_THE RESURRECTION._
"Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while
it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away from
the tomb. She runneth therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to
the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have
taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have
laid Him. Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and
they went toward the tomb. And they ran both together: and the other
disciple outran Peter, and came first to the tomb; and stooping and
looking in, he seeth the linen cloths lying; yet entered he not in.
Simon Peter therefore also cometh, following him, and entered into
the tomb; and he beholdeth the linen cloths lying, and the napkin,
that was upon His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled
up in a place by itself. Then entered in therefore the other
disciple also, which came first to the tomb, and he saw, and
believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that He must rise
again from the dead. So the disciples went away again unto their own
home. But Mary was standing without at the tomb weeping: so, as she
wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she beholdeth two
angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where
the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why
weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my
Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. When she had thus
said, she turned herself back, and beholdeth Jesus standing, and
knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest
thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener,
saith unto Him, Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where
thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away, Jesus saith unto her,
Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him in Hebrew, Rabboni;
which is to say, Master. Jesus saith to her, Touch Me not; for I am
not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto My brethren, and say
to them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and
your God. Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples, I have
seen the Lord; and how that He had said these things unto
her."--JOHN xx. 1-18.
John gives no narrative of the Resurrection itself. He gives us what is
much more valuable--a brief account of the manner in which he himself
was convinced that a resurrection had taken place. His shy nature, his
modest reluctance to put himself forward or use the first person in his
narrative, does not prevent him from seeing that the testimony of one
who, like himself, was an eyewitness of the facts is invaluable; and
nothing but additional interest and reality is added to his testimony by
the varied periphrases with which he veils his identity, as "the
disciple whom Jesus loved," "that other disciple," and so forth.
When Mary brought the startling intelligence that the tomb was empty,
Peter and John instantly made for the spot at the top of their speed.
The older man was left behind by John, but natural reverence kept him
from entering the rocky chamber. He looked in, however, and to his
surprise saw enough to convince him that the body had not been removed
for interment elsewhere or to be cast out with the bodies of criminals.
For there were the linen cloths in which He had been wrapped, carefully
taken off and left behind. The impression made by this circumstance was
confirmed when Peter came up, and they both entered and examined the
tomb and made their inferences together. For then they saw still clearer
evidence of deliberation; the napkin which had been tied round the head
of the dead body was there in the tomb, and it was folded and laid in a
place by itself, suggesting the leisurely manner of a person changing
his clothes, and convincing them that the body had not been removed to
be laid elsewhere. At once John was convinced that a resurrection had
taken place; his Lord's words took a new meaning in this empty tomb.
Standing and gazing at the folded cloths, the truth flashed into his
mind: Jesus has Himself risen and disencumbered Himself from these
wrappings, and has departed. It was enough for John: he visited no other
tomb; he questioned no one; he made no inquiries of his friends in the
high priest's household,--he went to his own house, filled with
astonishment, with a thousand thoughts chasing one another through his
mind, scarcely listening to Peter's voluble tongue, but convinced that
Jesus lived.
This simple narrative will be to many minds more convincing than an
accumulation of elaborate arguments. The style is that of an eyewitness.
Each movement and every particular is before his eye: Mary bursting,
breathless, and gasping out the startling news; the hasty springing up
of the two men, and their rapid racing along the streets and out through
the city gates to the garden; John standing panting at the rock-hewn
sepulchre, his stooping down and peering into the dark chamber; Peter
toiling up behind, but not hesitating a moment, and entering and gazing
at this and that till the dumb articles tell their story; and the two
men leave the sepulchre together, awed and convinced. And the eyewitness
who thus graphically relates what he knew of that great morning adds
with the simplicity of a truthful nature, "he saw and
believed"--believed then for the first time; for as yet they had not
seen the significance of certain scriptures which now seemed plainly
enough to point to this.
To some minds this simple narrative will, I say, carry home the
conviction of the truth of the Resurrection more than any elaborate
argumentation. There is an assuring matter-of-factness about it.
Sceptics tell us that visions are common, and that excited people are
easily deceived. But we have no word of visions here. John does not say
he saw the Lord: he tells us merely of two fishermen running; of solid,
commonplace articles such as grave-clothes; and of observations that
could not possibly be mistaken, such as that the tomb was empty and that
they two were in it. For my part I feel constrained to believe a
narrative like this, when it tells me the grave was empty. No doubt
their conclusion, that Jesus had Himself emptied the tomb, was not a
certain but only a probable inference, and, had nothing more occurred,
even John himself might not have continued so confident; but it is
important to notice how John was convinced, not at all by visions or
voices or embodied expectations of his own, but in the most
matter-of-fact way and by the very same kind of observation that we use
and rely upon in common life. And, moreover, more did occur; there
followed just such results as were in keeping with so momentous an
event.
