Mark 16:8 (ESV Strong's)
And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Tag: Emotions Can Control Us
The above passage is referring to the two Mary’s and Salome, who brought spices to anoint Jesus’ body. When hey arrived they found the tomb empty and heard an angel tell them that Jesus was resurrected. Mark says they ran away in fear. Matthew’s account of the above reaction to Jesus’ resurrection is slightly different:
Matthew 28:8
So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
John’s gospel just reports about one of the women, one of the Mary’s, and that she simply ran to the disciples to tell them about what she had discovered. Perhaps she was the first to arrive to report. We have no idea. Maybe she was more athletic and ran faster than the other Mary and Salome. Whatever the case, the three women were overcome by emotion. We often talk about “controlling” our emotions. However, we don’t just tell fear to stop. We don’t tell excitement to turn on or turn on at a higher intensity. Emotion is caused by chemicals released in the brain, that are fired up by our interpretation of some event. We see a funeral and we interpret as bad and we are overcome by the emotion of sadness. Sadness can, often, produce tears. We see a wedding and we interpret it as a good thing and our brain produces chemicals for happiness and that, too, can result in tears ... of joy. If, on the other hand, the parents are not pleased with the choice of spouse, they interpret the wedding as bad, the emotion of sadness is ignited and that produces tears. In both cases we see tears, but driven by different emotions. When these three women saw the empty tomb they would have one interpretation which produced one emotion. But, when the angel told them He is risen and they will see Jesus soon, they would have had a different emotion. This must have been a struggle to sort them all out in their mind. The death produced one emotion, the empty tomb another and the risen Savior quite another. We don’t control our emotions, we can only view them through the lens of faith. When we faithfully view events through the lens of God’s character and plans for us, we send different messages to our brain and different emotions are emitted. We don’t control our emotions. We do, however, control our interpretation of events through a lens of knowledge. This is what Paul was telling the Corinthians. He wanted them to take all their thoughts and align them with the “knowledge of God.” But, our mind creates arguments and imaginative thoughts that are contrary to the “knowledge of God.” These women had the knowledge of death, but they also had the knowledge of a resurrection in their friend and relative, Lazarus. Knowledge of God is the best lens to view all events and that will create different emotions.
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