The 7 Next Words of Christ: Greetings! Do Not Be Afraid

The 7 Next Words of Christ: Finding Hope in the Resurrection Sayings

“Greetings… Do Not Be Afraid”

Matthew 28:8-10 (New Revised Standard Version)

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, 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; there they will see me.”

The empty tomb is where our expectations and plans end and where the grace that surpasses all understanding changes everything.

They arrived expecting to find death, instead they were met with a change of plans.

What the women saw at the tomb was perhaps the most beautiful yet most frightening, and peaceful yet most shocking thing they had ever experienced.

It didn’t necessarily make any sense, but it also perhaps felt better than anything they had ever experienced.

Time and time again, Jesus’ words, Do Not Be Afraid, change everything.

Jesus used this phase with his followers 19 times, each with a difference context.

However, in each circumstance Jesus’ request for his followers to be unafraid accompanied his plea for the listener to refocus on God.

Jesus is saying that we need to be unafraid in the sense that when we put all our trust in God then we will have all that we need for this journey called life.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. -Proverbs 3:5-6

Resurrection leaves us with fear and great joy because the resurrection changes everything.

There is joy because Christ is alive and death has been defeated, but there is fear in the sense that everything Jesus said is true.

We are called to turn away from our fears, not because we necessarily need to conquer or rise above it, but because we must chose to trust that God will keep the promise to direct our paths.