Easter helps us deal with change, whether you believe or not
The Gospel of Matthew bears witness to Mary Magdalene and another woman who went to see Jesus’ tomb two days after his crucifixion on Calvary. They feel an earthquake and confront an angel in a moment of terrible fear.
“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified,” the angel tells them. “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.”
Running in panic from the cemetery, the women see Jesus himself and their fright worsens. “Do not be afraid,” he says, “go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Matthew is believed by most scholars to be the work of second-generation Christians describing the central moment of their faith at a time when the church formed around Jesus and his followers was increasingly separate from Judaism. It was something new.
Fear is a central part of the story. Christians were evolving from heretics who believed Jesus was the Jewish messiah. After the Romans sacked Jerusalem and David’s Temple to end a revolt by Zealots, the center of Judaism became less important to followers of Jesus spreading out across the Mediterranean world.
And those converts were increasingly seen as suspicious because they stopped worshipping their old gods, and started worshiping one God in the form of a dead carpenter. Persecutions began, as did fights within the church as struggles for identity continued.
Matthew points directly to the fear felt by those women at the tomb. An earthquake and an angel dressed in brilliant white are rightly presented as terrifying, and the appearance of Jesus — executed as a criminal on the cross — would have been enough to make them run for their lives.
The greatest fear is there too, though: God come to earth as a human personification of infinite power offering the choice of eternal life or damnation.
For Christians then, Easter is the moment of decision, belief or disbelief.
It is more than that as well, this year, whether you believe in Jesus or not.
The last year has seen an incredible flowering of new ways to worship for Christians and followers of all faiths. Zoom sermons and choral performances shared at home have created a path for many who find it difficult to make it to church in the best of times.
As this Easter brings a resumption of in-person services — small in number and still separated by masks and social distance precautions — it seems hard to imagine that some of those adaptions to keep the faithful together will fade from use.
Those same new connections have affected all of us, in good ways and bad. We feel more isolated, and many of us feel less secure, no matter how much we video conference.
There is good reason to be fearful today, and not only of the omnipotent power of judgment represented by the words in the Gospel of Matthew.
We should be fearful about a resurgence of the virus unless those around us take precautions seriously.
There is ample reason to fear political extremism and violence unless we work together to find resolutions for the most pressing issues facing our nation and our world.
For those who believe in Jesus’ resurrection, the world was never the same after that event as recounted in Matthew. It is a story not only of fear but, ultimately, of joy.
For all of us, Easter can be a reminder that the world continues to change. It is important for all of us to overcome our fears and take the opportunity that change presents then move forward together.
Happy Easter.