THE PLACE WHERE THE LORD LAY
‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay.’
Such were the words of the angel to the two Marys at the sepulchre.
I. A place of sacred interest.—‘Come, see the place.’ Cemetery or village churchyard, the place of our sleeping dead must always be to us a place of sacred and surpassing interest. But as we think of those righteous who are now sleeping, let us not be slow to ask ourselves whether we have a good hope that we shall have a part and fellowship in their rising. Let us learn wisdom from the lesson-teaching graves. Two may sleep together in them; and yet, when He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, ‘one shall be taken, and the other left.’
II. A mighty battlefield.—‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay.’ It was a mighty battlefield; the scene of a strife, unparalleled in its intensity. The strife and its issue had been foretold over and over again: ‘He shall swallow up death in victory’ (Is. Matthew 25:8; see also Hosea 13:14). But the battle is fought, and won; and now it is ours to have part in the gathered spoils. For a time, and within limits, death must reign, and the grave also. Still, if we are Christ’s, the grave receives us only as a trust. (See Is. Matthew 26:19.)
III. A sanctuary.—The place where the Lord lay represents a sanctuary; the shrine of the sleeping righteous; the robing-room of the saints, whence they may, on the great Easter Morn, mount up with wings as eagles and ‘meet their Lord in the air.’ In that intermediate state we are only ‘in joy and felicity,’ only delivered from the burden of the flesh. Centuries may elapse before we are ripe for our perfect consummation and bliss.
‘In Christ’ or ‘out of Christ’ every hope turns upon this alternative. If we would have one unshaken and never-failing ground of confidence, let us think of the Resurrection. As an enemy death is not; as a prison-chamber the grave is not. ‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay.’
—Prebendary D. Moore.
Illustrations
(1) ‘A dead Christ might have been a Teacher and a Wonder-worker, and remembered and loved as such. But only a Risen and Loving Christ could be the Saviour, the Life, and the Life-giver, and as such preached to all men. And of this most blessed truth we have the fullest and most unquestionable evidence.’
(2) ‘The Resurrection Body, which was recognised as the same Body, had yet undergone some marvellous change, of which we can gain a faint idea by what is directly recorded of its manifestation. It was not directly recognised, nor bound by material laws. The life which is revealed to us is not the continuation of the present life, but a life which takes up into itself all the elements of our present life, and transfigures them by a glorious change, which we can regard at present only under signs and figures.… The whole complex nature is raised and glorified. It is not that the soul only lives; nor yet that the body, such as it was before, is restored to its former vigour. The Saviour, so far as we regard His Manhood, is not unclothed, to use St. Paul’s image, but clothed upon. Nothing is taken away, but something is added by which all that was before present is transfigured. The corruptible puts on incorruption: the mortal puts on immortality.’