179. Wednesday after Easter Day.
O God, let our hope of resurrection be
grounded in the resurrection of Christ. Amen.
John 20, 1-10. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, 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 sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he, stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
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The stone is rolled away, and the sepulchre is open; the Lord is not there; the linen clothes remain, and the napkin is wrapped together in a place by itself. Everything contradicts the assumption that enemies have despoiled the grave; nor is it possible that his friends have removed his body. — The grave is a tenement of death no more; nothing remains in it save the trappings of death. This is the grave of Jesus; but his grave is my grave. For whose sin did he die? It must have been for ours; for himself had none. It is, then, our death which he dies; but then it also is our grave in which he is buried. Does anyone doubt that the eyes of Mary and Peter and John told them the truth; that the sepulchre was empty? That is a fact about which there can be no question, whether or no. But who can be supposed to have opened the grave and removed the body? The disciples could not have done it; for a watch had been set, and the stone had been sealed. Besides, such a thing would never have occurred to them; for they had no idea that he would, in fact, rise again from the dead. No; this is what has transpired, and to us it means eternal life: He is risen; the grave is rent asunder; for the wages of sin has been paid, and death is swallowed up in life. The scripture speaks true; and Jesus was in the right when he said that he would rise again on the third day. My grave still looks, to be sure, as though it were the tenement of death. The casket and the shroud and the napkin are there, and my body also, for a time; but my Jesus, who lay in the grave and arose again, has said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11, 25). The truth of this is evidenced to me by his open and empty sepulchre. My heart lives in Jesus; I may say that I feel, that the life which he gave, and which throbs in my innermost heart, is eternal and cannot die. Nevertheless, that which is more sure and certain, a thousand times more certain than all things else, is his promise: “Because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14, 19). Because he is risen, we shall rise from the dead also.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life, O God; in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Give us grace to believe; give us the light of the Spirit, that we may have a true and living faith. Amen.
Jesus lives! thy terrors now
Can no longer, death, appall me;
Jesus lives! by this I know,
From the grave he will recall me.
Brighter scenes will then commence:
This shall be my confidence.
Jesus lives! henceforth is death
But the gate of life immortal;
This shall calm my trembling breath,
When I pass the gloomy portal.
Faith shall cry, as fails each sense,
“Lord, thou art my confidence.”