Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and other women in their grief, came to the tomb where Jesus lay. Much to their surprise, they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre (Luke 24:2).
Through the gospel of John, we understand that after they found the stone rolled away, Mary went and gathered Simon, Peter and John, who also came to see the empty tomb. Everyone handles their grief differently; in this case, the men went home, and the women remained at the tomb.
Confused and grieving, the women were afraid when the angel of the Lord appeared to them. “Fear not ye:” the angel said to them, “for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.” (Matt. 28:5-7).
Nowhere do we read that the women asked the angel all kinds of questions, like how it happened, where Christ was now, what on earth was even going on. Instead, we read that the women “departed quickly” to go tell the disciples that Christ was risen (Matt. 28: 8). As a result, the resurrected Jesus first revealed Himself to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9). What a wonder!
God blesses immediate obedience. The late Dr. Charles Stanley said that “Delayed obedience is actually disobedience.” We don’t have to understand all the details when we trust that God is working every detail for His glory. We just need to be obedient to Him, and, at least from the world’s perspective, this won’t always make sense.
In Proverbs 3:5-6, we are reminded to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” We can trust that God knows everything and He knows the outcome – even when we don’t understand and we can’t see a way through. A.W. Tozer once wrote that “God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only things that we can do by ourselves.” God’s ways are far above our own, if only we would learn to trust Him more fully.
God blesses us when we choose faith over fear. We read in Matthew 28:8 that when the women departed the tomb, they left “with fear and great joy.” While they were afraid, they did not let their fear conquer their faith. Remember the first thing the angel of the Lord said to the women? “Fear not ye:” (Matt. 28:5). When Jesus revealed Himself to the women, He told them, “Be not afraid:” (Matt. 28:10). Fear is a part of life, it is our response to it that makes the difference. We must not let fear stop us from living a life of faith.
We shouldn’t be surprised in our obedience to God when we run into challenges, criticisms, and people who try to reduce our testimony or deny the truth. Although they were obeying God’s instructions and living by faith, when Mary and the women told the apostles that they had encountered the resurrected Jesus, the apostles didn’t believe them (Mark 16:11, Luke 24:11). Whether these men didn’t believe out of fear or jealousy, we don’t know. What we do know is that God blesses obedience and faith. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “There would be no sense in saying you trusted Jesus if you would not take His advice.”