He Has Risen!

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
Matthew 28:5–6 NIV

The darkness still clung to the edges of the sky as two women made their way through the quiet streets of Jerusalem. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary walked with heavy hearts and heavier steps. Their minds replayed the horrors they had witnessed days before—their beloved Rabbi, hanging on a cross, gasping His final breaths.

They carried burial spices, expecting to find a sealed tomb and a lifeless body. What else could they expect? Death, after all, was final. At least, that’s what everyone believed.

Heaven Breaks Through

As they approached, the ground beneath them rumbled. The earth itself pointed to something momentous. An angel—brilliant as lightning, clothed in purest white—descended and casually rolled away the massive stone as if it were nothing. The guards, hardened Roman soldiers, fell to the ground in terror.

But to the women, the angel spoke words of comfort: “Do not be afraid.” How strange those words must have sounded in that moment of supernatural terror. Yet they carried a profound truth that would echo through the centuries.

The Empty Place

“He is not here; He has risen, just as He said!”

Those words changed everything. The angel invited them to see the empty place where Jesus had lain—not as proof of loss, but as evidence of the most extraordinary promise fulfilled. The absence in that tomb spoke more loudly than any presence could.

The First Witnesses

With trembling hands and racing hearts, the women fled from the tomb—afraid yet filled with joy, an emotion we rarely associate with fear. They ran to share news that would transform the world. They had been chosen as the first witnesses to the resurrection, these women whose testimony wouldn’t even be valid in a court of their time.

And then—Jesus Himself appeared to them. The One they mourned now stood before them, alive and whole. Their response was instinctual and right: they grasped His feet and worshiped Him.

Reflection

How often do we approach life’s challenges expecting sealed tombs? We carry our spices of grief, our expectations of disappointment, moving forward only out of duty or habit. We’ve learned that some stones are too heavy to move, some losses too final to overcome.

But the resurrection story invites us to anticipate the unexpected. To remember that with God, the final word is never death, but life. The heaviest stones can be rolled away. What appears to be the end may actually be just the beginning.

Like the Marys, we too may find ourselves trembling with that strange mixture of fear and joy when God breaks into our carefully managed expectations. Those moments when heaven touches earth often leave us shaken—yet they’re the very moments when we most clearly see God’s power at work.

Do not fear, for He is risen!