So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word

 

 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 yesterday's reading, we were told that many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar at the Crucifixion, 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.  My study Bible comments that the earthquake is a sign of our Lord's great victory over death, which foreshadows the general resurrection of all humanity.  It asks us to note that the angel does not roll back the stone to let the Lord out, for in Christ's glory, He could pass through solid rock and so does not need the stone to be rolled away (see John 20:19).  Rather, this allows the witnesses in to see that Christ has already risen.  Note also how the brilliance of the angel is evocative of the language describing Christ's appearance as the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:3, Luke 9:29).

 

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.  My study Bible comments that these women are the first witnesses of the supreme event in all history:  the Resurrection of Christ and the destruction of death.  The angel refers to Christ as the One who was crucified, teaching us not to shy away from Christ's death, but rather to glory in the Cross (1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 6:14), which is the weapon Christ used to destroy death and the trophy of Christ's victory.  In the liturgical services of the Orthodox Church celebrating the Resurrection, it is sung hundreds of times:  "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life."  St. Paul writes, "If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile" (1 Corinthians 15:17).  

 

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."  Rejoice! is the same greeting given to Mary by Gabriel at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-28); it is the same word given by Christ to His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount in the plural (as here), when He says, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11-12).  

 

 Look at this juxtaposition of words in response to the Resurrection, as the women run from the tomb to tell the disciples what has happened, and that He will meet them in Galilee:  they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy.   Such a mixture of emotions is rare for us to discern in a modern age:  simultaneously both fear and great joy!  We must discern that this combination tells us about the level of "awe" in this event which, if we had not heard the story so frequently already, would be an unimaginable outcome.    St. Paul said of the Crucifixion, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God," and, "For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-25).  This reaction, after witnessing the Crucifixion, and now receiving the message at the tomb, of fear mixed with great joy, is the power of the Cross at work in them -- the dawning of this great power and wisdom of God found in both the "foolishness of God" and the "weakness of God."  One experiences fear in the face of the unknown, but great joy is found in the loving gestures of God, in which God comes to be known to us, and thus is produced by the truth of Christ and the great good news of the gospel.  For, as St. Paul has said, without the fullness of this great revelation, we just don't have the full story of our faith.  In the fullness of the truth is found both fear and great joy.