Don't be alarmed!

Even after all of the Easter sermons I have heard over the years, until yesterday when an excellent preacher I know helped this thought to stand out to me,

In Mark 16, the women come to the empty tomb and find a man dressed in white who says:

Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee.”

If you consolidate the first message given by what we assume was an angel to the distraught women who found the empty tomb, here is the message.

Don’t be afraid — he is going ahead of you.

Whatever you are facing today, don’t be afraid.  He is going ahead of you.