"Be Not Afraid."

I saved this little essay and found it today when cleaning...I don't know where it is from.  Worth sharing anyway...  After Jesus' crucifixion, fear ran rampant among his followers.  Joseph of Arimathea took the body "secretly, for fear."  Nicodemus came under the safe cover of night.  The disciples hid behind closed doors.  Even the authorities were fearful, and when the news came that Jesus had risen, they spread the story that his body had been stolen.

Against this fear and fraud was the simple faithfulness of the women who had stood at the cross, watched at the tomb, and came at dawn to anoint the body.  Their reward was witnessing the Resurrection.  And Jesus' first words to them were, "Be not Afraid."

There is much around us that is awful.  We know too well the divisions and suffering that plague our world.  Today's authorities play to our fear, destroy our hope and seal off our joy.  The women at the tomb challenge us to love and believe.  Certainly they grieved; their hope flagged at Jesus' death.  But they never lost faith.