After the death of Christ his side was pierced with a spear by one of the soldiers, at the time the other two sufferers were slain, probably to make sure of his death, fancying that he might have swooned. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrim, a secret worshiper of Christ, begged his body from Pilate, and assisted by another member of the Sanhedrim, Nicodemus, made a hurried burial in a new sepulcher, wherein no one had ever been laid, hewn out of the rock, closing the door with a huge stone. At the request of the priests Pilate sealed the door with the Roman seal and placed a guard of sixteen Roman soldiers over it, lest "his disciples should steal away the body." There, upon the last seventh day Sabbath of the world, the torn and weary body of the Lord lay at rest. The faithful and loving women, who had stood at the cross, had followed the body to its resting place, and "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus, beheld where it was laid," having observed it before the Roman guard was placed there. After the Sabbath was passed, they returned, early on the first day of the week, to embalm the body with sweet spices, a tribute not satisfactorily attended to amid the confusion of the hurried burial. They found no body in the tomb.

      At the moment when Christ died, nothing could have seemed more abjectly weak, more pitifully hopeless, more absolutely doomed to scorn and extinction and despair, than the Church which he had founded. It numbered but a handful of weak followers. They were poor, they were ignorant, they were hopeless. They could not claim a single synagogue or a single sword. So feeble were they, and insignificant, that it would have looked like foolish partiality to prophesy for them the limited existence of a Galilean sect. How was it that these dull and ignorant men, with their cross of wood, triumphed over the deadly fascinations of sensual mythologies, conquered kings and their armies, and overcame the world? There is one, and one only, possible answer--the resurrection from the dead. All this vast revolution was due to the power of Christ's resurrection--Farrar. [242]

      1. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early. The Sabbath ended at sunset, so that Jesus had been dead and buried Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning, beginning at the previous sunset, three days according to Jewish reckoning. See 1 Sam. 30:12, 13; 2 Chron. 10:5, 12. This visit John says was "early, while it was yet dark;" Mark says "very early in the morning;" Matthew says "As it began to dawn." John names Mary Magdalene as the important one of these women who visited the tomb, but does not say she was alone. From the other evangelists we learn that Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and Salome were with her, and that they came with sweet spices to embalm the body of Jesus, expecting to secure aid to remove the stone. The fact that they came to embalm the body shows that they were not satisfied with the coarser, but loving treatment of Joseph and Nicodemus, and that they did not expect a resurrection. To their astonishment they found the stone rolled away.

      2. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, etc. The reason that John mentions Mary Magdalene alone is shown in this statement. She was the one who ran and met Peter and himself. Her sad cry, "They have taken the Lord away out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him," shows that others were with her at the sepulcher. Her only explanation was that the enemies had taken away the body. While Mary had gone to seek the disciples the other women entered the sepulcher and saw an angel there. See Matt. 28:6-7.

      3, 4, Peter . . . came to the sepulcher. As soon as Peter and John heard the story of Mary Magdalene they at once hurried out of the city to the sepulcher. They were intensely excited by the startling story, and ran with their utmost speed to the sepulcher. John seems to have been the swifter of the two and reached it first. The circumstantial details he gives are those of an eye witness.

      5, 6, 7. And he . . . saw the linen clothes lying. Though John reached the sepulcher first he was so awed that he did not enter in, but through the open [243] door he saw the tomb to be empty, but linen clothes that Joseph and Nicodemus had used for burial garments (see John 19:40) lying within. Peter, more impulsive and bolder, as soon as he reached the tomb, went within and also noted the linen wrappings, carefully folded, and even the napkin that was about his head, placed in such a way as to show that the tomb had not been rudely robbed.

      8, 9. Then went in that other disciple . . . and he saw and believed. When John entered in, saw the careful attention paid to the grave clothes, and knew that rude robbers could not have taken the body, it flashed upon his mind, for the first time, that the Lord had risen. So dull had they all been, according to his confession, notwithstanding the clear, Scripture statements and the teachings of the Lord, that they had not before understood that he should rise from the dead. This is the first gleam of faith in the Lord's resurrection. John was the first believer.

      10. The disciples went away again to their own home. Probably to the house of John, which there is reason to believe was in Jerusalem. The tomb was empty; there was nothing more they could do but simply to await the developments that might come.

      11. Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. She had followed Peter and John more slowly, and when all the other disciples departed she remained to weep at the place where the Lord had lain. She also stooped and gazed through her tears into the sepulcher, but without hope, when suddenly she

      12, 13. Seeth two angels, clothed in white. It is not certain that she at first knew them to be angels; she was stupefied almost with grief, and they had the appearance of men, as did the angel seen by the other women whom she had not met since she ran for Peter and John. They asked her, Why weepest thou? and her answer shows that the stone rolled away from the door of the sepulcher has not been lifted from her heart; "Because they have taken away my Lord and I know [244] not where they have laid him." To her, still, the broken tabernacle of clay laid in the tomb, is her Lord.

