[Footnote 102: Joel ii. 25.]
Yes, my brethren, Christ at His Sepulchre satisfies the intellect and heals the conscience—and He also silences another cry of human woe. It is that of which the prophet spoke when he said: "A voice was heard of lamentation, of mourning and weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refused to be comforted, because they are not." [Footnote 103]
[Footnote 103: Jer. xxxi. 15.]
Oh! it is hard to see one we love die, but is it not harder to our sensitive nature to bury them? That makes us feel what we have lost. Reason tells us that the soul is immortal, but we need something more for our comfort. The heart asks, "What is to become of the body that I loved so much?" Talk of the lifeless and speechless corpse. It is not lifeless and speechless to me. Those cold lips smile the old smile on me, and whisper in my ear a thousand words of kindness. And oh, to part with that! To lose even that sad comfort! To have the body of the dead taken away from us, is not that a grief? Such was Mary Magdalene's sorrow. "They have taken away my Lord out of the Sepulchre, and I know not where they have laid Him." [Footnote 104]
[Footnote 104: St. John xx. 2.]
She could bear any thing but that. She had borne up at our Lord's death. It was a bitter thing, but then she stood at the foot of the cross on which He hung, and she could look up at Him and see Him. She had borne up on Friday evening, for then she was busy preparing her spices and ointments. She had borne up on Saturday, for she was thinking all day of her visit to the grave next morning. But on Sunday, to go and find His body gone—never again to look upon those lips that had spoken peace to her soul; never again to kiss with affection those sacred feet,—oh, this was too much. And Mary stood at the Sepulchre weeping. But lo! what voice is that which speaks: "Woman, why weepest thou?" It is the voice of Jesus himself, of Jesus whom she mourns. Himself, flesh and blood, the very Jesus whom she had known and loved. So, my brethren, as you weep at the graves of your friends, those very friends stand near you and say, "Why weepest thou?" Weep not for me. Weep not for me, childless mother! Weep not for me, my orphan child! Weep not for me, my sorrowing friend! Leave my body awhile in the grave. It is not dead but sleeps. "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall arise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin and in my flesh I shall see my God: Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another's." [Footnote 105]
[Footnote 105: Job xix. 25.]
Touch me not yet: wait awhile, and you shall see my hands and feet, that it is I myself. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But every one in his own order; the first fruits Christ, then they that are of Christ, who have believed in His coming." [Footnote 106]
[Footnote 106: I. Cor. xv. 22.]