"For as yet they knew not the scripture that He must rise again from the dead?'
Resurrection from the dead is victory over death and the grave. It is a mystery which again and again was found to be beyond the thoughts of the disciples. As they came down from the hill after the Transfiguration, and afterward, as they are together on the road to Jerusalem, they betray their unskillfulness in that mystery, and show that their minds had never dwelt in the light of it-and yet it was to have been found in scripture. The sign of Jonas the Prophet, among other witnesses, had told it,—-for according to it the Son of Man was to be but three days in the heart of the earth. Resurrection, generally was understood; but this special form of it was not.
Resurrection, however, in its common character, or resurrection at the last day, is but a 'coming up to judgment. It is not victory, as the Lord's resurrection was, and as the resurrection of the just is destined to be. It is rather defeat, or the sealing of the doom of the ungodly. And these truths or mysteries (when thus rightly divided), make us see, that the action of even such a loving soul as Mary Magdalene in this chapter, is, in one sense, but a poor thing, while the anointing of Mary of Bethany in chap. 12 becomes, by contrast, in our sight, a very blessed thing. There was divine intelligence in it. That anointing tells us, that she knew the secret of her Lord's victory over death. The breaking of the box of spikenard was her way of celebrating that victory before it was accomplished-just as the inscription on the Cross was God's way of anticipating and celebrating the same.
The saints will share this triumph with their Lord-but still the conquest and the day is all. His own. He is the first-fruits of the harvest, the first-born from the dead. He is to have the pre-eminence in this, as in everything. And this pre-eminence is strikingly and finely seen, as in a figure, when we look into the empty sepulcher of this chapter.
The clothes which had been wrapped about the body of the Lord were there, and there also was the napkin which had been about His head. Nothing that had bound Him, that was not loosened. His rising had done this. It was not so, when Lazarus rose; for there was no victory over death in the body of Lazarus. But here, in the garden of the sepulcher, there was the resurrection of One who could not be holden of it (Acts 2:2424Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. (Acts 2:24)). From Lazarus the grave-clothes are loosened; but here, the resurrection had loosened them.
And more than this, There is no symptom of struggle here. The clothes are laid aside in order. There is no disturbance. The victory had evidently, been gained without a struggle. Indeed, it had been already achieved at Calvary, when the Surety gave up the Ghost. The victory has now rather to be declared than to be gained. Still, however, in all this wondrous mystic scene, we may find the Lord in the place of pre-eminence. For, as we read, the napkin which was about the head is seen lying in a place by itself. All the grave-clothes are there. The body had been freed from head to foot. But still, the napkin which was about the head lies in a place by itself. It is thus pre-eminent and distinguished, even in the midst of other mystic glories, other spoils of glorious war, and witnesses of complete and easy victory. And just so, after this pattern, is it in the mystery. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church, the body of Christ. It shares the life of the Son of God, and the gates of Hades cannot prevail. But all this virtue which belongs to her, comes from her having that life. It is all found there and there only. But as for Him it was not possible that He should be holden of it. The body may share the triumph, and so it shall; but the life and power which secures and wins the day over death is all His.
But further, as to this chapter.
Angels, let me observe, learn their lessons by sight. As we read, "seen of angels"-and again, " which things the angels desire to look into." And together with this, I may say, as they look and learn the lesson, there is no moral hindrance in them.
This is their place, so to speak, in the school of God. They are not personally interested in the lesson, as we are-they are spectators merely; but then, their power of vision is perfect-not dimmed by any moral pravity.
According to this, are they seen in this chapter. They learn the mystery of the resurrection, resurrection from the dead or life in victory, by sight-but they learn it at once.
This is beautiful in its place. But still, there is something more precious, I doubt not, by far.
They do not learn their lesson, as we do. They learn it as admiring spectators; we learn it through our necessities and mercies. They may learn it more quickly than we do, but they cannot learn it after a method so dear and grateful to Him who is the common Teacher.