      14. She turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing. As she spoke of her Lord her Lord was there, though she did not recognize him. Her failure to do so was due probably in part to her preoccupation and excitement of mind and to the dimness of the light. She saw a man, and paid little heed at first to his appearance, though it may be possible that her "eyes were holden," as in the case of the disciples on the way to Emmaus.

      15. Woman, why weepest thou? The same question is asked, first, by the Lord that had been by his angels in the tomb. Mary, still heedless of all but her sorrow, without looking, takes it for granted that it is the gardener who has charge of the garden in which the sepulchre was placed, for who else would be likely to be there so early? She at once asks him about the body. As yet her hope is dead.

      16. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. . . . Rabboni. Before she had been listless, but when she heard her name in the accents she remembered so well, she at once beheld her Lord, and crying out, Rabboni, Master, she attempted to throw herself at his feet.

      17. Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. She, in her gladness, sought to grasp her Lord about the feet. There has been much conjecture as to the reasons underlying the Savior's prohibition. It seems to me that the explanation is about as follows: She desired to fling herself upon the Lord and retain him, but it was needful that he come and go, during the time he showed himself to his disciples, until he "ascended to his Father." Then would he come again by the Spirit to be with his disciples forever. Had he permitted her embrace he would have been compelled, in a moment, to escape from her, but since he has ascended to his Father he abides with the saints forever! Though Mary is not allowed to embrace him, there is assigned to her a higher privilege. She is told to go and tell the glad story to my brethren. He is still our Brother. I ascend to my Father. The time of the ascension is viewed as present. He has risen; he ascends; another step in his exaltation. The Father to whom he [245] ascends is "your Father" also. The disciples are brethren of the Lord and children of his Father.

      18. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord. The women were last at the cross; they followed the body to the tomb; they were first to see the open tomb; first to hear the story of the resurrection from an angel, and Mary was the first to see the Lord. Great is the faith and devotion of the sex; great is the honor with which the Lord has crowned the faith and devotion of women.

      I have been used for many years to study the history of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidences of those who have written about them; and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the mind of a fair inquirer, than that Christ died, and rose again from the dead.--Dr. Arnold.

      I. Proved by the enemies of Christ. (1) It was impossible for these enemies to deny that Christ had by some means left the grave. (2) It was impossible for them to give any other explanation than that which they now invented--that his disciples stole the body. (3) It was impossible for this, the only explanation they could give, to be credited; for the disciples could not have stolen him if they would.

      II. Proved by the friends of Christ. (1) The apostles had the most powerful faith in the fact. They were unanimous in their declaration of it a few days after, on the very spot on which it occurred, and that to men who were prepared to do anything to conceal the fact. (2) This faith came in direct opposition to their previous beliefs and worldly interests. They had no expectation and no hope of such resurrection. (3) They had every opportunity for thoroughly satisfying themselves on the point. (4) By their declaration of the fact they induced thousands of the enemies of Christ to believe in it, and that close to the time and near the spot on which it occurred. The early Church universally believed in it; and it is incredible that a myth, a false story, should have So grown up without substantial foundation.--From Thomas' Genius of the Gospel. (5) They attested this fact, not only by their lives, but by their death. (6) Only the fact of the resurrection can account for the marvelous change in the spirit and character of the apostles. The resurrection completely transformed them; inspired them with a new conception of Christ's, kingdom as for all people, with a new courage to suffer for the sake of their risen Lord and his kingdom, and with a new purpose to preach Christ and him crucified everywhere as a spiritual redemption for sin (Acts 2:39; 5:41; 10:43). Neither fraud nor fiction is competent to account for the moral contrast. (7) A singular and significant testimony to the truth of the resurrection is afforded by the change in the Sabbath day. It was changed, not by any express command in the New Testament, but by the almost universal consent of the Church, which could not endure to observe as a day of joy and [246] gladness that on which Christ lay in the tomb, nor forbear to mark as a weekly festival that on which he arose.--Abbott.

      1. The most glorious hopes are sometimes born out of the womb of darkness.

      2. The stone that was rolled away from the door of the sepulcher has been rolled from human hearts.

      3. Those that seek Christ need not fear though they do not find him at first, and in the way they expect.

      4. God is often far better to us than our fears.

      5. Go to the cross and tomb of Christ and perhaps there will be revealed to thee the risen Lord.

      5. THE RESURRECTION.--(1) It demonstrates that Christ is the Son of God. If he could not conquer death, and come back from heaven, he could prove that at the first he came from heaven. (2) It is the proof of immortal life beyond the grave; that death does not end all, but the soul lives after the body dies. (3) It is the assurance of our own resurrection. (4) It shows that our Savior has power over every one of our enemies. (5) It teaches the moral resurrection, that being dead to sin we should be alive unto God.

[CLC01 242-247]