St. Mary
Magdalene at the Sepulcher
by Rev. Francis A. Baker
Easter Sunday
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“But He
rising early the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene” (Mark
16:9)
I
A
St. Mary Magdalene may be called the Saint of the Resurrection. She is intimately associated with that event in the pages of the Scriptures, and in the minds of Christians. Indeed, the Gospel account of the Resurrection embraces an almost continuous record of the actions of this holy woman from the Crucifixion until Easter Day; and I have thought that in tracing that record this morning, while I am presenting to you the great mystery of today’s celebration,
B
I shall at the same time be pointing out to you the means of obtaining those graces which our risen Lord has come to impart. St. Mary Magdalene’s history for these three days is a history of love. Everything she does, everything she says, is a proof of her love for our Lord. And the distinguishing favors our Lord bestowed on her are a pledge of what we may look for today, if we imitate her love.
II
A
First, then, we are told that when our Lord was taken down from the cross, and laid in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, she went “and saw how the body was laid.” One might have thought it would have satisfied her to stand by the cross, through those fearful hours, till it was all over, and then to have returned home. No; love will see the last. She will follow on to the grave.
B
It is true the dead bodies of our friends feel not our kindness, but still we want them treated with tenderness and care. So Mary follows the corpse to the burial, and, when it is laid in the sepulcher she looks in to see how it is laid. Not a superficial look: no, an earnest scrutinizing gaze. She sees how the drooping head lays on its stony pillow, and how the pierced hands and feet are disposed. She makes a picture of it all in her own mind, and “then returns to the city to prepare spices and ointments.”
C
Now, there was no need at all of this. Nicodemus had come, as soon as Pilate had given the disciples possession of our Lord’s body, and brought “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, a hundred pounds weight.” But Mary does not care for that. Others may do what good works they choose, but she will not be cheated of hers. And what she does she will do prodigally, too. It was her way.
D
You remember how, at the house of Simon, she brought her alabaster box of ointment, and broke it, and scattered it over the feet of Jesus, so that the whole house was filled with the perfume; and how Judas found fault with her, saying, “This ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and given to the poor.” Our Lord attempted then to excuse her extravagance, saying, “She has done this against the day of my burial.”
E
No, she would do it then, and she would do it at His burial, too. Nicodemus and “the holy women” may bring as much as they like, but she will do her part. Precious and costly shall her offering be as she can make it, not because He needs it, but because her heart is straitened to express its love. It is her pleasure to spend and be spent for Him whom she loved; and all she can do is too little.
III
A
But while Mary’s love was impulsive and generous, it was obedient. “She rested on the Sabbath Day, according to the commandment.” Here is a test of true love. We want to do something very much; we think the motive is good; but there comes a providential obstacle in the way. We cannot do it just now. We cannot do it just in the way we want. And too often our love is not pure enough for this test. We murmur and complain, and commit a thousand disobediences, and show how much self-love had to do with our undertakings.
B
It was not so with this holy woman. She waited all the Sabbath Day. It was God’s command. The seventh day was kept by the Jews with a ceremonial strictness that forbade all work; and she would keep the commandment to the letter. So not a step would she take on the Sabbath, not even to the Savior’s grave. I am sure that Sabbath was a long one to her. Never was time’s foot so heavy. Never did the hours go so slow. Never were the sacred services so tedious.
C
A thousand times she goes to the window to see if the shadows were getting long, and each time it seems to her that the sun is standing still. O loving heart! Loving in what she did not do, as well as in what she did. She will not take liberties with her conscience. She will not be officious or intrusive. She will not please herself on pretence of doing something for God.
D
And so, though her heart is at the sepulcher all day, thought she yearns to go there, not a foot will she stir, not a hand will she lift, till she knows that the fitting time is come. Her love was that orderly charity of which the Holy Scripture speaks.”
IV
A
But the longest day has an end, and the end of that Sabbath at last arrived. The sun sinks beneath the horizon. The evening sacrifice is over. Darkness falls upon the temple aisles, and the last worshipper departs. By degrees the streets of Jerusalem become silent and deserted. It is night, a glorious night; for the full paschal moon pours down its floods of light upon the holy city.
B
And now the good woman, laden with her ointments and spices, sets out for the sepulcher. Alone, or only with a feeble woman like herself, she goes out late at night, and to where? To a garden outside the city, where a band of soldiers keep watch over a grave, closed with a great stone, and sealed with the seal of state. Is she not afraid? Does she not run a thousand risks?
C
Even supposing she reaches the place in safety, will she be permitted to approach the grave? Who will roll the stone from the door? Who will dare to break the seal? O holy boldness of love! Which, when a duty is to be done, asks no questions, and know no difficulties. O love! Stronger than death, despising torments and casting out fear!
D
Here is the wisdom of the saints. Here is the secret of all the great things that have been done for God. There is a higher wisdom and a higher prudence than the wisdom and the prudence of this world. There is a trust in God which is ever regarded as daring and enthusiastic, but which God justifies, and men themselves are forced at last to applaud.
