What to say about the resurrection that has not been said before?
The answer to that is nothing. But good things have to be re-said. And said again.
The question from the text, however, is that the women had to be told twice not to fear. Not because they were weak, but because what they were seeing was so powerful that hardened Legionnaires were frightened. These men were not hardened warriors. When they flee, it is a good sign to be terrified.
And then, again, when they saw Christ — not on a cross, but standing before them, alive, they had to be told not to fear.
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went 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 and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
(Matthew 28:1-10 ESV)
The works of God do not generally cause us to feel joy, but instead fear. They expose our inadequacy. They confront our ideas that we are in any way adequate, in any way the master of our fate.
When the women knew that Christ arose, there was joy: and many pious preachers have talked about this. But before that there was terror. Something bigger than anyone of the actors was happening. Christ conquered death.
And this subverts the teaching of this world, One of the secular saints (St Jobs of Apple) famously put it this way:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Jobs is wrong because death is not some kind of celestial remover of cruft and bugs. It is not a change agent. It is not the inevitable fate of man. It is a consequence of the first fall: we all have eternity in our hearts and know this time is too short.
Jobs is also wrong when he warns about dogma. Dogma is based on theology, and that handmaiden of the queen of sciences, philosophy. For the resurrection is not some mythos: one cannot stake one’s soul on a lie. It is instead a fact: an event.
One that changes everything.
Jobs is wrong about seeking your own path, your own heart, your own intuition. Your heart is desperately wicked and full of evil, and you cannot comprehend the depths of it. You have to question what appears good.
The profound Irony is that Jobs was a control freak at Apple: he bullied, he cajoled, and as a result he made some good stuff: I’d rate the Toy Story movie series as his best work (Apple OS, from the beginning of the MacIntosh, was using solutions made by Unix geeks). He did not let other people’s intuition and needs subvert his own. That made him a successful businessman.
But more often that makes you a bully.
Finally, this world wants us to fear. About the environment, about the other gender, about that we cannot control.
Yet Christ tells us not to fear. Instead to obey his words.
Which we do imperfectly, for we hear these commands from the micromanaging elite — and we think we need to follow them, because we are told that they are mandated as they are good.
But that burden is heavy.
Far better to follow Christ. He demands less things, and those things are far more important than the regulations for recycling.