The Empty Tomb

1917

Resurrection of Jesus Meant the Unfolding of the Purest Things of Life

When the angel pointed to the stone rolled away from the of the sepulcher and invited inspection of the empty tomb, what a magnificent allegory for life was written to the scrolls of humanity! Life is lived in action, say they who lay emphasis upon the strenuous life. But what action? The action of the ideal, the action of the parable of human existence. Erase the parables of beauty and lore and of love and service from the experiences of mortals, and religion vanishes and life loses its appeals to the higher aspirations and life's service becomes sordid and unworthy. The allegory of the empty tomb is the tremendous contribution of the resurrection to the life of humanity. It is inspiring to dwell upon a risen Lord. It is even more inspiring to dwell upon a risen life — the aggregate life Of hoping and struggling and effortful humanity. Civilization sits at the tomb of the divinest of men and with its mystical loom it weaves into the resurrection of Jesus the theme of advance and unfolding of the purest things of human life.

The dark fates that had cut the thread of the mortal life of the one who served a brief ministry of word and deed among his fellows, at the same time released the mechanism of almightiness. The human passed that the divine might be revealed. The mortal was lost in the immortal. The world has attestation to the limitlessness of life and therefore the illimitable reach of the divinest of its aspirations and endeavors. The risen Christ is adored because he is risen. Had he simply suffered he would have been pathetic. Ennobling as suffering is in triumph, it is useless to defeat. Jesus Christ did not simply suffer — he triumphed. This is the need of the ages and of all time and of all life. It is needful for men that they shall triumph over the deadening facts of materiality. It is necessary that they shall triumph over the cabining and cramping confines of mortal existence. It is necessary that they shall have the horizon of their soul's meaning made coterminous with the expanse of love and of hope and of faith. It is necessary that there shall be fulfillment to life and not an ending of it. It is important above all things that the drama of existence shall not close in a tragedy. The world would have flung the divine claims of Jesus Christ to the winds of sophistry and contempt had he not arisen from the tomb and confirmed the faith of his fellows in the power of the life that he lived in the flesh to abide after the flesh had been impaled by the darts of death.

Let those who would contrive or contest the resurrection take a petal from the lilies of pure ideals that blossomed by the tomb of the Savior. Let those who will enter into discussion as to the scientific aspect of the great Easter occasion — the world is redolent with its glory. Mankind rejoices in its liberty. Humanity is exalted by the vistas of infinity that lay outside the tomb from whose door was rolled away the sealed stone. Life is the one great theme of mankind. Death is an anachronism. Fulfillment, rejoicing, power, strength and endurance, these are the qualities that belong to the risen life — the life spiritual. For only as the announcement was made of the risen Jesus Christ from the dead was there opened to man's range of the ages the spiritual realities this side of the grave and the immortal heritage on the other side.