From Fear to Joy

What we call Good Friday was really Bad Friday for the followers of Christ. On that day, all hope extinguished with Jesus’ gruesome death on the cross. Overwhelmed with fear, sadness, and loss, they fled behind locked doors and feared for their lives. Jesus’ abrupt end left them bereft of purpose.

On that dark Friday afternoon, two secret disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus, came out of hiding to claim Jesus’ body. Carefully, they took it down and carried it to a new tomb along with seventy-five pounds of spices. Then they wrapped the body in strips of linen, applying the spices between the wraps.  They did their work hurriedly because, with sundown, the Sabbath began. Then, early before the sun emerged on Sunday, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, brought their spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body. They fretted about the stone that blocked the entrance to the grave, but they did not expect to find Jesus alive or the tomb empty. 

According to Matthew, an angel descended from heaven, causing an earthquake, and he rolled back the stone (Matt 28:2-3), not for Jesus, but those who would inspect the tomb. Upon seeing the angel, the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb were parlayed with fear. The angel’s appearance was frightening as he sat upon the stone as if to say, “Who can hold God’s hand back?”

The women were struck with fear upon seeing the celestial being, but the angel calmed the women with his words. As they listened, their emotions changed from fear to joy and delight, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matt 28:5-6). The angel declared with authority that Jesus is alive and that he is not in the tomb. Come and examine it for yourselves, he said. He identified Jesus as the same Jesus, who was crucified. The heavenly messenger invited the women to observe the evidence “Come and see the place.” These two followers needed time to process what they were hearing and seeing.   

The women obeyed the angel’s command: So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Matt 28:8-10). What was it like for those two women to see Jesus alive in his resurrected body? It had to be incredible because they fell at his feet and worshiped him and could hardly take in what they were experiencing. They came to prepare his body for burial, and now he stood before them alive. No wonder Matthew says their emotions changed from fear to great joy.

We are living out something that we have never experienced before in our lifetime. Who could have imagined a few weeks ago that the entire world would shut down? Who could have anticipated that we would be battling a pandemic that would spread fear far and wide? COVID-19 may be new, but the fear it produces is as old as civilization. The greatest fear of humanity is death. Each morning we see the death toll rise, and we feel more fear. There is, however, only one person who ever conquered death, and his name is Jesus. He was raised from the dead, and God’s Word promises those who put their faith in Jesus will also be raised from the dead. That is why we celebrate Easter!

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Don’t Panic!

Don’t Panic! Stay Calm! It’s not hard to stay calm when everything is peaceful, but the test is staying calm when others are in a panic. It is terrifying to witness a crowd in panic, irrationally acting out of fear with each person following another person in flight. That is what we are seeing around the world with COVID-19—empty shelves in grocery stores, limits on buying essential items—all point to the panic of hoarding. We can, however, refuse to be part of the fear-driven-pandemonium.

The Apostle Paul recognized that the temptation to panic was real for the Philippians during a difficult time. They faced oppression and hardship, so he urged them to rise above it. When the Philippians were going through persecution and fear was all around, Paul said to them: “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27). Like the Philippians, we don’t know what will happen, and we are pretty sure bad things will continue to happen.  Paul’s “Whatever happens,” takes in everything! While many people panic, we remain steadfast and conduct ourselves in a manner that sets us apart from the fearful crowd.

Remembering who we belong to is the best way to stay calm in this pandemic. We belong to Christ; consequently, we are citizens of heaven. We don’t have to be frightened or intimidated. We can be united and stand firm in our attitude and actions. No matter what the circumstances, as Christians, we still remain citizens of heaven. Our past need not impede us, nor the future paralyze us even though fearful people surround us. In Christ, we are set free from it. We are not hopeless, no matter how bleak it may appear because we know God.

Job shows us what confidence in God does for us in times like these, “But he knows the way that I take;

when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Job didn’t know what the future held, but it didn’t matter because he trusted that God knew what he is doing.

Embracing a Biblical theology of suffering is essential to stay calm. If you ever heard that when you come to Christ all your problems, go away, you heard a distortion of the truth. The Christian life is a series of struggles, and because of that, we experience emotional and physical stress.

How we view that suffering is incredibly important to how we go through it. If our theology is wrong, we will obsessively question why we suffer, thus adding to our anxiety. The Early Church had a clear view of suffering: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:2). How about your perseverance? Is it growing? Are you calm and trusting in the Lord as you go through this time of testing? Are you living as a citizen of heaven? Remember we have so much to look forward to as citizens of heaven. In heaven, there will be no more quarantine and no more locked doors: “Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night” (Isaiah 60:11). (Next Sunday morning I will deliver an Easter message on Facebook).