One of these immediately occurred. Mary, exhausted with her rapid
carrying of the news to Peter and John, was not able to keep pace with
them as they ran to the tomb, and before she arrived they were gone.
Probably she missed them in the streets as she came out of the city; at
any rate, finding the tomb still empty and none present to explain the
reason of it, she stands there desolate and pours out her distress in
tears. That grave being empty, the whole earth is empty to her: the dead
Christ was more to her than a living world. She could not go as Peter
and John had gone, for she had no thought of resurrection. The rigid
form, the unanswering lips and eye, the body passive in the hands of
others, had fixed on her heart, as it commonly does, the one impression
of death. She felt that all was over, and now she had not even the poor
consolation of paying some slight additional attention. She can but
stand and lay her head upon the stone and let her tears flow from a
broken heart. And yet again in the midst of her grief she cannot believe
it true that He is lost to her; she returns, as love will do, to the
search, suspects her own eyesight, seeks again where she had sought
before, and cannot reconcile herself to a loss so total and
overwhelming. So absorbing is her grief that the vision of angels does
not astonish her; her heart, filled with grief, has no room for wonder.
Their kindly words cannot comfort her; it is another voice she longs
for. She had but the one thought, "They have taken away my Lord,"--_my_
Lord, as if none felt the bereavement as she. She supposes, too, that
all must know about the loss and understand what she is seeking, so that
when she sees the gardener she says, "Sir, if thou hast borne _Him_
hence." What need to say who? Can any one be thinking of any other but
of Him who engrosses her thought?
In all this we have the picture of a real and profound grief, and
therefore of a real and profound love. We see in Mary the kind of
affection which a knowledge of Jesus was fitted to kindle. And to Mary
our Lord remembered His promise: "He that loveth Me shall be loved of
My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him." None is
so unable as He to leave any who love Him without any response to their
expressions of affection. He could not coldly look on while this woman
was eagerly seeking Him; and it is as impossible that He should hide
Himself now from any who seek Him with as true a heart. Sometimes it
would seem as if real thirst for God were not at once allayed, as if
many were allowed to spend the best part of their days in seeking; but
this does not invalidate the promise, "He that seeketh, findeth." For as
Christ is again and again removed from the view of men, and as He is
allowed to become a remote and shadowy figure, He can be restored to a
living and visible influence in the world only by this man and that man
becoming sensible of the great loss we sustain by His absence, and
working his own way to a clear apprehension of His continued life. No
experience which an honest man has in his search for the truth is
worthless; it is the solid foundation of his own permanent belief and
connection with the truth, and it is useful to other men.
Mary standing without at the sepulchre weeping is a concrete
representation of a not uncommon state of mind. She stands wondering why
she was ever so foolish, so heartless, as to leave the tomb at all--why
she had allowed it to be possible to become separated from the Lord. She
looks despairingly at the empty grave-clothes which so lately had held
all that was dear to her in the world. She might, she thinks, had she
been present, have prevented the tomb from being emptied, but now it is
empty she cannot fill it again. It is thus that those who have been
careless about maintaining communion with Christ reproach themselves
when they find He is gone. The ordinances, the prayers, the quiet hours
of contemplation, that once were filled with Him are now, like the linen
clothes and the napkin, empty, cold, pale forms, remembrances of His
presence that make His absence all the more painful. When we ask where
we can find Him, only the hard, mocking echo of the empty tomb replies.
And yet this self-reproach is itself a seeking to which He will respond.
