Easter: On Being Afraid

"Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." (Mark 16:8, NIV)

When we look at the four accounts of the Resurrection story in the four gospels, we see a common thread running through at least three of the four of them; being afraid.

Only three days had passed since their leader, their friend, their brother had been brutally beaten, and publicly put to death. As was the custom in the Jewish faith, these disciples of Jesus waited till after the Sabbath was over to begin the burial rituals as was custom to their faith. But when they came to the place where Jesus had been laid to rest, they found the scene very different from when they had been there just two days prior. The very large stone rolled in front of the tombs entrance was no longer there; the guard(s) which were assigned to watch the tomb had left; the body of Jesus was nowhere in sight; the burial clothes were neatly folded next to where Jesus' body had been laid. Upon taking in all of these visual clues early in the morning on that first day of the week, it really comes as no surprise to me that those first witnesses reacted the way they did; being afraid.

While three of the four gospel accounts of this event treat this feeling of being afraid as a fleeting one, one of the gospel accounts treats it the complete opposite. The gospels Matthew and Luke mention the women and others as being afraid, but that feeling is quickly calmed by the presence of Jesus, speaking to them words of peace (the gospel of John makes no mention of fear, but instead focuses on that peace that the risen Christ brings). The gospel of Mark, however, is strikingly different. There is a messenger at the tomb according to Mark who does try to calm the women's fears, but the way in which the gospel originally ended has the women leaving the tomb very much afraid, and the gospel abruptly ends there (there are more verses after this in the gospel, but it is strongly believed that these verses were added at a much later date, possibly by a different author, possibly in an effort of unify the story to fit with the way the other gospels end). Why in the world would a story about the good news of Jesus being raised from the dead end with the ones who were closest to Jesus being afraid?

To answer that question, it becomes helpful to look at the whole of the gospel; to look at what the real message of God this gospel was trying to convey.

When we begin reading the gospel of Mark, the gospel that is widely accepted as being the first of the gospels to be written, we find that there is no birth narrative; there are no angels, no prophecy of a messiah that is to come, to stable, no manager; there is no miraculous birth. Instead there is a man from a back-water town, in a back-water country who comes to be baptized by the one whom it is told was going to "prepare the way for the Lord" (Mark 1:3, NIV). It is told to us in this gospel that Jesus is from Nazareth, a town in Galilee (1:9, NIV). While we are told in the gospels of Matthew and Luke that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, being from the house and line of David, his family had actually been living in this Galilean town of Nazareth which was located a good distance north of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the place at that time seen as the central location of the Jewish faith. Looking at a map of the area from the Old Testament time of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, Nazareth in Galilee may have been part of the lesser known tribe of Zebulun. Jesus was from a town of what would have been seen as those far removed from the centrality of the Jewish faith; they were outcasts, they were forgotten, and in the eyes of those from the center of the faith, they despised.

Not only, then, does the gospel of Mark tell us this is where Jesus was from, we are also told that this is were Jesus began his ministry, and these were the people he spent doing most of his ministry to. The Good News of Jesus, according to Mark, is for those who are outcast, forgotten, and despised.

With this in mind, we return to our initial question, why in the world would a story about the good news of Jesus being raised from the dead end with the ones who were closest to Jesus being afraid? The young man dressed in a white robe whom the women encounter early that first Easter morning brings them a word of comfort in the midst of their fear answering that very question: "Go, tell his disciples and Peter, '[Jesus] is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you'" (16:7, NIV). In the midst of their fear, the same Jesus that began his ministry to those who are outcast, forgotten, and despised, is going ahead of them to continue to do what he did during his ministry with them.