Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."
- Matthew 28:1-10
One of the risks we face is that, having heard these stories so many times, they become too familiar. It’s like watching a movie for the tenth time – you know what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen and, because of that, it loses that element of surprise it had on the first viewing. This familiarity can cause us to overlook the power and beauty these stories contain. Imagine that you have never heard the story of the Resurrection before. You’re watching the news and hear a story reporting that followers of Jesus, who had been executed for treason a few days before, are saying that he has come back to life. How would you react? Most of us would probably think his followers had gone crazy and were imagining things.
Now imagine what it would have been like for the women who discovered the empty tomb. Already filled with emotion over the death of Jesus, who they thought had come to free Israel from the Romans, they are met at the tomb by an angel who tells them that Jesus has been raised from the dead and that they will see him again. Their heads must have been spinning. It’s difficult to imagine what it was like to swing from one emotional extreme to the other so quickly. In fact, it is probably safe to say that they did not fully believe the angel right away. That could explain why Jesus decides to appear to them as they run back to the other disciples. It was his way of assuring them that what the angel had said was true.
Jesus’ resurrection is at the heart of our Christian faith. As St. Paul states, “And if Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.” (1 Corinthians 15:14) It is the belief that Jesus not only died for our sins but then conquered death by rising from the dead on the third day which gave the earliest Christians the courage to proclaim him as the Messiah. If Jesus had not risen, he would have simply been another charismatic preacher who shared his message and then faded from the scene. Instead, because of his resurrection, we know that Jesus truly was who he said he was – the Son of God who had come into this world to save us. It is the Resurrection which assures us that our faith is not in vain. We do not worship a dead man lying in a tomb. Rather, we worship a living God who so loved us that he gave his life for each of us. Alleluia!