Fear and Great Joy

This Easter morning I noticed how Matthew the tax collector described the reaction of the women who discovered that the body of Jesus of Nazareth was not in the borrowed tomb. "So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples." (Matthew 28:8, New Revised Standard Version.) Notice they reacted with fear and great joy, together. We tend to assume that the two things, fear and joy, are mutually exclusive. The presence of one automatically negates the other.

This morning I also read a devotional reading which told of politically imprisoned persons observing Easter while incarcerated. "Today is Resurrection Sunday. My first Easter in prison...In here it is much easier to understand how the men in the Bible felt, stripping themselves of everything that was superfluous. Many of the prisoners have already heard that they have lost their homes, their furniture and everything they owned. Our families are broken up. Many of our children are wandering the streets, their father in one prison, their mother in another." (from Visions of a Hungry World by Thomas G. Pettepiece, as quoted in Rueben P. Job's and Norman Shawchuck's A Guide to Prayer. Upper Room Books, Nashville, 1983. Page 143.) If any situation could be completely fear producing, this certainly was.

However, the testimony goes on to tell how the Christian prisoners gathered together to worship on Easter. They even pantomimed giving and receiving the Lord's Supper, with no bread, no cup, and no wine. In inexplicable gladness and hope overtook these men in bondage. Describing the event, the author wrote, "We gave thanks to God and finally stood up and embraced each other. A while later, another non-Christian prisoner said to me, 'You people have something special, which I would like to have.'" (Page 143.)

Maybe it's when, in the presence of the risen Jesus, fear and joy are not mutually exclusive that a yet-to-be-reached world will take notice and draw near.

I hope everyone has had a joyous and powerful Resurrection Day. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.