Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
What emotions do those seven words invoke in you? How does the resurrection make you feel?
What if we could feel more like God? What if we could allow God into our emotional life? This series of posts invites us to consider Holy Week as revelatory to us not just in its spiritual impact, but also its emotional impact (perhaps next year we might walk through Holy Week and consider the ramifications it has for our bodies!).
JRR Tolkien once suggested that the emotional response to the resurrection can be summed up with a word he coined: “eucatastrophe.” Eucatastrophe is a combination of the Greek word for good and catastrophe—a tragedy. In other words, it is bittersweet, or better yet, sweet coming out of bitter. Tolkien explains that, “The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy.”[i] Isn’t that perfect? As we contemplate the resurrected Christ, our hearts hurt with the suffering he endured on our behalf, and yet our hearts also rejoice at the victory he purchased for us by entering and overcoming death.
As we continue to journey through this series, I invite you again to navigate the emotions of the resurrection accounts.
Let’s begin with Matthew’s account:
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he[a] lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Matthew 28:1-10
First, we meet Mary the mother of James and Mary Magdalene, who come to the tomb to freshen up Jesus’ burial spices. In Matthew’s account, we learn that the guards were so terrified they became catatonic with fear. In Luke’s account, we understand that the Marys were first “perplexed” that Jesus’ body wasn’t there. When the angels appeared, “they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground” (Luke 24:5). Mark simply says they were “alarmed” (Mark 16:5), but this emotion grows when the angel commands them to tell the rest of the disciples. Mark concludes his gospel with these words, “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8).[ii] Mark begins his gospel with a barebones statement that feels emotionless: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). He concludes his gospel with the emotional tremors of what that statement means for all people.
John shares what happens next in a moving and emotional account. He writes,
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (John 22:11-16).
I’ve always been affected by this encounter. Mary is emotionally so far ahead of the other disciples. Having lost Jesus to death, she is distraught by his disappearance. And Jesus meets her right in that emotion. He leans into her grief by naming it, “why are you weeping?” He asks her the same question again and doubles the impact by asking her, “whom are you seeking?” Pleading, she begs him to tell her where she can find Jesus. And then he says just one word, her name, “Mary.” And she is undone with eucatastrophe. “Rabboni!” she exclaims in love, in joy, in belief.
In Matthew’s abbreviated account, we learn that Jesus speaks peace to them as they depart in fear, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Matt 28:10).
In Luke and John the story picks up as Mary and Mary share the news to the apostles. How did the apostles feel? “they did not believe them” (Luke 24:11b). That changed when Peter and John sprinted to the tomb. John tells us that when he saw the empty tomb, he believed. Luke shares that Peter “went home marveling at what had happened” (Luke 24:12b).
Two men traveling to Emmaus are amazed by the past week's events and trying to understand who this Jesus of Nazareth was when suddenly a stranger comes upon them and begins to explain the Scripture to them. This man enters their home, and breaks bread with them. “And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:31-32). Isn’t that an amazing encapsulation of their emotions: as Jesus spoke with them, their hearts burned!
Jesus then enters the room where the apostles were hiding “for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:19-20). The apostles are terrified because everyone is against them. The Jews have conspired against their leader and accused him of blasphemy. The Romans executed their Messiah for treason. Everyone poses a threat. And they’re wondering if they will follow their leader in death. Their fear is as justified as it is palpable. But then their resurrected Lord comes into their midst! And just as he transformed their terror on the sea of Galilee, Jesus brings peace and gladness into their dread after his crucifixion.
The resurrection of Jesus meets us in our fear, our disappointment, our confusion, and our sorrow. From the depths of fear and loss, Jesus brings joy, hope, adoration, and triumph. Can you feel his resurrection? Can you feel the eucatastrophe?
For More on Feeling Holy Week, Visit:
Feeling the Resurrection
[i] J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories,” in C. S. Lewis, ed., Essays Presented to Charles Williams (Oxford: OUP, 1947; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966), 90-105.
[ii] While Mark 16:9-20 are included in our Bibles, the earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not include these verses. Scholars agree that Mark intentionally concludes his gospel with fear and trembling, implicitly asking the audience if they will be proclaimers of the truth of the resurrected Messiah or if they will withhold the truth out of fear.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash