Exhortation, Easter Sunday

�That Easter day with joy was bright; the sun show out with fairer light, when to their wondering eyes restored, the glad apostles saw their Lord.�E So wrote a Latin poet of the fourth century.

Joy, however, is not the only emotional note in the gospel accounts of Easter. Alongside joy, there is fear, and lots of it. The guards at the tomb �shook for fear�Ewhen Jesus came from the grave with his �appearance . . . like lightning, and his garment as white as snow�E(Matthew 27:3-4). The women too, when they heard the announcement, ran to the twelve �with fear and great joy.�E Mark is more blunt: the women �went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid�E(Mark 16:8). And Luke tells us that when the women saw the angels at the tomb, they �were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground�E(Luke 24:5), and when Jesus later appears to the Twelve, �they were startled and frightened and thought that they had seen a spirit�E(24:37).

That poet was right: Easter is a day of gladness. Before it was a day of gladness, though, it was a day of terror. This shouldn�t surprise us, and it wouldn�t surprise us except that we have domesticated the resurrection. In most contexts, it�s not good news when a corpse comes back to life. It�s uncanny. It is not the stuff of fairy tales and bedtime stories. It�s the stuff of horror movies.

Easter is terrifying especially to Jesus�Eenemies, as it is to all tyrants. The limit of a tyrant�s power is the power to kill. Tyrants torture and harass, but their trump card is to threaten death. What can the tyrant do when that doesn�t work, when the people they kill keep popping back to life or when others keep returning to take their places? Easter is definitely not good news to tyrants, because it demonstrates that they are not in control. If our proclamation of Easter does not make Caesar tremble on his throne, we are not preaching Easter.

For the disciples of Jesus, however, fear is only the penultimate emotion of Easter. For the disciples, perfect joy casts out fear. The final word for believers is not a word of condemnation or a sentence of death, but a promise of life and a declaration of forgiveness. For us, the ultimate word of Easter is not �they were afraid.�E It is the command of Jesus, �Fear not; it is I.�E

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, March 27, 2005 at 07:51 AM

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