With Fear and Great Joy
Matthew 27:55-28:10
April 9, 2023
Emmanuel Baptist Church; Rev. Kathy Donley
Note: A recording of the worship service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQI3-MVWkmU
In a good news/bad news situation, some people tend to focus on the bad news.
Here’s how I remember report cards growing up: I would bring home a listing of grades and comments from my teachers. I would bring it home. It would not be sent to my parents by email, because I went to school before email even existed. I generally did pretty well in school, so fairly often, I might get something like all A’s and a B. The B might have been in art or social studies. When my parents looked at the whole report, the first thing they would say would be “What went wrong in social studies? Why didn’t you get an A there?” Or if I got all A’s, but if there was a comment like “Kathy does fine, but she talks too much and distracts the other students” (hypothetically speaking, that’s not like a real-life example or anything) but if that kind of comment was on the card with straight A’s, the comment is only the part my parents would focus on. “Hello Mom and Dad, did you see all the A’s here? Any thing you want to say about that?”
Now my parents aren’t here to defend themselves, so I’m going to point out that this my memory of the report card ritual. They might remember it differently. And maybe I remember it the way I do because in a good news/bad news scenario, I also have a tendency to give more weight, more attention to the bad news.
On several occasions, Jesus delivered the same good news/bad news to his disciples. At least three times, along the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, he told them that he was going to Jerusalem where he would suffer and be killed. That was, of course, the very bad news. But every time he told them that, he also said that on the third day, he would be raised from the dead. Most of them got stuck on the bad news. Most of them never even heard the good news.
But some of them did. Remember that there are more than twelve disciples. There were twelve named apostles, but they were within a larger group who followed Jesus. Remember that not all the disciples are male. Several women started the adventure with Jesus back in Galilee. People said “Can anything good out of Nazareth, Jesus’ home town?” But they followed Jesus anyway. They stuck with him through adoring crowds and hostile opposition, through nights on the road and meals by the wayside. Matthew says that the women provided for Jesus. Luke explains that they were his financial backers. These women travelled with him. They were there when he said he was going to Jerusalem. They stuck with him all the way to the cross. They watched in agony as he suffered and died. How did they endure it? But that was not all. They stayed to see his body taken down from the cross. They watched as Joseph of Arimathea carefully wrapped it and placed in the tomb and rolled the stone in front of it.
But even after Jesus is buried, they are not done. They come back on Sunday morning, to see the tomb. Please notice the way that Matthew tells the story. Unlike in some other gospels these women are not carrying spices. As they walk, they are not asking who will roll away the heavy stone that seals the tomb. This is because they are not coming to mourn. They are not coming to anoint a body. They come to the tomb because they believe the good news part of Jesus’ good news/bad news message. They heard Jesus say that he would be raised on the third day and they believe it.
The women come to see the tomb. The Greek word translated “to see” is theoreo. It is the root of our word, theory. It means to analyze or discern, to look at something for a purpose or to find out by seeing. The women come to the tomb to find out how and when Jesus will be raised. They come with anticipation and expectation.
They go to see resurrection. They arrive in time to experience an earthquake.
Here’s what I understand about earthquakes. Tectonic plates are these big pieces of the earth that are always slowly moving. When two plates rub up against each other, the pressure builds along their intersection and when that friction is resolved, it leads to a release of energy which we feel as an earthquake. That energy is often disruptive and sometimes destructive. It can reduce magnificent buildings and re-order the landscape.
Foreshocks are small earthquakes that happen before a big one. Matthew describes foreshocks before the Resurrection. When Jesus enters the city on Palm Sunday, Matthew says that the whole city was shaking. And then again on Friday, when Jesus takes his last breath, the earth shakes and rocks are split. The tension has been building. The tectonic plate that is the kin-dom of God is drawing closer and closer to the tectonic plate that represents the worst of humanness – our fear, our selfishness, our grasping for power, our sin. As they rub up against each other, the friction increases, the energy leaks out, the earth rumbles a warning of what is coming.
