So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Mathew 28:8 – 10

Afraid yet filled with joy.  I would say, “a bundle of emotions.”  Who wouldn’t be anxious yet filled with joy – anxious about where their Jesus might be and hopeful because everything was changing.  These women just heard something so unbelievable that they were absolutely dumbfounded.  There they stood, carrying precious ointment to anoint his dead body that they last saw lowered into that tomb just hours ago.

Behold, they heard strange words spoken by the angel who was there, “He is risen.”  Can it be?  What does that mean?  Then, suddenly, there was Jesus before their eyes, risen!  Calmly he said, “Greetings.”  Like a good morning or a good day, as we say, without any fanfare.  Hadn’t he let it be known that he would rise from the dead?

To the women, his greeting changed their world. They fell before his feet and “worshipped him.”  They were the first persons to see him alive!  Jesus appeared first to these two amazing women, one of whom he freed from demons a while back.  They dropped their perfume and fell down in worship. Full of unspeakable joy, they found themselves dissolved in love as they fervently clasped his feet!

Jesus said, “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”  So, these two Mary’s became the first carriers of the good news of Jesus’ victory over death, the new Kingdom’s first evangelists.  I find that hard to imagine but so like Jesus.

Further, I hear Jesus owning those who abandoned him.  He called them “my brothers.”  No need to fear, Disciple Matthew, author of this book, Jesus is full of grace, our mighty Redeemer whose blood cleanses from all sin and unbelief.  Go to Galilee, he said, where presumably the disciples had fled.   There, in their distress they would see Jesus, alive.  The kingdom he spoke of has come!