James Nisbet Commentary - John 20:11 - 20:11

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James Nisbet Commentary - John 20:11 - 20:11


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

WHAT MARY SAW THROUGH HER TEARS

‘But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping.’

Joh_20:11

Here is the lone figure of Mary Magdalene weeping before the tomb in the early dawn of the first Easter Day. Let us think of what Mary saw through her tears.

I. She saw the stone rolled away.—Matthew says ‘the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.’ A grave-stone a seat for an angel. What a triumph!

II. She saw the empty grave.—The grave-clothes were there, the sweet scent of the spices clings around the rock-hewn tomb, but Jesus was not there. The Resurrection was entirely unexpected. Mary expected to find the Body, for she brought spices to complete the embalmment. St. Peter and John are equally surprised (Joh_20:9). Yes, the grave was empty, except that the sins of all believers were buried in that grave.

III. She saw the ministering angels.

IV. She saw the Living Lord.—‘The Lord is risen indeed.’ ‘ “Risen”—that one word, if we hold it fast, changes all things, conquers death, dries tears, calms grief, widens our outlook, and makes earth the nursery and heaven home.’ The Risen Christ is our Hope and Salvation, and is the one Divine answer to all our sorrows and questionings. Wonderful things are seen through tears, and seen no other way. The way to the Cross is wet with tears. The way to the grave is wet with tears. The most blessed things of our lives come through tears. May we learn to pray those lovely lines of Hartley Coleridge—

‘I am a sinner, full of doubts and fears,

Make me a humble thing of love and tears.’

Then ‘the raindrops of grief will become rainbows of joy.’ Other times for other things, but Easter for joy.

—
Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘It is scarcely too much to say of this narrative that it needs no other evidence of its truth than its own beauty and suggestiveness. If this and the other accounts in these two last chapters of the Fourth Gospel are not descriptive of historical events, where in the imaginative literature of the world are their parallels to be found? As we master them in detail we feel that they could never have sprung from invention or misunderstanding. “If”—says a modern preacher—“it is not history, I would match the story of Mary Magdalene and the Lord on the Resurrection morning, for subtlety of characterisation, for exquisite beauty, for reticence, for simplicity that goes straight to the heart, against anything that a Shakespeare or a Dante ever wrote.” ’