These distinctions we further get in this beautiful chapter. The angels learn the resurrection of the Lord from the sight of the empty tomb. They sit there, and they gaze, and they wonder and worship, knowing the mystery at once, and without effort, at the sight of the place where the Lord had lain; but poor Mary Magdalene is dull, and others of us still more dull. For Satan and nature have a blinding power in us, but Satan and nature do not stand in the way of angels. Our Mary has to learn the lesson with a rebuke; but still she learns it as one who was personally concerned in it-and that gives her, dull though she was, an interest with Him who was teaching the lesson, beyond all that angels could awaken. She was as one in a wreck whom a gracious Deliverer was rescuing-they were but as the admiring crowd on the beach. The divine Deliverer may get His praise from them, but she is His prize.
This is the difference-a difference of no small value in the reckoning of grace, in the calculations of a heart "that delighteth in mercy," and finds more joy in the recovered sheep than in the ninety and nine which went not astray.
And the Lord, pleased with such disciples of His grace, is seen in this chapter to be patient and gracious in teaching this lesson of the empty tomb, or the mystery of resurrection from the dead, to the slow-hearted disciples, whether to Mary in the garden, to the company gathered within the closed doors at Jerusalem, or to the distant Thomas eight days afterward. And He teaches it so as to fill their spirits with the lesson-and this is learning mysteries indeed, or with a divine witness. Magdalene follows Him in spirit to heaven-the disciples, receiving His risen life, go forth to publish it-and Thomas worships Him in His glories, in the conviction and satisfaction of His illuminated heart.
Thus, after these ways, we see the differences. There are before us Mary of Bethany, the disciples of this chapter, and the angels.
Mary of Bethany had already known this mystery of life in victory, or resurrection from the dead, and had in spirit practiced or lived that lesson. She anointed the Lord at the Passover, even then, while on His way to His burial, anticipating His resurrection, or waving Him before God as the sheaf of first-fruits. She looked on Him as already at the other side of death and the grave, and anoints Him for His living and eternal glories. She talked of life in the midst of death, of the victory of the Son of God, ere He had met the enemy to fight the battle; and with her box of spikenard or her ivory palace, had greeted or gladdened the consecrated king and priest of God.
The angels now, at the sepulcher, learn this lesson, and learn it, as we said, at once and without difficulty, when they see the place where the Lord had lain.
The disciples learn it with slowness of heart, some more, some less, under the patient teaching of their divine Master. But they learn it as needing it for themselves.
Thus is it with these different classes in the school of God. But as the moral of all this, I may add, that better is it, to live our lessons than merely to learn them; better like her of Bethany, to practice them in the power and experience of our souls, than to be gathering them up again and again from the words of our divine Teacher. But still, beloved, such is His grace, and the joy He finds in His own mercy, that I will be bold to say, it is, in His account, better that we learn His lessons as sinners than as angels-better to learn the wonder of the empty sepulcher, the mystery of life in victory or resurrection from the dead, through our own necessities and mercies, than as mere spectators.
Angels may safely learn the great things of Christ by sight, as they learn one of them, as we have seen in this chapter., They have no school of conscience to go to, no personal necessities, in the midst of which to discover and gather up the mercies of God. But we cannot learn the same lessons at all (at least, in God's account), if we learn them not in the conscience, through our necessities and our mercies, as interested sinners and not as angel-spectators-as those who know they cannot face eternity but from the lessons which they learn at the empty tomb of Jesus.
The truth that has been from the beginning is learned there-and that is, the victory of the Son of God for us sinners. Because of this, the blood of old on Noah's altar, and the still earlier lamb of Abel, wrought with God as they did. Because of this, the sprinkled lintel sheltered Israel in the place of death and in the day of judgment. And because of this, through all generations, the faith of sinners has found peace with God. The resurrection from the dead tells us that the seed of the woman, though bruised in the heel, had bruised the enemy's head. It bespeaks the mystery of life in victory, life regained for sinners, the presence of God restored to us in peace and liberty.
Nothing but resurrection from the dead could have done this. Had not Christ risen, we should be yet in our sins. A resurrection at the last day, again I say, is defeat. Look at it in Rev. 20 It is not worthy to be called a resurrection. It is the guilty one brought up to judgment. But a resurrection like Christ's is victory- and the resurrection of 1 Cor. 15 is such. It is before the last day, at "Christ's coming;" and it is a resurrection from the dead, as His was, for it is only "of those that are His."
May we wait for this, dear brethren