The Weeping Mary at the Sepulchre, by Samuel Rutherford
"For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must
rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own
homes. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped
down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at
the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they
said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have
taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." John 20:9-13.
[Preached upon the Monday after the fast; that is, evidently the fast August
22, 1640.]
In these passages of our Lord's Word, beloved in Him, we have
first set down the earthly witnesses that came to the grave to seek our Lord
after He was risen from the dead. And they be of two sorts. The first sort of
them are public men in a public charge, Peter and John, the Lord's disciples;
and how they sought Christ, and what speed they came in seeking Him! The second
sort of persons are private persons coming to seek our Lord, as Mary Magdalene,
out of whom He had before cast seven devils. And good reason that such think
meikle [much] of our Lord, who have gotten renewed souls, or any good thing
from Him.
Then we have the fruit that follows the apostles' seeking of our
Lord. They go their ways home again and find Him not. Again you have the fruit
of this woman's seeking of Him. She will not give over her seeking Him, albeit
she cannot find Him at the first. Indeed it is a blessed thing for a poor soul
to wait on still at Christ's door till they get Him, albeit they should die
there, waiting for Him. And in her waiting for Him, first of all she meets with
the angels. And after she was comforted of them, telling her that He was risen
from the dead, and was rebuked of them for her weeping and seeking Him there,
she leaves them and goes on to seek Him. And she meets with Christ Himself, and
speaks to Him, but she miskens Him [mistakes him for another] as many times the
children of God are speaking to Him, and He is speaking to them again, and yet
they misken Him. She supposes Him to be the gardener, and speers [asks] if he
had carried Him away, and where he had laid Him that she might know where He
was.
And then our Lord reveals Himself unto her by a short preaching that
He made as our Lord. He is evermore kent [known] by His word, and when she
hears Him speak she turns herself to Him, and she being willing to embrace Him
she is forbidden to do it at that time. He would not have her to think so
meikle [much] of her bodily presence at that time, because there is a better
presence coming when He is ascended to His Father. Only she is commanded to
tell the Lord's disciples of that which she had seen, and so she is made the
first preacher of Christ's rising from the dead.
First: We observe
one thing in the general, that concerns the estate of our Kirk at this time.
Herod and Pilate, and Jew and Gentile, they have all joined themselves together
at this time to do the worst they can to Christ our Lord, and yet, when they
have done all that they can, they cannot mend themselves. For now they had
buried Him to hold Him down, and yet for all that that mends them not. The
worst that the enemies of the Kirk can do to the Kirk is to put her to death,
and yet when they think they have gotten that done, it will not do their turn
when all is done. For wherever our Lord's bride be, albeit she were even in the
grave, she maun [must] rise again, and in a triumph over her enemies. Let our
Lord and His Kirk be where they will, He and His Kirk and cause, albeit they
were dead, they maun [must] live the third day again, as Christ Himself did,
according to that triumphant and glorious word which He spake (Rev. i. 17, 18):
"Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and,
behold, I am alive for evermore." When John had seen His glory, and fell down
dead because he was afraid thereof, He says that to him. There is news to
comfort the Kirk of God, and to comfort all those who doubt whether our Lord
will tyne [lose] the battle that He has against His enemies or not. No; He will
make good that word that He speaks there of Himself: "I was dead, but I am
alive; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." Fra [since] a dead man cannot do
the turn, He will let it be seen that a living man can do it. We need not to
doubt of it, but the enemies of Christ they thought that they were rid of Him
now, that He would burden them no more; but it is not so for all that yet, for
He shall live when all is done, for all the ill they have done to Him. And
within these few years our adversaries, they thought with themselves that long
or now they should have been rid of our burden, and that this gospel should
[have] been clean borne down long or now. But with their leave Christ is
letting us see this day that He will not have it to be so, that He will have
that gospel which they thought to bear down so far, to come to some perfection
again.
So is the Kirk brought in, speaking in Hosea's prophecy (vi. 2):
"After two days thou wilt revive us again, and the third day we shall live."
This gospel it maun [must] live, whoever they be who are against it, for the
bearing down thereof, and the end of it maun be glory to Christ, and so those
who are upon His side of it. Now, to say nothing of the race that Peter and
John had in going to Christ's grave, it is said the other disciple he outran
Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. John is he who is called the other
disciple, and he outran Peter. As it is among the children of God, all of them
have not a like speed. Some of them get a sight of Christ before others ever
get a sight of Him. Christ has some into His Kirk that are old and experienced
with His ways, and so they run fast in the same; and He has others also, who
are His children and belong to Him, who are young ones, and cannot run so fast.
