AT the emptied grave of Christ Matthew and Mark tell of one angel, while Luke and John record two, and thus says uncertain criticism that no angels were seen.
How cold and barren, how superficial and external this sort of view is!
You, O, pitiful criticism, in the face of that angel and the miracle grave would only have believed, if two or three officers of justice had stood by; from second to second had written down what they saw and heard; had sworn with oaths to the correctness of these two or three reports and signed with their names had passed them in to Pilate; and if by comparison these reports had perfectly agreed in every particular; to which of course it must be added, that these officers of justice could not be suspected of having secretly been in favor of Jesus; and finally that the official reports in duly stamped copy were still in existence without there being any doubt about their authenticity.
Then these critics would believe it. That is to say, in their chronicle they would annotate, that so it must have been seen and heard, after the manner of a captain, who, coming from sea, tells of this or that ship that has been sighted; but their soul would stand outside of it; under the impression of the mighty fact they would not come; and it would continue to go on outside of their heart and affections.
And yet this is what here counts. From everything that is told of Jesus’ resurrection, one is impressed, that whoever came to the grave, was moved as by having come in touch with a higher world.
This consternation that had mastered them, they communicated to all whom they met.
And the object of the fourfold narrative of the Evangelists is no other, than to bring about in your heart also something of that awe-struck feeling, so that you too might understand something of the “power of His resurrection.”
At that open grave of Jesus it was no heavenly firework that glittered for one moment, presently to be extinguished, but a glow of heavenly fire was there ignited, destined to shine forth eternally; and only when you yourself perceive the fostering warmth of that glow in your own soul, does Jesus’ resurrection become living reality to you.
Of course that glow of life shines out from Jesus Himself. From His most holy person. From soul and body both. If you will, more deeply still, from the Divine majesty that penetrated all of His human nature, and survived its self-destruction in death and conquered it.
From His most glorious triumph over grave and death.
But this indeed did not go on outside of nature and not outside of creation. For as in Ephrata’s fields the angelic hosts of God descend to sing their song, and in Gethsemane angels come to minister to Jesus, and at His ascension into heaven angels form His escort, and as in the day of judgment Christ shall appear with all His holy angels, so now there is angelic concern when Jesus rises from the grave.
As a forked bolt of lightning, that at some ten feet distance from you strikes into the ground, and blinds your eyes, so was that sudden appearance of an angel to the Roman soldiers, who kept watch at the closed and sealed grave of Jesus.
Even the ground on which they stood, at his appearance, trembled for one moment under their feet.
And when, surprised by that clear unexpected light, and frightened by that quaking of the ground, they saw coming forth from that light a form, like that of a man, clothed in snow-white glistening garments, anxious fear took hold of them, great terror overmastered them, and the effect was that they became as dead men.
Then they scattered, and came more dead than alive to the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem.
They did not lack in bravery. A powerful enemy they would have faced in battle, and would rather have remained dead on the spot, than have retreated.
But at that grave there operated a power from a higher world.
And against this no sword stroke could avail.
And, as having become dead they fled.
So have the Roman soldiers become frightened; but not Mary, and not the Magdalen.
They too at first were frightened but they did not flee.
“Fear not,” the angel said quieting them, “for I know that ye seek Jesus, Who was crucified.”
This makes all the difference.
He who, like the Roman soldier, at the grave misses every tenderer tie to Jesus, is frightened, and must be frightened, as soon as the power of the higher becomes perceptible; while he who has ties of love and ties of faith that bind him to Jesus, who seeks Jesus, also seeks that higher world, and when the first trepidation is past, that higher appearance affects him blessedly and blissfully; and therefore the Marys do not shrink back.
Their soul revives at that selfsame angel appearance; those soldiers, otherwise so brave, become as dead men.
This was more than a fact, herein was prophecy.
Those soldiers at the grave represented the sumtotal of the astonishing power, which at that time in the Roman empire dominated the world.
That Mary with the Magdalene on the other hand the Kingdom of God, the people that were to appear under Jesus as King, and under that heavenly Captain, would wage war against that terrible power of the world.
And then it went hard against hard.
No violence was spared, no cruelty evaded, blood was shed.
Till they clashed with one another, Rome’s emperor with his countless legions and Jesus with His martyrs.
And what else was also here the end, save, that when the conflict was over, not merely Rome’s legions, but all Rome’s power, yea, the emperors themselves with their violence and wrath had become as dead men, and that the hosts of Jesus having life in the soul, have poured into that world sinking away from itself a new, a nobler, a richer life.
What were those Marys, after the standard of violence, compared with the unconquered warriors of Rome?
One stroke with the sword would have felled them.
And yet not the soldiers, but the Marys have won the day, because Jesus, Who arose, worked in and through them. Jesus, in His rising itself, set for the fall of the emperors of Rome, and for the rising of the Marys.
The savor of death unto death, and the savor of life unto life, they stand also in those soldiers and in those Marys directly over against one another.
From the side of the world salvation has then been sought in invention. It has been imagined, that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus. And thanks to this lie in the Sanhedrin and in the chief watch they breathed again.
And so criticism in our age has disposed of it. It has imagined, that the explanation lay in the disciples. Not in their intentional deception of others, but in their self-deception.
With this fancy about what the disciples have imagined, it was thought in these circles that they were rid of Jesus’ resurrection.
But see, here again the selfsame effect, and once more the savor of death is come upon those who would not bow before the Resurrection of Jesus.
Is it no savor of death, that came upon all these circles, when you see, how in spiritual barrenness and pitiful doubt they have already extinguished their enthusiasm which was at first so ardent, and how they see the masses, whose leaders they pretended to be, wander off in the paths of sensuality and of the gain of money?
And over against this also the savor of life has gone out among the faithful of Jesus.
Their faith in Jesus’ resurrection not wavering, but standing more securely than ever. Their number increasing. Their insights clarifying. Their influence waxing. And in our times the Resurrection of Immanuel limned in a depth of significance, which was not thought of even in the days of our fathers.
So Jesus reigns. He, Who had received power to have life in Himself, and thereby regained life from death, and can also bring life to you in the death of your sinful existence.
And now Easter is not a feast of time, to which the outpouring of the life of Jesus in your soul is bound.
That life-power of Jesus goes out by day and by night, and he who would truly be God’s child, endeavors daily to glory in the working of that life power in his heart.
But even so the return of Easter maintains a sense and a significance of its own.
You may have backslidden. A savor of death may again have come over your soul. And to him with whom it has come to this, there sounds in the preaching of Easter a voice of exhortation, to seek again the life-power, which is in Jesus, and more seriously to implore God for the inworking of that higher life-power.
Take heed in behalf of your soul, that you do not blind yourself to the undeniable fact, that each Eastertide as it comes anew lifts you up to more life power, or makes your soul sink back into more serious barrenness.
That barrenness of soul also is a savor of death.
And, alas, there are among God’s dear children, those who will wake up again early or late, but who now make all the impression, that they too have become as dead men.
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