V
A
Such were the sentiments with which St. Mary Magdalene went to the sepulcher. But here a new circumstance demands our attention. She set out, we are told, “while it was yet dark.” It was night, the dead of night, when she left her house, and she did not reach the sepulcher till “the sun was risen.” How did this happen? The place in which our Lord was crucified was, as the evangelist tells us, “near the city.” And, one reason why Pilate allowed the disciples to lay our Lord’s body in Joseph’s tomb was, because it was close to the place of crucifixion, and the body could be laid there before the Passover began.
B
What, then, delayed St. Mary Magdalene so long? What is the meaning of this? So prompt and eager in setting out, so tardy in arriving? Love, again, my brethren, is the explanation. She had to pass through the city. Her road was what is called the “Way of Sorrows,” which Jesus took when he was led to Calvary, and along which she had followed Him on Good Friday. How could she go fast? Every step brought its own memories.
C
There was the house of Caiaphas. There the judgment-hall of Pilate. There the balcony at which Jesus had been presented to the crowd, clad in a purple robe and crowned with thorns. There stood the pillar at which He had been scourged, and there was the spot at which he had fallen under the weight of His cross, and it was given to Simon of Cyrene to carry. No, her course was a pilgrimage.
D
Each step was a holy station, at which she stopped awhile to pray and call to mind the events of that dreadful morning. And when she came to Calvary, where the cross was still standing, and threw herself on the ground to kiss the sod still wet with the Savior’s Blood, the hours pass by unheeded, for Jesus hangs there again, and Mary, His mother, is by her side, and each tender word, each look of sorrow is again repeated.
E
Love meditates. Love lingers in the footsteps of its beloved, and the shortest, sweetest hours it finds on earth are hours of prayer. What wonder, then, that Mary kneels, embracing the foot of the cross, in perfect forgetfulness of all else besides, until, as she raises her eyes to cast an adoring glance, she sees that the cross is gilded by the red gleam of the coming Easter sun – that it is already day. Thus recalled to herself, she kisses that sacred tree for the last time, tears herself from it, and hurries off to fulfill the work she had in hand.
VI
A
And she arrived at the sepulcher just in time, or rather God was there to meet her to reward her love. For the moment she arrived, “there was a great earthquake, and an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And his countenance was like lightning and his raiment as snow. And for fear of him the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men.
B
And the angel, answering, said to the woman: 'Fear not, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come and see the place where the Lord was laid. And go quickly tell his disciples that He is risen, and behold, He will go before you into Galilee. And they went out quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, running to tell his disciples.'" (Matthew 28:2-8)
C
See her running from the sepulcher as fast as she had so lately run to it; for love easily changes its employment at the voice of its beloved. She had come to anoint the body of Jesus; there is no need of that now, for Jesus is alive; but still there is something to do for Jesus – to tell His disciples. Peter, James, John, and the other disciples are at home, sorrowful and fearful. He whom they loved and trusted is no more; and they, whither shall they go?
D
Besides this, there was an additional sorrow. They had forsaken their good Master in the day of His distress; Peter had even denied with an oath that he knew Him; and they now sat depressed and anxious in that upper chamber in which so lately they had eaten the Passover with Him. But He is alive! And Mary knows it! Shall she wait to see Him? No, she must go quickly and tell His disciples. “This commandment have we from God, that He that loves God, loves his brother also.” (l John 4:21)
E
And Mary leaves the sepulcher, leaves Christ, to go and carry the joyful news to His afflicted brethren. With nimble feet, with eager countenance, she returns to the city, seeks out the well-known house, and appears in the midst of the sorrowing group, with the exclamation: “Jesus is alive! He is risen from the dead!”
VII
Alas! Poor Magdalene! “Her words seemed to them as an idle tale.” To us, familiar with the doctrine and proofs of our Lord’s Resurrection, it is wonderful how slow the apostles were to believe it. No doubt, their slowness to believe is a benefit to us, because it was the occasion of multiplying the proofs. Perhaps, too, it was not unnatural; for faith does not come all at once.
VIII
A
There is often a period between doubt and faith, a period of inconsistency; in which one is at one moment all Christian, and at another believes nothing. Certainly it was so with the apostles on Easter Day, and Mary Magdalene seems to have shared their infirmity. The apostles, as soon as they had heard the news that Christ has risen, set out for the sepulcher.
B
When they came to the place, they found indeed the grave open, and the linen cloths, in which the Lord’s body had been wrapped, lying in it, and the guard gone; but Him they saw not. Mary Magdalene accompanied them, and when she saw neither the Lord Himself, nor the angel who had spoken to her, and when she saw the incredulous looks of the disciples, she herself began to doubt.