But whoever they be who have the life of God in them, and so are walking on
towards Him, they shall, either first or last, meet with Him without doubt. He
which came first went into the sepulchre and saw, and he believed. He might
[have] believed that Christ was risen by that which he had heard, but he
believed not till he saw.
Many a time had the Lord said to them that the
Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinners, and must suffer many
things of them; that He must die and be buried, but the third day He shall rise
again; but notwithstanding of all that He had said, John believed not till he
had seen tokens that Ho had risen from the dead. However it be, yet this is
sure, that it is good for every one to use the means that God has appointed for
attaining to the knowledge of any thing. For John get this meikle [much] good
by using the means at this time and coming to the grave?that he was assured
that Christ was risen. Who was there ever that made a race for Christ but get
some good by their seeking after Him? Seek ye and ye shall find, knock and it
shall be opened unto you.
Zacchaeus, he had a longing desire to see Christ,
and because he was low of stature, and the throng was great, he ran before the
multitude, and climbed up upon a tree to see Him; and ye have heard what good
come of that, as there comes aye [always] good of seeking Christ rightly: He
says, "Come down, Zacchaeus, this day is salvation come to thy house." He will
not fail, but He will make that word good which He has spoken Himself, "Ask and
ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto
you." Could we be earnest in seeking our Lord and I am sure ye know that this
is a seeking time now, and never was there more need to be seeking at the hands
of God as the Lord lives, I dare to promise it in His name, if we would seek
Him we should see the salvation of the Lord. And so, albeit ill news should
come unto us, let us not be discouraged for the same. But let us rest upon
this, and put our confidence in the same, that our Lord is' to be found of them
who seek Him; and He has given signs thereof already unto us, and will do so
hitherto if we will seek unto Him. For as yet they knew not the Scripture that
He must rise again from the dead. The rest of the disciples, they believed not
these Scriptures that foretold of Christ's resurrection from the dead.
Can
it be possible that there can be a scholar in Christ's school that has not
learned his lesson that Christ taught him? Can it be that any who has heard
Christ Himself make so many preachings of His resurrection, that they believe
not for all that? Aye, ye may see the proof of it here. The doctrine that
arises from this it is clear, that it is not the means, nor hearing Christ as a
man preach out of His own mouth, that will do the turn to bring us in to God,
and to make us understand things spiritual. Preaching, indeed, is God's means
that He has appointed for that end, and the way that He ordains for bringing in
souls to Him. But when all is done, it is not the only means of bringing us to
Him. The special thing is that which is spoken by our Saviour Himself (John
iii. 8), that wind that bloweth where it listeth, and no man knoweth whence it
cometh or whither it goeth. We may preach unto you until our head rive [breaks]
and our breasts burst; aye, we may preach unto you until doom's day, and yet
that will not do the turn unless the inward calling of the Spirit be joined
therewith. For an outward sound to the ear is one thing, and Christ's loosing
all knots and removing all impediments another thing. Christ says Himself while
He was in the flesh (John vi. 44), "No man can come unto Me unless the Father
draw him." Christ is speaking in that place to them who had the outward means,
and yet He says, it is no strange thing that they come not unto Him, albeit
they have the means, because they lack the Father's draught to draw them to
Him. The scribes they heard Christ ofttime preach, and yet for all that they
consented to the slaying of the Lord of glory (1 Cor. ii. 8). Christ is
preached there both to the Jew and to the Gentile, and yet for all that to the
Jew He is a stumbling-block, and to the Grecian the preaching of Christ is
foolishness.
We have meikle [much] for us when the Lord's word is preached
to pray to Him that He would join His Spirit and His wind with His word. Ay,
all means that can be used by ourselves or by others are nothing without that
be joined. It is in vain for us to rise early and to lie down late, and to eat
the bread of sorrow all the day, if the Lord give not the assistance of His
Spirit to the means that we use. And again, we may learn from this that arms of
men are not the thing that will save us, if so be that the Lord Himself watch
not over the camp. God keeps evermore the issue and the event of all things
into His own hand. And this serves to teach us not to trust in means of any
sort whether it be inward or outward matters, we should not lippen [trust] in
man, nor in weapons, nor any second causes whatsoever, but only in the Lord
Himself, that is the only strength of His people. And so learn to overlook
second causes when you look that way, and look no lower than heaven, to Him who
sits there and guides and overrules all battles in the world and all things
else, and will let it be seen in the end salvation, salvation, even His
salvation to all them who trust in Him. What gars [causes] that it is not said,
"They believed not Christ," but they "believed not the Scriptures" concerning
this point? For there is no part of Scripture so clear as the Lord Himself when
He is preaching with His own blessed mouth concerning that article of the
resurrection from the dead, albeit it is true the five books of Moses and other
Scriptures spake also of this article.