The women are at the tomb when the Big One hits. The earth quivers and quakes and heaves. The guards shake and fall in a dead faint. The women stand unmoved. An angel appears and rolls away the stone and shows the women what they came to see – the body is gone. Jesus is risen. The angel says “Do not be afraid because Jesus has been raised.” Just like he said. Just as you believed.
“So go tell the disciples”, the angel says, “that Jesus has been raised and is going ahead of you and will meet you in Galilee.” The women immediately obey, leaving the tomb with fear and great joy. With fear and great joy.
Of course they are afraid. They watched Jesus die an unspeakable death. That trauma and horror are never going to leave them. They just lived through an earthquake and survived a conversation with a supernatural being. Of course the are a bit trembly.
But how great is their joy! Their friend and teacher is alive. It is surreal, but true. In raising him from the dead, God has vindicated him. He was right all along. And they were right to trust him, to believe his message.
Fear and great joy. Fear and joy. I wonder if this is what it has always meant for then to follow Jesus. Fear of the getting a reputation as one of those irregular women who don’t stay in their place, joy at being fully included, accepted by Jesus. Fear that it all might fall apart or turn out to be a scam. Joy with every insight gained from his teaching. Joy at bearing witness to profound healing. Fear when he insisted on Jerusalem. Great joy that they believed his entire good news/bad news message and he is alive. Fear and great joy are part and parcel of the adventure they have with Jesus.
Matthew is holding up the women as model disciples. They serve Jesus. They stick with him. They believe him. They demonstrate the courage that most of the male disciples lack.
Rome was strategic in its use of crucifixion. “The victim was paraded through the streets on the way to the place of torture. This perp walk to Golgotha was intended to tempt supporters to step forward to defend the victim. If anyone did, they would immediately be crucified as well. And of course, no one did. Would-be supporters were made to discover their cowardice. THAT was the point. Crucifixion was intended to prevent rebellion by teaching would-be rebels that they were cowards who did not dare to defend their leader.”[1]
The men fled Thursday night when Jesus was arrested, but the women stuck with him until he died. They watched his burial. And at dawn on the third day, with Roman soldiers guarding the tomb, they went back alone. It was very dangerous to be associated with someone Rome had tortured to death, but they did it anyway. This is courage of true discipleship.
A Cheyenne proverb says “The people are never defeated until the hearts of the women are on the ground.”
The gospel writers all agree that women were the first to bear witness to the resurrection, the ones sent to tell the men. At the center of our faith story, is this day when the hearts of the women were not on the ground.
And lest you suspect me of sexism, I will quickly recognize Joseph of Arimathea. The corpses of those crucified were generally left to rot, exposed to the elements and animals. Another part of the terror and humiliation. So when Joseph steps forward to ask for Jesus’ body in order to bury him, he also risks guilt by association. His courage is like the women’s.
Following Jesus requires courage -- both before and after resurrection. The women are still afraid even after they know Jesus is alive. They feel the fear and tell their truth anyway.
If you have lost your sense of adventure with Jesus, if fear is crowding out your joy, I understand. It is hard, probably even unreasonable, to think that we can sustain Easter morning delight 24/7. We remember that the One we follow intimately knows the terror of Good Friday and every kind of human pain, and is present with us to share them. But if fear or loneliness or sorrow or pain is threatening our joy, then perhaps we can draw strength from the courage of Joseph and Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who acted despite their fear.
It takes courage to live in light of resurrection. The resurrection is disruption on a cosmic scale. The ground has shifted under our feet. The very earth is re-arranged. Nothing can go back to the way it was before. You cannot have resurrection and also still have the world as it was yesterday.[2]
Life lived in light of resurrection breaks the status quo. It looks death in the face without flinching. It listens to women and children and others who tend to be silenced. It redistributes power. It summons us to continue the work that Jesus started.
Life lived in light of resurrection is courageous and free. The resurrection is an earthquake. It changes everything. And so we live, with fear and great joy. Because Christ is Risen. Christ is risen indeed.
[1] Richard Swanson, https://provokingthegospel.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/a-provocation-easter-sunday-april-16-2017-matthew-281-10/
[2] William Willimon, “Easter as an Earthquake”, Pulpit Resource, April 4, 1999