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Him and would have held Him from ever leaving again. But there was work for Him to do before He could resume the fellowship' with His dis ciples. He must ascend to His Father and their Father, to His God anditheir God. Thus He would make known to. His disciples that His relationship with the Father whs now theirs, a truth sometimes beclouded by unscrip- tural talk of a universal Fatherhood of God. The Father and the God of our risen Lord is the Father and the God of every Christian, and each has a child’s right and high privilege to approach Him through Jesus Christ. Making Himself known to His own, He would make Himself known through His own, and Mary was told to “go to my brethren” artd give them the- message of resurrection. This is always the manner of service for each Christian; to personally know the risen Lord, and then to make Him known to others. With her perplexity and dis -1 tress all gone, and with a great “arid permanent satisfaction in her heart, Mary went at once to obey the com mand. Easter Sunday will become for each of us what it was for Mary, as* we meet the risen Lord and make Him known to others. Points and Problems 1. "The first day of the week eometh Mary Magdalene" (John 20:1). As Bishop. Andrews beautifully puts it: “She was last at His cross, and first at His grave.” Christ had done so muqh! for her. Her love for Him was so deep and strong that she could not refrain from showing this attention to His grave and His dead body. From her the Lord had cast seven demons (Mk. 16:9). Many have assumed that she had habitually sinned against the seventh commandment. Actually, how ever, there is no evidence whatever that Mary Magdalene was a woman of this character. Great injustice has been done her by reason of this false assumption. Nevertheless, she was a woman tragically given over to Satan’i control. “Seven devils” possessed her. When we see the awful things demons did to individuals in the New Testa ment (Mk. 5:1-20), it can well be understood why Mary Magdalene was so grateful to the Lord for her de liverance. Having received so much, she loved much. 2. "And he saw, and believed" (v. 8). It is instructive to notice the man ner in which Mary, John, and Peter used their eyes on that first Easter morning. Mary “seeth” the stone taken away from the sepulcher. The Greek word is blepo which ^simply means to see. When John first stooped and looked into the graver he used the same word. But when Peter went in to the tomb, and saw the linen clothes in their proper place, and also the
napkin in a place by itself, the word he used for “see” was theoreo which .suggests the idea of looking with a scrutinizing gaze. He looked critically. Then when Johii went into the sepul cher and “saw,.. and believed,” the word he used was eido which carries with it the idea of comprehension and understanding. He saw something in that tomb that produced conviction and faith. What did he see? Undoubt edly he saw the burial inwrappings of the body of Christ in such a con dition and position that they were an indisputable evidence of the resur rection of Christ. “The changed body had come from the linen inwrappings of the body taken down from the cross, leaving those cerements as the transfigured ' butterfly leaves the chrysalis” (Trumbull). 3. ''Woman, why weepest thou?" (vs. 13, 15). Why did Mary weep? She thought her Lord was dead. Her heart was broken when they nailed Him .to the tree and as He was laid in the tomb. And now she thought they had stolen away His body. What an emptiness in her heart! He whom she had loved was gone. Her hopes had all come crashing to the ground. Her heart was empty.- Any heart is empty without Christ. Mary wept until Christ spoke her name, and then her tears were brushed away. The message of Easter is that love and life are ours forevermore in Christ for the tak ing. The Cause for weeping has been removed. I think I hear terrible Captain Sep ulcher and his standard bearer Cor ruption talking over the situation on the night that Jesus Christ was buried. Corruption says to Sepulcher,. “Hold Vast to that Man in Joseph’s tomb yonder! There is a rumor that He pro poses to break forth from the grave; do not let Him go until I can fasten upon Him.” But Corruption fails to touch Him during all those hours in the tomb, because it had been writ ten, “Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psa. 16:10). Then Hell from beneath cries out, “Hold fast to this Man. If He comes out He will make a breach in the walls of death through which all the prison ers of Hades will escape.” And he that hath the power of death, even the Devil, exclaims in fright, “If thou let this Man go, thou art not Satan’s friend!” But vain the seal, and vain the watch, and vain the grip of death,'and vain the doors of the tomb. As it begins to dawn toward the first day of the week, there began to be a mighty stir in the.tomb; terrible Captain Sepulcher tightens his grip, but in vain. “It was not possible that he should be holden of death” Golden Text Illustration ■M ark 16:6
(Acts 2:24), He rises, He lives, even as saith the Scripture.—A. J. Gordon. A Glad, Glad Day J ohn ' 20:1-18 - MEMORY VERSE: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore” (Rev. 1:18). TO THE TEACHER: The Easter les son should be one of the most joyous of the whole year. Flowers, pictures,
and other Easter objects will help to create interest a n d discussion, and will make an attractive b a c k- ground for the lesson. LESSON STORY: Mary Magdalene loved the Lord Jesus s o v e r y
much that after His burial, she arose early ‘ in the morning to go to the sepulcher where He lay. When she arrived, she found that the stone had been taken away from'the door. She naturally supposed that the body of Jesus had been stolen. She ran to tell Peter. Then Peter and another disciple hurried to the tomb. Stooping. down and looking in, they saw the graveclothes and the napkin that had been about the head of the Lord. This presented a great mystery to them because they had not really under stood that Jesus was going to rise from the dead (v. 9). The disciples, went ,home, but Mary stayed at tie * sepulcher weeping. She decided to look into it again, and what do you think she saw? Two angels in white, one sitting at the head, and one at the foot, where Jesus had lain! Listen to what they said. (Read verse 13.) Then Mary turned around, and through her tears she saw the>Lord Jesus, but she didn’t know who He was. The Bible tells us what He said (vs. 15, 16). What a glad surprise! The Lord Jesus Christ was risen indeed! Object Lesson R ejected R edeemer R aised OBJECTS: Two large correspondence envelopes, two Tegular sized corres pondence envelopes, two R o m a n numeral Ill’s, a piece of red crayon, a small cardboard cross, and a pair of scissors. (Cut down both sides and across the bottom of one of "the large envelopes. Discard the irregular half
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