Paralysed
by Fear, Liberated by Love
Reflections
on Mark 16.1-8
RCL
Easter B
1
April 2018
Saint
Faith’s Anglican Church
Mark 16.1-8
16.1 When the sabbath was
over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices,
so that they might go and anoint him. 2
And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went
to the tomb. 3 They had been
saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance
to the tomb?” 4 When they
looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been
rolled back. 5 As they
entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the
right side; and they were alarmed. 6
But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth,
who was crucified. He has been raised;
he is not here. Look, there is the place
they laid him. 7 But go, tell
his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you
will see him, just as he told you.” 8
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized
them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
(1)
Have you ever been paralysed by fear?
I have.
(a) I find it quite easy to write a difficult
e-mail or a letter when the situation presents itself.
(b) I can even give a public talk on a
controversial topic to a large group of people and handle all the difficult
questions that may come my way at the end.
(c) But I become almost frozen into inaction if I
have to talk to an individual, whether on the telephone or in person, about
matters of a more personal and possibly confrontational nature.
(i) I’m sure that my discomfort comes from the
personal immediacy of the encounter.
(ii) Will the person become confrontational? Will they become emotional? Will I fail to speak the truth in love? Will I open a can of worms that will expose
my own inadequacies and my own failures in the relationship?
(2)
But I also know the consequences of allowing my fears to control me.
(a) In some cases a delay may cause more harm to
a relationship than intervening sooner.
(b) In other cases my delay can cause a situation
to move from being ‘fixable’ to becoming so ‘toxic’ that there is little chance
for any positive or constructive outcome.
(c) And in all cases I become more controlled by
my fears and I can slip into an unhelpful passive attitude or even a kind of
despair.
(3)
Knowing the real and concrete power of fear in my life, I can understand
how Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome felt on that Sunday morning
so long ago.
(a) During the past week they have experienced
the excitement of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his dramatic confrontations
with the religious authorities.
(b) They have borne the sorrow of Jesus’ arrest,
trial, torture and execution at the hands of the religious and civil
authorities as well as their own terror of being ‘found out’ and arrested
themselves.
(c) But they overcome their fears and come to the
tomb to offer Jesus’ body all the loving dignity that their rabbi, their
master, deserves.
(d) But is it any wonder that they cannot do what
the young man dressed in white asks them to do?
(i) Who is going to believe three women that the
tomb is empty? Women, after all, were
considered ‘incompetent’ witnesses who could not be called to give evidence in
a religious or civil court.
(ii) Who is going to believe that a Jewish rabbi
from small-town Judea, publicly executed by the Romans, entombed behind a
massive stone door on a Friday afternoon, has been raised from the dead?
(iii) And most importantly, who wants to be the
messenger who tells the world that the old order is about to be shaken to its very
foundations?
(1) The religious authorities wanted Jesus dead
because they considered him a blasphemer who threatened the religious
establishment. How are they going to
take the news that the heretic has been raised from dead?
(2) The civil authorities wanted Jesus dead
because they considered him a rabble-rouser who threatened social order and
Roman imperial power. How are they going
to take the news that the Judean troublemaker has been raised from the dead?
(e) So it’s not so hard to understand the women’s
silence. After all, who was that
mysterious young man anyway and why should anyone do what he says? Better to keep silent.
(4)
But you and I know that someone did talk, otherwise we would not be here
today.
(a) I believe that the fear experienced by the
followers of Jesus in those days and weeks after that Sunday morning was
eventually overcome
(i) by the love of God, physically present to them
in Jesus
(ii) and the courage of faith, poured into their
hearts, souls, minds and strength by the Holy Spirit.
(b) They came to know
(i) that goodness is stronger than evil;
(ii) that love is stronger than hate;
(iii) that light is stronger than darkness;
(iv) that life is stronger than death.
(c) And they knew this, just as we know this,
because of ‘ . . . what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we
have looked at and touched with our hands’ (1 John 1.1b).
(5)
My friends, I sometimes think that many of us, myself included, are like
the two Marys and Salome on that early Sunday morning.
(a) We have heard, we have seen and we have touched
the love of God and its power to transform our lives --- but we remain silent.
(b) Perhaps we remain silent because we are
afraid other people might associate us with religious intolerance and
intellectual narrow-mindedness --- not unreasonable in today’s world.
(c) Perhaps we are silent because we are afraid
that some people will think we are interfering in their lives by bringing a ‘private’
matter into ‘public’ conversation --- ‘no politics, no sex, no religion, thank
you, we’re Canadians.’
(d) Perhaps we are silent because we are afraid
that we are not wise enough or spiritual enough or knowledgeable enough to talk
about what we believe and why we believe in it.
(e) I’m sure that there are many other fears that
keep us silent.
(f) Yet we know all too well
(i) that evil sometimes seems stronger than
goodness;
(ii) that hate sometimes seems stronger than love;
(iii) that darkness sometimes seems stronger than
light;
(iv) that death sometimes seems stronger than
life.
(6)
The paralysis of fear is real, but the love of God that was made known
in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and that is poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit can conquer even the greatest fear.
(a) I know that this love freed the two Marys and
Salome from their fear because we are here.
(b) I know that even in our own affluent and ‘tolerant’
society there are people who need to hear the good news that the tomb is empty
and that we are free to become more fully alive in justice, mercy and humility.
(c) Do not be afraid. Jesus has been raised from the dead and goes
before us into our Galilees, wherever they are.
We have good news to proclaim and there are many who long to hear it.
