<p>28:8&nbsp;<i>And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy</i>- In apparent obedience to the command to &quot;quickly&quot; tell the disciples (:7). But again the record is imputing righteousness to them, for Mk. 16:7,8 says that they fled in fear and said nothing to anyone: &quot;Go tell His disciples, and Peter, that He goes ahead of you into Galilee. There shall you see Him, just as He told you. And they went out and ran from the tomb. Trembling and astonishment had come upon them, and they said nothing to anyone. For they were afraid&quot;. It was only later that they told the disciples, once their fear subsided and joy began to be their dominant emotion. We recall how the shepherds were told not to fear but to focus upon the joy of the Lord's birth (Lk. 2:10). Fear and joy do not remain coexistent for long, and to their credit, the women's joy became greater than their fear. See on :10&nbsp;<i>Fear Not</i>. But putting meaning into words, what were they fearful about? Surely they now realized that they had so failed to believe the Lord&rsquo;s clear words about His resurrection; and they knew now that since He was alive, they must meet Him and explain. So their fear related to their own sense of unworthiness; and yet it was paradoxically mixed with the &ldquo;great joy&rdquo; of knowing His resurrection. And there is reason to understand that those women are typical of all those who are to fulfil the great commission.&nbsp;</p><p>The accounts of the Lord&rsquo;s resurrection and the imparting of that good news to others are studded with the idea of speedy response. &ldquo;Go quickly and tell his disciples&hellip; and they departed quickly&hellip; and did run to bring his disciples word&rdquo; (Mt. 28:7,8). The accounts show how Mary &ldquo;quickly&rdquo; told the disciples, the women did likewise, the two on the way to Emmaus ran back to town and urgently told the others that the Lord had risen&hellip; and then the record climaxes in bidding us take that very same good news of the resurrection to the whole world. But the implication from the context is that it is to be done with the same spirit of urgency. We are merely continuing in the spirit of those who first spread that good news.</p><p><i>And ran to bring this message to his disciples</i>- Running and sharing God's word are associated to the point that running is almost a metaphor for preaching. Thus Paul writes of his preaching among the Gentiles as 'running' (Gal. 2:2; 1 Cor. 9:26; Phil. 2:16 s.w. cp. Dan. 12:2). The clearest example would be in 2 Thess. 3:1: &quot;Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly&quot; (s.w.). The running of the women with the fresh news of Christ's resurrection then becomes the pattern for all Christian preaching; we are continuing to run with the message. And the content of the message, 'the word of / about the Lord', is the word that He has risen. We should recall that this very first obedience to the great preaching commission was not met with success- but rather the words were mocked as madness and disbelieved.</p>