To mourn His absence is to desire and to invite His presence; and to
invite His presence is to secure it.[29]
The Evangelist Mark saw more in the Lord's appearance to Mary than a
response to her seeking love. He reminds his readers that this was the
woman out of whom the Lord had cast seven devils, meaning apparently to
suggest that those who have most need of encouragement from Him are
surest to get it. He had not appeared to Peter and John, though these
men were to build up His Church and be responsible for His cause. To the
man whom He loved, who had stood by Him at His trial and in His death,
who had received His mother and was now to be in His place to her, He
made no sign, but allowed him to examine the empty tomb and retire. But
to this woman He discloses Himself at once. The love which sprang from a
sense of what she owed Him kept her at the tomb and threw her in His
way. Her sense of dependence was the magnetic point on earth which
attracted and disclosed His presence. Observe the situation. Earth lay
uncertain; some manifestation is needed to guide men at this critical
time; blank disappointment or pointless waiting broods everywhere. At
what point shall the presence of Christ break through and quicken
expectation and faith? Shall He go to the high priest's palace or to
Pilate's praetorium and triumph over their dismay? Shall He go and lay
busy plans with this and that group of followers? On the contrary, He
appears to a poor woman who can do nothing to celebrate His triumph and
might only discredit it, if she proclaimed herself His friend and
herald. But thus continuous is the character of Jesus through death and
resurrection. The meekness, the true perception of the actual sorrows
and wants of men, the sense for spiritual need, the utter disregard of
worldly powers and glory, characterise Him now as before. The sense of
need is what always effectually appeals to Him. The soul that truly
recognises the value and longs for the fellowship and possession of
Christ's purity, devotion to God, superiority to worldly aims and
interests, always wins His regard. When a man prays for these things not
with his lips but with his life's effort and his heart's true craving,
his prayer is answered. To seek Christ is to feel as Mary felt, to see
with practical constraining clearness as she saw, that He is the most
precious of all possessions, that to be like Him is the greatest of all
attainments; it is to see His character with clearness, and to be
persuaded that, if the world gives us opportunity of becoming like Him
and actually makes us like Him, it has done for us all that is vital and
permanently important.
As Mary answered the angels she heard a step behind or saw the tomb
darkened by a shadow, and on turning discerns dimly through her tears a
figure which naturally enough she supposes to be the gardener--not
because Jesus had assumed the clothes or lifted the tools of the
gardener, but because he was the likeliest person to be going about the
garden at that early hour. As the heart overburdened with grief is often
unconscious of the presence of Christ and refuses to be comforted
because it cannot see Him for its sorrow, so Mary through the veil of
her tears can see only a human form, and turns away again, unconscious
that He for whom she seeks is with her. As she turns, one word wipes the
tears from her eyes and penetrates her heart with sudden joy. The
utterance of her name was enough to tell her it was some one who knew
her that was there; but there was a responsive thrill and an awaking of
old memories and a vibration of her nature under the tone of that voice,
which told her whose alone it could be. The voice seemed a second time
to command a calm within her and turn her whole soul to Himself only.
Once before, that voice had banished from her nature the foul spirits
that had taken possession of her; she had "awaked from hell beneath the
smile of Christ," and now again the same voice brought her out of
darkness into light. From being the most disconsolate, Mary became at a
word the happiest creature in the world.
Mary's happiness is easily understood. No explanation is needed of the
peace and bliss she experienced when she heard herself owned as the
friend of the risen Lord, and called by her name in the familiar tone by
Him who stood now superior to all risk, assault, and evil. This perfect
joy is the reward of all in the measure of their faith. Christ rose, not
that He might bring ecstasy to Mary alone, but that He might fill all
things with His presence and His fulness, and that our joy also might be
full. Has He not called us also by name? Has He not given us at times a
consciousness that He understands our nature and what will satisfy it,
that He claims an intimacy no other can claim, that His utterance of our
name has a significance which no other lips can give it? Do we find it
difficult to enter into true intercourse with Him; do we envy Mary her
few minutes in the garden? As truly as by the audible utterance of our
name does Christ now invite us to the perfect joy there is in His
friendship; so truly as if He stood with us alone, as with Mary in the
garden, and as if none but ourselves were present; as if our name alone
filled His lips, our wants alone occupied His heart. Let us not miss
true personal intercourse with Christ. Let nothing cheat us of this
supreme joy and life of the soul. Let us not slothfully or shyly say, "I
can never be on such terms of intimacy with Christ,--I who am so unlike
Him; so full of desires He cannot gratify; so frivolous, superficial,
unreal, while He is so real, so earnest; so unloving while He is so
loving; so reluctant to endure hardness, with views of life and aims so
opposed to His; so unable to keep a pure and elevated purpose
steadfastly in my mind." Mary was once trodden under foot of evil, a
wreck in whom none but Christ saw any place for hope. It is what is in
_Him_ that is powerful. He has won His supremacy by love, by refusing to
enjoy His private rights without our sharing them; and He maintains His
supremacy by love, teaching all to love Him, subduing to devotedness the
hardest heart--not by a remote exhibition of cold, unemotional
perfection, but by the persistence and depth of His warm and individual
love.
