Dave's Diary

Prayer

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 121:1-2

Lord, I lift up my eyes to the mountains and wonder,
where does my help come from?
My help comes from You, Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
and therefore I am safe and secure forever! Amen.

Reading

You’ll remember that we focussed on the events of Matthew 26-27 during Holy Week this year, and so we find ourselves jumping forward from the parables of Jesus in Matthew 25, straight to the moment of His resurrection.

Judas’ betrayal, the Last Supper, Peter’s denial, the various trials of Jesus, His scourging, crucifixion, death and burial all lie in the rear-view mirror of this passage. It is dawn on the first day of the week …

Matthew 28:1-10

First through the angel and then through the risen Jesus Himself, the command comes to the woman: “Do not be afraid! … Go … and tell …”

Imagine the fear of coming face to face with the physical manifestation of a heavenly being. Imagine the sense of shock and awe at seeing, hearing and even touching Jesus, whose dead body you had watched being buried just two nights ago! Imagine how the thought of telling others about your impossible experience might have filled you with trepidation and even fear that they would reject and ridicule your story. But from both the angel and Jesus, the comforting word comes: “Do not be afraid!“

It is one thing to experience a sense of fear, but the clear instruction we have received in this passage is “Do not BE afraid.” I’d like to suggest that there is a great difference between feeling fear in reaction to a situation (such as the women must surely have felt) and allowing fear to control and define us (i.e. “BEING afraid”).

The difference comes down to whether or not we take action in obedience to Jesus. For the women, neither their fear of what they had just encountered, nor the fear of how the disciples might reject or ridicule their news of the resurrection could stop them from speaking out about it in obedience to Jesus. And we need to take a leaf out of their book.

We are not told what motivated them to act in defiance of their natural fear. However, the context suggests that their fear was outweighed by their love for Jesus, their unshakeable faith that He was alive again, and their absolute passion to please Him!

If fear of a situation threatens to stifle our obedience to Jesus today, let’s return to our love for Jesus and our faith that He is alive and with us! And then let’s choose to act as a response of love, based on the decision that pleasing Jesus is more important to us than our own comfort, social acceptance or even physical wellbeing.

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I will refuse to be defined by my fears.
• I will love, follow and obey Jesus with all my heart today, despite whatever fear I may feel.

Jesus, I love You and I pray for the grace to rise above my fears to please You in all things . Amen.