Can you imagine what was going on in the minds of the guards who were assigned to keep Jesus’ tomb sealed? Nothing happened Friday night. Nothing happened Saturday. What a boring assignment! What an easy assignment! The night watch came on duty at midnight and laughed at the thought that some fishermen and nerdy Messiah freaks would try to steal Jesus’ body.
Then came the dawn and an angel descends, rolls the stone away, and sits on it. This angel is so awesome with his brilliance in the early morning that they cower in fear. They are so awestruck that they can’t even move. They watch in helpless fear as three women come and the angel speaks to them. Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb weeping (John 20:14). Then Jesus appears to her and she worshiped him with the others (Matt 28:9). Still, the guards are frozen in fear.
The guards were unbelievers and were scared out of their wits by an angel. The women were believers in Jesus, though they had little understanding of what was really going on. They encountered not an angel but the risen Son of God. Their response to worship him was the same as the disciples (Matt 28:9,17). While different accounts also attribute fear to the disciples, the end result was worship, not petrifying fear.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11)
There will come a day when we will all see Jesus. We will all bow in worship before him. We won’t all do it at the same time. Believers will first see him after they die or the rapture takes us to be with him. Our response will be like the first disciples who saw him soon after his resurrection. It may be like Paul when he was knocked to the ground by his vision of Jesus (Acts 9:3). It could be like John on the island of Patmos. He was paralyzed but Jesus revived him (Rev 1:17). It may be frightening at first, but we know that there is no enmity between us, only love because he paid the price for our sins (Rom 5:8).
Unbelievers though, will not fare so well. They will bow but their worship will be too late. It will not be out of obedience, gratitude, love, or any of the reasons we bow before him. They will do it only out of the awesome fear knowing that they never acknowledged him as their Lord and Savior. They will be forced to bow in submission to their eternal judgment and sentence to the second death, the lake of fire (Rev 20:14-15).
Which way will you worship Jesus? In gratitude for your salvation or forced submission to your condemnation? The choice is yours if you are still living.
[1] Painting by Del Parson
[1]Mary Magdalene with Jesus by Del Parson http://www.delparson.com/gallery_pages/mary_magdalene.html
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