Rejoice!

 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.  And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.  His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.  And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.  But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay.  And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him.  Behold, I have told you."  So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.  And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!"  So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.  Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me."

- Matthew 28:1-10

In our current readings, we are in Jerusalem and it is Holy Week.  Jesus has been crucified, and many signs accompanied His death.  Yesterday, we read that many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.  Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him.  When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which  he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.  And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.  On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.'  Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.'  So the last deception will be worse than the first."  Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how."  So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard. 

 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.  And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.  His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.  And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.  But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay.  And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him.  Behold, I have told you."  So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.    And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!"  So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.  Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me."  My study bible says that the earthquake is a sign of our Lord's great victory over death.  It foreshadows the general resurrection of all of humanity.  Neither the angel nor Christ need the stone to be rolled in order to make an appearance or to pass through its entrance (see John 20:19).  The opening to the tomb allows the witnesses in to see that He's already risen.  The ministering women are the first witnesses of what my study bible calls the most supreme event in all history -- the Resurrection of Christ and the destruction of death.  The angel, in referring to Jesus as the One who was crucified, teaches us not to shy away from His death, but rather to glory in the Cross as the weapon which destroyed death, and as the trophy of Christ's victory.  My study bible quotes St. Paul:  "If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile" (1 Corinthians 15:17). 
  
Jesus' greetings to the women, "Rejoice!" is the same greeting given by Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation to her of that she would become pregnant and bear Jesus Christ into the world.  Here it is the greeting of Resurrection, the good news that has been the truth about Jesus from first to last.    It's interesting that these are greetings to women; to Mary the Mother of Christ, and to Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary."  "Rejoice" remains a greeting in modern Greek, used like a formal "hello" or "greetings."  But in the text, to "Rejoice" is also a command, and it's a command related to the good news of the birth of the Messiah, and of Christ's Resurrection.  Joy is an important and crucial element of our faith.  It's related to giving thanks, another central fact of our worship and our understanding of who we are.  The word Eucharist comes from the Greek verb to "give thanks."  My study bible tells us that we are not to shrink from His death, but to rejoice in the Cross as an instrument of victory.  One reason we rejoice, and we give thanks, is for the power of God's love that turns everything via faith into an instrument of victory.  It is the transfiguring power of this new covenant that gives meaning to the good news, allows us to rejoice and give thanks at all times.  The gift that we have received is one that allows us to go through our own difficulties with the spirit of victory.  It is Resurrection that defines what our lives are about.  We can't always know the outcome of any form of loss, or hardship, or setback.  What we can know is confidence in the Cross as weapon of death turned into weapon of victory over death, and thereby over evil.  When we make the sign of the Cross, when we understand the power of the Cross, then what we put our faith in is that transfiguring power over which no evil holds sway.  We carry it in our hearts as the ultimate sign of God's work and God's covenant.  To rejoice even when things are bleak is to look to God's love, to have confidence in the Cross and in what we have seen and known.  Christ's greeting is one of joy; let Him remain in us and among us at all times, and in our hearts with thanksgiving.  The power of the Cross does not teach us that the world is a perfect place, nor does it tell us that what is good and beautiful and true conforms to the ideals of "success" society may seem to demand.   Rather we learn renewal, the unexpected, the grace that is suddenly real and powerful.    It has the capacity to permeate circumstances we thought too hard to let anything in.  Let us remember always the word of Resurrection and life, "Rejoice!" His Resurrection becomes a part of all of our lives, all the time, in always new ways.