Wednesday 15 April – Fear-of-the-Lord

DAILY BYTE
Mark’s Gospel leaves all disciples after these women hanging on the incompleteness of a sentence; hanging on the following possibility:
What if death needn’t end the story? What if this man Jesus would complete his Messiah-dom and bring in God’s Kingdom after he died?

Death is large. Death is huge, but what if it doesn’t have the final word? And what about, if like what happened to those women, we are transformed to live life without our deepest fear being death. What if our entire existence no longer needed to be determined by the great full-stop of death?

The other Gospels fill in the missing pieces for us on Jesus’ resurrection. We know that after Jesus’ death, his disciples did not give up and go home. Nor did they pin their hopes on another Messiah.

Because something had happened!

Something that they so deeply believed in that they were more than willing to suffer and die for it. And perhaps that is because they were freed from a fear of death when they witnessed a Risen Lord.

So let me ask you a question. What would happen to us if the fear of death no longer controlled us? Can you imagine how free we would really be?!

In fact, there is a different sort of fear to live by. One that Mark’s Gospel suggests when it reveals that the women who first witnessed the resurrection were ‘seized by terror and amazement.’ This fear was not rooted in the age-old fear of death, but rather in the complete surprise of Life.

It’s what author Eugene Peterson calls ‘Fear-of-the-Lord.’ It’s not fearing God in the sense of destruction, domination and trembling, abject fright. Rather it’s fearing God in the sense of sheer wonder and trembling awe because of his immense Love and Life. As Karl Barth once said, in this sense, it is blasphemy NOT to tremble before God.

In the scope of one resurrection appearance, these three women were transformed from the fear of death to awe of God. In the scope of all resurrection appearances afterwards, the disciples were transformed from hopelessness and despair to hopefulness and wonder.

And what a difference that made to them. Indeed, what a difference it made to human history.

What Mark’s Gospel challenges us is to do is never lose that – a sense of sheer wonder at the God-life which breaks through sin and despair, and which thrusts through boredom, routine and everyday blah-ness.

Interestingly enough, it has been recorded that over the last few decades, the average time spent gazing at museum masterpieces has shrunk from ten seconds down to three. We are in danger of losing our sense of wonder. If we lose that, then it should be no surprise that other things like death and despair begin to crowd and control us.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O Great God, giver of all good things, bringer of life and hope and growth. I ask that you would open my eyes to see all the wonderful things you have filled this world with. Help me to live with a sense of Resurrection wonder. Amen
FOCUS READING
Mark 16. 8 NRSV
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid