Apr 15 2020 Matthew 28:1-16

Do not be afraid.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary have gone to Jesus’ tomb, only to discover no body. They are met instead by an angel, who first says, ‘do not be afraid’, and then explains that Jesus isn’t there, but has been raised. I would likely be afraid if I even went into a tomb a few days after a person who’d died, and even more so if I encountered what they did. No wonder it’s the first thing the angel said.

So they go as requested to tell the other disciples. On the way, they encounter the risen Jesus. He offers his greetings, and like the angel, says “do not be afraid”. Now I’m certain I’d be frightened by that time.

I have been told, although I’ve never counted, that this is the phrase that Jesus repeats more than anything else in Scripture. As Jesus followers, that should greatly inform how we live. Shouldn’t we be a people without fear? Shouldn’t we at least try?

I think Jesus says this so frequently because fear grabs hold of us, and decimates all of our other good virtues. For example, love is sometimes conditioned or minimized, if we fear something about of for the person we love. I fear how a family member will behave, so my capacity to love is hampered by things I conjure up.

Hope is really messed up by fear. I have many hopes about what I’m going to do in the next decade. I have hopes about our country navigating this pandemic. At the same time, I am fear-full about my family and country. It’s hard to hold out hope, when it’s competing with gut-wrenching fear.

Charity is another trait that is hard to maintain with fear. For example, I generally don’t give money to panhandlers, even though I have enough and regardless of their motives, they do not. But I don’t do it, because I fear what they’ll do with the money, and then I’ll be testy about my charity. I’d rather not set myself up for that unChristain, uncharitable response, so the loser is charity. Fear wins.

There is a lot of Christian talk and songs and sermons about love. This morning, I’m thinking about refocusing my meditations and prayers around fear, since it is what Jesus said most. What would my life look like if I really could lose the fear? Fear about the future of my family, my job, my city, my country, my world? What if as Christians, we were known as a people without fear? Not that things around us can’t be frightening, but that we have a greater trust and faith in God’s mercy and justice and comfort, so the frightening things didn’t change our behavior.

The Marys who went to the tomb clearly must have been frightened, by both the angel in the tomb, and by Jesus’ appearance. But they did not let that stop them. They did not let fear take hold and change their beliefs or behavior. Today, I want to think about what that would look like. They will know we are Christians because we are not afraid.