Mary had no time to reason and doubt. With one quick exclamation of
ecstatic recognition and joy she sprang towards Him. The one word "my
Master,"[30] uttered all her heart. It is related of George Herbert
that when he was inducted into the cure of Bemerton he said to a friend:
"I beseech God that my humble and charitable life may so win upon others
as to bring glory to my Jesus, whom I have this day taken to be my
Master and my Governor, and I am so proud of His service that I will
always call Him Jesus, my Master." His biographer adds: "He seems to
rejoice in that word Jesus, and says that the adding these words 'my
Master' to it and the often repetition of them seemed to perfume his
mind." With Mary the title was one of indefinite respect; she found in
Jesus one she could always reverence and trust. The firm, loving hand
that admits no soft evasion of duty; the steadfast step that with
equanimity ever goes straight forward; the strong heart that has always
room for the distresses of others; the union with God which made Him a
medium to earth of God's superiority and availing compassion,--these
things had made the words "my Master" His proper designation in her
lips. And our spirit cannot be purified and elevated but by worthy love
and deserved reverence, by living in presence of that which commands our
love and lifts up our nature to what is above it. It is by letting our
heart and mind be filled by what is above us that we grow in abiding
stature and become in our turn helpful to what is at a still lower stage
than we are.
But as Mary sprang forward, and in a transport of affection made as
though she would embrace the Lord, she is met by these quick words:
"Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father." Various
conjectural reasons for this prohibition have been supposed,--as, that
it was indecorous, an objection which Christ did not make when at a
dinner-table a woman kissed his feet, scandalising the guests and
provoking the suspicions of the host; or, that she wished to assure
herself by touch of the reality of the appearance, an assurance which He
did not object to the disciples making, but rather encouraged them to
make, as He would also have encouraged Mary had she needed any such
test, which she did not; or, that this vehement embrace would disturb
the process of glorification which was proceeding in His body! It is
idle to conjecture reasons, seeing that He Himself gives the reason,
"for I am not yet ascended," implying that such "touching" would no
longer be prohibited when He was ascended. Mary seems to have thought
that already the "little while" of His absence was past, and that now He
was to be always with them upon earth, helping them in the same familiar
ways and training them by His visible presence and spoken words. This
was a misconception. He must first ascend to the Father, and those who
love Him on earth must learn to live without the physical appearance,
the actual seeing, touching, hearing, of the well-known Master. There
must be no more kissing of His feet, but homage of a sterner, deeper
sort; there must be no more sitting at table with Him, and filling the
mind with His words, until they sit down with Him in the Father's
presence. Meanwhile His friends must walk by faith, not by sight--by
their inward light and spiritual likings; they must learn the truer
fidelity that serves an absent Lord; they must acquire the independent
and inherent love of righteousness which can freely grow only when
relieved from the over-mastering pressure of a visible presence,
encouraging us by sensible expressions of favour, guaranteeing us
against defeat and danger. Thus only can the human spirit freely grow,
showing its native bent, its true tastes and convictions; thus only can
its capacities for self-development and for choosing and fulfilling its
own destiny be matured.
And if these words of Jesus seemed at first chilling and repellent, they
were followed by words of unmistakable affection: "Go to my brothers,
and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My
God and your God." This is the message of the risen Lord to men. He has
become the link between us and all that is highest and best. We know
that He has overcome all evil and left it behind; we know that He is
worthy of the highest place, that by His righteousness and love He
merits the highest place. We know that if such an one as He cannot go
boldly to the highest heaven and claim God as His God and Father, there
is no such thing as moral worth, and all effort, conscience, hope,
responsibility, are vain and futile. We know that Christ must ascend to
the highest, and yet we know also that He will not enter where we cannot
follow. We know that His love binds Him to us as strongly as His rights
carry Him to God. We can as little believe that He will abandon us and
leave us out of His eternal enjoyment, as we can believe that God would
refuse to own Him as Son. And it is this which Christ puts in the
forefront of His message as risen and ascending: "I ascend unto My
Father and your Father." The joy that awaits Me with God awaits you
also; the power I go to exercise is the power of your Father. This
affinity for heaven which you see in Me is coupled with affinity for
you. The holiness, the power, the victory, I have achieved and now enjoy
are yours; I am your Brother: what I claim, I claim for you.