your life you respect more than most—a teacher perhaps, a mentor who helped your life come into focus? Can you even imagine watching as that person is tortured to death in a pubic lynching and hanged naked before jeering crowds because of his or her teaching? The question itself isn’t even fit for polite company, is it? Yet that’s the fear the women in today’s text endured. As this scene opens, they were going to visit the grave. 1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. The last ones to leave on Friday evening (27:61) were the first to arrive Sunday morning, after an excruciating Sabbath! Let’s walk with these women through the first few minutes of this new day, as Matthew has described it here.

And I can tell you, their mood changed pretty abruptly just as they were arriving at the gravesite! 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. Many have noted that this angel didn’t need to open the grave so Jesus could get out. He opened it so that these women and those who came later could see in! Jesus was already gone when the stone was rolled back!

Now, about this angel: 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. This sounds like the description of God Himself (Ancient of Days) from Dan.7:9! 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. All this was just too much for these Roman security guards! It seems they fainted dead away!

5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid—they had no cause for fear! Why? 5 … for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. This is what set them apart from the guards: they were here to see Jesus, and that would turn out better than expected! 6 He is not here, said the angel, for he has risen, as he said. He promised to do this! Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” And Jesus had already told them He would meet them there (26:32).

So many points here ring with authenticity. There’s really no chance these women were at the wrong tomb, as so many speculate, unless of course the Romans were also guarding the wrong tomb, and this angel opened the wrong grave! Plus, no one who would’ve made up this story back then would’ve chosen women to be the first witnesses, and especially not these two, one of them having been demonized (Luk.8:2) and the other one being Jesus’ own mother (1, cf. 27:56, 61).

8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. He had a physical body, a prototype of the body we will have once we’re raised at the end of this life (1Co.1535-49), if we’ve trusted Christ as Savior! 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid—again, no need to fear; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” The core group of His brothers had deserted Him just two-and-a-half days prior! (27:56). But this was a whole new day, a new age!

These women were among the first to observe it, and they were amazed at what they saw! Look at v.8 again: So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. That’s an unusual combination of emotions, isn’t it, fear and joy? But if you think about it, this is the usual combination of emotions that flows forth as worship! (9) After all, that which elicits no fear is really not great enough to be worshiped. And that which elicits no joy is really not good enough to be worshiped. Yet, anything in our lives that draws out both fear and joy will stake a claim for our [worship]. And many things do. Our children draw out both of these emotions from us, as we watch them succeed and watch them fail. Our careers, our investments, our homes and cars, our reputations and personal achievements, sometimes even our recreation—anything in our lives can become an idol, something we [worship] instead of God. But the primary candidates are those things that generate both fear and joy.

However, with idols joy and fear work in tension: joy increases as things go well, and fear as they don’t. Idolatry is a zero-sum game; fear and joy don’t come together! Our joy is tethered to that which is precious to us. But that which is precious is also what we most fear to lose. As fear of losing it grows, the joy attached to it fades. So, when these women were leaving this scene with both fear and joy (8), a remarkable thing was happening! Their hearts were fixed on something so good that it brought a great joy (even on this day!); yet it was so great there was no way it could be lost! It awakened a whole new kind of fear—a good fear we might say—not afraid-fear, but more like awe- or reverence-fear!

There’s nothing in this world that’s as good and as great as that, except God Himself! But Jesus, the Son, was God-in-flesh! So, this fear and great joy these women felt was real! It was rooted in something Jesus had just done! He defeated the fear that stands behind all of our other [fears]—He defeated death! The enemy that had never lost a battle just went down! The enemy that deepens and darkens all our [fears]—that convinces us fallen creatures that there really is no hope of true and lasting happiness in this life, no possibility of great joy—was defeated by Jesus on that first Easter morning! Yes, we still die in this fallen world because God has not yet brought it to an end as He promised to do, finishing suffering and sadness and death for all those who trust in Christ as Savior. But the reliability of this promise was placed beyond any reasonable doubt when Jesus kept His promise to rise from the grave on the third day!

He is risen! … Do you know what this means? It means there’s nothing in this life that we truly need to fear! Little Chase Ewoldt need not fear his cancer. Gwen Wright need not fear her MS. My daughter Natalie need not fear her COVID-19. Monica Gray need not fear her loss of Charlie. Parents need not fear their children’s future. None of us need fear this elusive little virus or the havoc it’s wreaking physically, socially, economically! None of us need fear the loss of this life by any means! Jesus’ resurrection makes all this true!

Years ago I served on a school board with a psychiatry professor from Northwestern University. He was fascinated by religion and the role it plays in people’s lives. He loved talking about it. One day we had the opportunity for extended conversation and I got to explain to him the whole gospel, the good news about Jesus—how we were created in the image of God but that image was shattered when the first man and woman sinned and were cut off from relationship with God, a state known as spiritual death which produces physical death. And that awakens all our fear which is rightly attached to that unavoidable reality. Then I took him through the story of Jesus, God-in-flesh, and His crucifixion (Jesus’ death in our place as our substitute sin-Bearer) then His resurrection, ascension, and promised return. He was quiet for a long moment, then he responded in one sentence: If this is true it changes everything. And it is true!

Christ is risen! … This charge from the angel (5), this charge from Jesus (10), do not be afraid, is no empty platitude. It’s not a sentimental well-wish with little connection to reality, like long live the king. It’s a promise of life from the Author of life! It’s a declaration of inheritance from the One Who makes wills and estates obsolete in His coming new world! Life is a reality, an entitlement that is secured irrevocably for all who will place their trust in the solution to our death-ravaged lives that has been accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God! In our day this is a truth of hope—not wish, hope—a secured biblical reality on which we’re awaiting a certain delivery, as certain as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

He is risen! … So, place your trust in Him, my friends, place your trust in Him and do not be afraid!