On the Road, Not the Driveway

"And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings! And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him." (Matthew 28:9)

They obeyed first. Look at the order, because the order is everything, and we get it backward constantly. The angel says go and tell. And they go. They are running down the road on nothing but the word of a stranger in a tomb, hearts pounding, having seen no risen Christ, only an empty shelf where a body should have been. And then Jesus meets them. On the road. In the middle of the obedience. Not before it.

So many of us spend our lives waiting on a shore for a confirmation that would only ever come out on the water. We want to see him first, and then we will go. But they went first, and he met them in the going. They took hold of his feet and worshiped, and he said the same thing the angel had said: do not be afraid, go and tell. He added nothing. He simply confirmed, in person, what they had already decided to believe without him.

That is how it usually goes. You will meet him on the road, not in the driveway while you are still deciding whether to pull out. The assurance you are waiting for before you obey is on the far side of the obeying. Take the first step on the strength of what he has already said, and somewhere out in the middle of it, when you are already moving and already afraid, he will meet you.