C
But though her faith was weak, her love was strong; and she stood at the door of the sepulcher, weeping. At least she will not give up the idea of finding the Lord’s body, and carrying out her first intention of embalming it. So she stands at the sepulcher, and looks in. She had looked in many times already; she had every corner of it by heart; but she looks in again. She will see the place where the Lord lay, if she cannot see Himself: and lo! This time she sees a new sight.
D
There are two angels, in white, sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Angels again! But this time not angels of fear, with a terrible countenance, as the first had been, but angels of comfort and peace. And they spoke to her: “Woman, why do you weep? Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
E
One would have thought it was something to see an angel, and hear his voice: but this good woman makes very little of it. No angel will satisfy her now. “They have taken away my Lord,” she replies, “and I know not where they have laid Him?” Is not this grief enough? To have a lost a Lord, a Friend, a Savior, such as Jesus was, and not even to have so much as His lifeless body left on which to lavish her endearments.
F
O my brethren, no created thing can satisfy the soul. I say not, though we had all the treasures of earth, but though we had all the treasures of heaven; though angels and saints were ours; though we had visions and revelations; yet all would be nothing if we had not God. Heaven would be hell without Him, and at the very gate of Paradise the soul would weep and say, “They have taken away my Lord.”
IX
A
But at this point a new actor appears on the scene. A man approaches, and addresses Magdalene in the same words that the angels had used: “Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? She takes him for the gardener, and suddenly a suspicion seizes her that he might know something of the treasure she had lost. She turned upon him and said: “Sir, if you have borne Him away, tell me where you have laid Him; and I will take Him away.”
B
She does not answer his question. She does not tell him whom she is seeking. For, as St. Bernard observes, “Love imagines everyone is as full of the object of its love as it is itself;” and so she says: “If you have borne Him away, tell me where thou have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” No need to mention His Name. All things knew it. The sun publishes it is written on the leaves. The wind utters it. It is the Name that is above every name – the Name at which every knee must bow.
C
“Tell me where you have laid Him, and I will go and carry Him away.” What, you! a weak woman! Can you carry away a heavy corpse? Yes, she can; and they that doubt it do not know how strong love is, how great a weight it can carry, what hard things it can do, and how it makes a man do what is above nature, or, rather, how, with faith and grace, it brings out the power that is in these human hearts of ours, and awakens their latent energies.
X
A
And now Jesus can restrain Himself no longer; for Jesus it is who now speaks with her. She had charged Him with taking away the Sacred Body, and she was right. He it was who had taken it from the grave. “I have power to lay it down,” said He, “and I have power to take it up again.” (John 10:18) Yes, it was Jesus.
B
He had seen her tears, listened to her complaint, watched her efforts, and now the time had come when He would disclose Himself to her. He said to her: “Mary!” Oh! what voice is that. What sweet and tender memories it wakes up! The home of Bethany, the banqueting-hall of Simon, Mount Calvary, all are brought before her.
C
She turns and looks keenly at the speaker, and one look is enough. It is He, the same – the very same who spoke pardon and peace to her soul, when first, a guilty woman, she had washed His feet with her tears. It is Jesus. He, lives again. And, with her accustomed salutation, she kneels before Him, and says: “Rabboni!” which is to say, Master!
XI
A
How much is expressed in this brief interview. “Mary!” It is a word of gentle reproach. Mary, do you not remember My words – My promise – that I would rise again? Mary, - do you not believe My angels, bearing testimony to My Resurrection? Mary, whose brother Lazarus I have raised from the grave, do you not think that I am as powerful to rise from the dead as to restore life to others? “Mary!”
B
It is a term of affection. As much as to say: I am risen; but I am still your friend. I do not forget the past, and now, on this glorious morning of My Resurrection, I tell you that I know you by your name, and love you with the same love with which I loved you in the days of My sorrow. And “Master!” is her fitting reply. “Master of my heart, whom only I have loved!” “Master of my faith, whom now I acknowledge as indeed risen from the dead!” “Master, whose Truth and Power I have been so slow to understand!” “Master, whom all my future life shall honor and obey!” O happy Magdalene! Her search is ended. Her tears are dried. O joy beyond all thought! She has seen Him, and talked with Him!
XII
A
O my brethren need I say more? Has not St. Magdalene preached an Easter sermon? Love is the way to keep this feast. Love is the way to faith and joy. It is the way to faith, for our Lord says: “If any man shall do the will of God he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God.” (John 7:17)
B
It is said of Magdalene that she loved much because she was pardoned much; I say she believed much because she loved much. And love is the way to joy. Who are they that are truly happy on this day? They who with Magdalene have sought Jesus; they who by a true confession and a devout communion have united themselves to the risen Savior, and conversed with him in sweet familiarity.
C
For to them our Lord speaks and says: “Fear not, I have called you by your name, you are mine. I am the Lord, your Savior, the Redeemer, that Mighty One of Jacob. Behold My hands and feet, that it is I myself! Fear not, Israel my chosen, and Jacob my elect, for I am He that lived and was dead, and have the keys of hell and death. And behold! I am alive for ever more!”