The Resurrection: "They said nothing because they were afraid"

In the Gospel of Mark the regular reading for Resurrection Sunday ends jarringly: the women had seen the empty tomb, had seen an angel, had heard the message that God raised Jesus from the dead -- and kept it quiet at first. "They said nothing because they were afraid." This morning, hearing that reminded me of modern Christianity. We have good news to announce, and sometimes we say nothing because we are afraid. 

These days speaking out as a Christian often means being mocked, being bullied, being shunned. Even in a culture where so many people share our faith in Jesus' resurrection, mentioning faith is signing up for trouble. The critics are loud and proud, with many determined to exclude Christians from the public square, to exclude us from various jobs and professions. 

For the original witnesses of Jesus' resurrection, why would they be afraid to speak out? Maybe fear of being disbelieved, fear of being ridiculed. Maybe fear of the ruling authorities, who after all had just had their beloved leader executed, and those authorities were not too proud to deal with his followers the same way. Maybe even fear of the unknown, the confusion over the missing body and the angel's message. 

What moved them to speak out, to get past the fear? Well, Jesus' resurrection is really too important not to mention. It changes everyone's thoughts, everyone's plans for what to do with their lives, to know something like that. And it's big enough news that it actually changes the view of the world, of life and death, of forgiveness, of what God's love can accomplish, of whether we matter. 

Nobody took just the women's word for it; the women weren't wrong if they feared disbelief and ridicule. But once the others began to see for themselves, the fear was less and the faith was more, and more people believed. May it be so for us in our day.