“So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” -- Matthew 28:8
The Revised Common Lectionary provides two options for the Gospel text this coming Sunday, the Resurrection of Our Lord (i.e., Easter Sunday): Matthew 28:1-10 and John 20:1-18. The Matthew 28 reading recounts Mary and Mary’s experience at Jesus’ tomb; the women are confronted by an angel, told that Jesus has been raised from the dead, sent to tell the disciples, confronted by Jesus himself, and then dispatched on their way.
Not your typical morning.
Since reading this story several weeks ago, I have been haunted by one particular phrase from the text. In verse eight, after having been instructed by the angel to tell the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection, we are told that Mary and Mary “left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy.” These two human emotions -- fear and great joy -- are usually conceived of as being mutually exclusive. That is, a person either experiences fear or she experiences great joy, but not both simultaneously. These women, however, confronted with the earth-shattering reality of Jesus’ resurrection do in fact experience a commingling of these seemingly disparate emotions. For me, this raises an interesting question. But first, a brief aside.
The “fear” Mary and Mary experience is fear as commonly understood: fright, terror, disquiet, & c. Although it is not uncommon to translate “fear” as “awe” or “reverence” in the biblical text, the context of the word in this verse leaves no doubt about the proper interpretation. The Greek word for fear used in verse eight, phobou, which can be translated as either “terror” or “reverence” is almost identical, etymologically speaking, to the word used three times in the surrounding text as an imperative verb: “Do not be afraid.” All this is to say that yes, Mary and Mary were actually scared. End of nerd section.
Back to my question: In what situations (or the anticipation thereof) have I experienced fear and great joy simultaneously? Last night I posed the question to the group of high school students gathered for youth group. Answers ranged from graduation (fear of the unknown and next steps, great joy at marking a significant life milestone), to traveling abroad this summer (fear of mishaps and unknowns, great joy at potential for unforgettable experiences).
For my part, the first thing that comes to mind is my upcoming wedding. To be honest, being married scares the snot out of me (what am I getting myself into?!) and at the same time it brings me deep, nearly unspeakable joy. The description of Mary and Mary’s emotional response to the resurrection is so blunt and concise that it’s almost hard to believe it can describe such a complex human emotion -- and yet it does.
This Sunday, among all the pomp and circumstance that an Easter celebration brings, I invite you to take stock of your emotions. Identify those things in your life that bring you fear and great joy. And then, whenever “He is risen indeed” escapes your lips, imagine not only great joy, but fear as well. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, as one student brilliantly quipped last night, is not a novelty. It is joyous, dreadful, magnificent, and terrifying all at once. So like Mary and Mary, may Jesus’ resurrection imprint our hearts with fear and great joy this Easter morning.
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