THE ROLE OF FEAR IN THE EASTER STORY

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful but overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Matthew 28:8-15

One of the regular sentiments expressed by Jesus in the gospels, either in his words or in his deeds, was some form of these words. “The first shall be last and the last shall be first!”  Today, we see it again – in spades! It was not the male disciples of Jesus who were the first to tell the world that Jesus had risen from the dead, it was his women disciples who told the men about it! That makes women the first “evangelists” – the first to announce the good news to the world that Jesus was indeed still alive! 

The second thing that stands out in this gospel is Jesus’ words to the women, “Do not be afraid.” The text says, they were “fearful, yet overjoyed.” “Do not be afraid” appears more than one hundred times in the Bible, and various forms of the word “fear” more than six hundred times. Surely, there is a reason for this high number.

When asked about the number one issue in her 100,000 letters a year, Ann Landers replied “fear.” Doctors report that 90 percent of their chronic patients have one common symptom — fear.

We are all ruled, to some degree, by fear: fear of poverty, fear of criticism, fear of illness, fear of rejection, fear of growing old, fear of being separated from loved ones, fear of death, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of losing one’s job, fear of death and fear of feeling inadequate — one of the most common fears of all. In general, people seem to be most afraid of two things — pain or death and social rejection or isolation.

No wonder the Scriptures tell us to “not to be afraid” so often! It has been reported that 90 percent of the things we fear never happen, while another nine percent are the things that we often make happen. For instance, a person who has a deep fear of failure may get himself so anxious about failing, he will make himself fail. Even the stock market people have told us that “fear” rather than “facts” has played a major role in pushing the stock market down. That leaves one percent of the things that happen that actually deserve our fear! Jesus was right, “Fear is useless. What is needed is trust.”

After 53 years of ordained ministry, I can say one thing with some degree of certainty — we all grow to resemble the God we believe in. Preachers who are not convinced of the “good news,” the news that we are loved without condition, tend to project their fears into their preaching.  Because they have not yet believed in the love God has for themselves, they keep cranking out messages of fear and punishment.

I grew up listening to these people, and it took me almost 40 years to get their twisted message out of my psyche. Thankfully, I am no longer locked into a religion dominated by fear of punishment.

The response of one who has discovered the good news of God’s love is the reaction one would have to stumbling onto a buried treasure, a perfect pearl or even a long-lost Rembrandt painting at a garage sale. The women in today’s gospel were “afraid, but overjoyed.” People who live in fear, and dread have not yet been perfected in love because love drives out fear. 

Sadly, the typical Christian’s eyes are equally downcast and his heart fear-filled as his non-Christian neighbors. Only a lucky few live with the serene confidence that the triumph of goodness is as certain as the fermentation of yeast in dough. As Jesus told the women, “Do not be afraid!