“Turning My Fear into Joy”

Mark 16:1-8 - Easter 2006

Let us pray:  Lord Jesus Christ, on this day you were raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death.  Help us to live in the power of the resurrection and experience the new life you provide for us now and into eternity.  Amen.

              Dear friends, grace and peace be with you from our risen and living Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

              I think I know what the women felt like when they went to the tomb, what they were experiencing inside.  Like them, I experienced the fear that comes from the death of a loved one.  Last September, my mother was in the hospital in St. Paul.  She had cancer and had been receiving treatments.  Her strength was withering away and she needed more care than we could give her at home.  We thought she would receive what she needed, get stronger, and return home.  Two weeks went by and, instead of getting stronger, she got weaker, to the point that we had to make the decision to let her go.  Another week went by and I was sitting in my office on Saturday morning, tying up some loose ends before going back up to the cities.  My brother, Rob, called to tell me that things had changed for my mom.  I told him I would be coming up in a few minutes.  I hung up the phone only to have Rob call back one minute later saying that mom was gone.  I thought I was prepared, but I wasn’t as my emotions took me by surprise, choking off my speech.  Fear overwhelmed me at that moment.  You can never really prepare for death.  Like a thief in the night death comes, leaving you feeling numb, empty, and alone.  I know that I am not alone in this experience as many of you have felt the grief and fear that comes from the death of a loved one.

              For the women who came to the tomb where Jesus was laid, they had witnessed his terrible death just three days earlier.  They saw Jesus hanging on the cross in great anguish, bleeding, and in pain.  They saw him breathe his last breath.  They saw Joseph of Arimathea take the lifeless body of Jesus and put it in the tomb hewn out of rock, closing it up with a large stone.  Fear and trembling had seized them.  Their Lord and Master was dead.  Tears of grief closed their eyes to seeing beyond this event.  Cries of anguish blocked out the words of comfort and good news brought to them that morning.  When Mary Magdalene, Salome, and the other Mary brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus, they were unable to comprehend what had happened when they got to the tomb.  The stone had been rolled away.  Who could have moved it?  It was so large and heavy.  But there in the breaking light of a new day the tomb was open.  They looked inside and saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side.  “Do not be alarmed;” the angel-like figure said, “you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has been raised; he is not here.  Look, there is the place they laid him.”  For fear and trembling, the women must not have heard the direct instructions the young man gave to them.  For instead of going to tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee where they could see Jesus for themselves, the women went out and fled the tomb, seized by terror and amazement.  The Bible tells us “They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

              How many times has fear and trembling cut us off from the good news of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead?  We long for this good news of God’s victory of life over death, but death and destruction so often overwhelms us that we loose our faith, we loose all hope.  We become frightened and say nothing to anyone.  To look at our world it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the evil, conflict, death and destruction that are a part of it.  Our world is controlled by the powers of death and darkness.  We must content with war and conflicts, terrorist plots and suicide bombers, with strife and conflicts in so many places.  We hear about violence in our schools, drive-by shootings and senseless killings.  We fear for the safety of our children.  Personal problems such as the loss of jobs, separation and divorce, chemical addictions, illnesses, and yes, death of loved ones can close our eyes to seeing any hope for our world.  Like the women at the tomb, we flee these things with fear and trembling and say nothing to no one.

              Mark’s gospel account of the resurrection is not at all what we may expect or want or hope for on Easter morning.  No, we want trumpet fanfare and Easter lilies, not fear and trembling.  No, not today.  But isn’t that really what our life is often like, filled with fear and trembling?  I know it is as I shared my experience with you.  But the thing that we must remember is that it is in the midst of our fear and trembling, in the face of death and destruction, that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.  Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified has been raised.  Death could not hold him.  Death has been defeated.  Life in God is what rules our lives now.  Jesus is our hope and faith because he is alive and with us in all circumstances of life, sharing with us his loving presence through his Holy Spirit.  He turns our fear into joy, because the power of the resurrection is greater than the powers of sin and death.

              I can’t tell you how thankful I am that Christ was with me at the time of my mother’s death.  Fear and trembling? Yes, but not without hope.  My family, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, we had all been there before, standing at the grave site of loved ones.  With great confidence we proclaimed Jesus’ victory over death.  The promise of life was for her.  She lived in the promise of the resurrection her whole life and allowed that promise to shape his life, to mold her dreams, to give her hope in her greatest hour of need.  She shared this good news with many people over her years, including her own family, “because I live,” Jesus said, “you will live also.”  There is no more powerful force in the world than that promise.  It is the message that we can and must tell to the rest of the world, to our family and friends, our neighbors and acquaintances.  Jesus lives, and so shall we.

              Jim was a middle aged man who suffered a brain aneurism.  It was very unexpected.  There was nothing that could be done, so the family took him off life support.  They expected Jim to die quickly, but for five days his family stood vigil at the hospital waiting for his death.  I went to the hospital to check on Jim and the family.  As I went in the room where Jim was, I was met by a grieving family.  Jim died five minutes before I arrived.  Without saying a word, I held Jim’s wife, and then his daughter, and then his granddaughter.  Each of them trembling and crying.  Death had finally come to their loved one.  After some time had passed by, we gathered around the bed where Jim laid.  It was then that I shared with them what I in turn had received, the good news: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.”  This is the same message that the Apostle Paul shares with us in the second lesson for today.  It is the message that turns our fear into joy, because God has provided us a certain salvation that frees us from “sin, death, and the power of the devil.”  The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the power of our salvation.  It is the hope of the world.  It is the transforming power of God to make all things new.  So let the music be heard.  Let the songs be sung.  He is risen.  He is risen, indeed.  Amen.