Afraid Yet Filled With Joy

"Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead." (Matthew 28:7)

The first evangelists were two women running. The angel gives them the invitation first: come and see, come and look at the place where he was lying, and see that it is empty. And then, immediately, go and tell. Come and see, then go and tell. That is the whole Christian life in six words, and there is no better summary. You cannot skip the first half. A person who has not come and seen has nothing to go and tell, and the church is full of people telling things they never saw, and it is thin, and everyone can hear that it is thin.

But you cannot stay at the first half either. Matthew says they hurried from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and they ran. Afraid yet filled with joy. Both at once. Running. That is the most accurate description of witness ever written, and it is nothing like the confident, polished, unafraid thing we tell people they must become before they are allowed to open their mouths.

They were terrified. They ran anyway. So stop waiting to feel bold before you will speak. The boldness we require of ourselves before witnessing is a boldness the first witnesses never had; they went shaking. Come and see, until you have something real. Then go and tell, while your heart is still pounding, because afraid and joyful and moving is exactly what faithfulness looks like, and always has.