“And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, All hail.  And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshiped Him.  Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.”  Matthew 28:9-10

Jesus had just risen from the grave.  Several women, who were followers of His, had just come from the site of the empty tomb where an angel spoke to them.  He had rolled the stone away from the sepulcher exposing the open empty grave.  He was a rather frightening sight to see.  The guards, who had been placed at the tomb to keep the disciples from stealing Jesus’ body so that they could claim He had arisen as the authorities suspected they would do, were frightened so badly that they fainted.  At least the women didn’t faint, although they were frightened of the angel, but he told them to not be afraid for Jesus had arisen just as He said would.  He showed them the empty tomb and then told them to go tell the disciples that Jesus was alive and to meet Him in Galilee.

Excited is not nearly a word good enough to describe how they felt.  I can picture them on their way back into town probably running if they were able, although ladies running was likely frowned upon by the townspeople, probably mostly the men of the town.  In ancient Israel and still in some areas of the Middle East, women are treated like second-class citizens with much fewer rights that men.  However, Jesus Christ is the greatest liberator of women the world has ever known.  Matter of fact, His first appearance after His resurrection was to a woman, Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9), and the second appearance was also to women.

As they hurried back to town, they must have been chattering away about this good news.  Jesus is alive!  All of a sudden Jesus was standing before them, saying, “All hail”.  Some Bible commentators believe that Jesus was greeting them “Good morning” or “Hello”, but His greeting was more profound than that.  Perhaps He was instructing them to rejoice because they were in the presence of the Living Lord and Savior.  Or He could have meant for them to salute, because they immediately bowed themselves to the ground, holding on to His feet, and worshiping Him.  These women had a deep sense of Jesus’ divinity giving them a desire to worship Him.  Jesus sensed that they were fearful.

A person can be joyful and fearful at the same time depending upon the circumstances of the moment.  These were supernatural circumstances and were so overwhelming to these ladies that they couldn’t help but be fearful.  They knew for certain that Jesus had died, but now He was alive again.  They weren’t fearful of Him because they knew that He loved them, but many thoughts were likely going through their minds.  They knew how badly Jesus was treated before His crucifixion, and what would those who hated Him do now?  Killing Him didn’t do away with Him.  Jesus knew they were anxious and wanted to calm their uneasiness.  He said, “Be not afraid: go tell My brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see Me”.  If Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords tells us to not be afraid, then why do we remain so fearful?  Jesus wants us to trust Him with our lives, our day to day living, the highs and the lows.

To feel fear is a natural response to unsettling circumstances.  It is not the immediate sense of fear, but allowing the fear to overwhelm and consume us about which Jesus cautions His followers.  It was now time for these ladies to be bold and courageous.  He had important work for them to do.  “Go tell My brethren…”  It was only after His resurrection that Jesus called His disciples and His other followers “brethren”.  Heretofore, the relationship of Jesus to His followers had been more like, in a simple example, a teacher to his students or an employer to his employees.  Before Christ arose, there was not what we might call a “permanent” relationship between Jesus and His followers, but because of His death and resurrection, believers are “sealed” (Ephesians 1:13) into a permanent, eternal, spiritual unity with Christ in which they become His brothers, sisters, and joint heirs (Romans 8:17), sons and daughters of the most high God.

When Jesus called His disciples “brethren”, He was indicating how much forgiveness He had for them.  They had really let Him down.  They were closer to Him than any other human on earth.  They should have stuck by Him through His agony, but they allowed fear to overcome them.  But He was not angry with them.  He understood fear when He hung on the cross, and His Father turned His back on Him.  The time for fear was now passed for these disciples.  They had work to do.  I speculate that Jesus desired to meet them in Galilee instead of Jerusalem where they were because the rejection of Christ by most of Jerusalem caused the Jews to lose the honor of having the risen Savior and Lord to walk along her streets for His remaining days on earth.  Besides, Galilee was where Jesus began His ministry and the home of the disciples.

Jesus would remain on earth for 40 days and be seen by over 500 people (I Corinthians 15:6) including the disciples, His women followers, and His mother.  We can’t see Jesus in person now, but we can know Him, and if we do, then we will see Him in person one day.  Imagine getting to spend eternity with the One who created you and me.