The reason of this is to teach us
that Christ and the Scriptures they have but one tongue, and they who believe
not the Scriptures they believe not Christ. It is not the sound of Christ's
trumpet that many who profess to be preachers blow, but a sound from themselves
and from men. This tells us what is Scripture and what is no[t] Scripture. That
only is Scripture and no other that agrees with the will of the Son of God, and
is according to His will revealed to us in His Word. And again, that is not
Scripture, and so not to be believed or practiced, which is not according to
the Word of God. And so we may see that ceremonies and inventions of men they
are but a dumb Bible, and a ground that none should follow for their salvation.
If we have no other ground for our faith but only this, that the Pope, or the
Kirk, has said such a thing, or the great learned doctors have said it, and
therefore we believe it. As the poor men yonder over in the north
[Aberdeenshire was at that time the stronghold of Arminianism and Prelacy],
they have been deceived by believing what grave-like men spake to them, and men
who gat the name of learning. That is a blind guide to follow, and will lead us
in the mire.
But these that are indeed the called and the elect of God,
they can discover the voice of Christ from the voice of men, and they only will
follow Christ's voice, and will follow no other, whatever they be. Then the
disciples went away again unto their own home. They were oversoon tired of
seeking, for they might have waited on as well as the poor woman did. But God
has our seeking of Christ, and all our supernatural works of that kind, into
His own hand. We believe, pray, repent, seek after Christ and His Spirit,
praise, hear, read aright, &c., as long as Christ holds us by the hand, but
we do it no longer. A stone that is up into the air is out of its own element,
and so long as it has an impediment it will stay there. But take away the
impediment that holds the stone from the ground, immediately it falls to it
again.
Even so is it with us. When we are employed about these spiritual
duties we are out of our natural element; and if the Lord take away His hand
from the strongest of His children, a woman will go beyond them in doing good
duties. Thank God for any good thing that thou hast, and that thou art kept in
a good estate. They never kent [knew] Christ's help well who put man in such a
tutor's hand as free-will, to be kept by it; who say that Christ has
conquershed [acquired] salvation to all, and when He has conquershed [acquired]
it, He puts it in the hand of free-will to be disposed of as it pleases, to
keep or not to keep it. This is to make Christ a fool merchant, and not to take
accompt [account] whether it be misspent or not; but Christ is not so. He knows
what shall become of all whom He has bought. You know it is evermore the
happiness of the weaker to depend upon the stronger.
So it is the happiness
of the poor soul to depend upon Christ and upon free grace. The happiness of
the ship stands in that to have a good pilot; the happiness of the lost weak
sheep depends on a good shepherd to seek it in again, and to keep it from the
enemies thereof; the happiness of the weak, witless orphans depends in a good,
wise tutor. Even so the happiness of lost and tint [perishing] souls depend on
this, to lippen [trust] to Christ and His strength for their salvation, and not
to such a changing tutor as their free-will is. But Mary stood without at the
sepulchre weeping.
Here is a strange thing to think on. The Lord's own
disciples they ran away from seeking of Him. One of them that had said, "If all
should forsake Thee, yet shall I never forsake Thee;" and yet here is a woman
more forward, and more constant in seeking Christ nor [than]he is, for all his
fair profession. It is not fair words and a golden profession that will take a
soul to heaven, and will make us to seek Christ rightly. We are all meikle
oblist [greatly indebted] to saving grace in our seeking Christ. Here is a
woman more forward in seeking Christ nor [than] all His eleven disciples are.
Because she get not her errand that she was seeking, she could not get Christ,
and therefore she will not leave, nor give over, but will wait on and seek Him.
A soul that is in love with Christ, they never get their errand till they
get Christ Himself. Ye that are seeking Christ, never give over seeking till ye
meet with Him, for they shall at last meet with Him who lie at His door,
seeking, as this woman did, who say, "I shall lie still at Thy door, let me die
there if Thou likest, and albeit it should come to that, I shall die, or I go
away and meet not with Him." Ye may know the ardent desire of a soul after
Christ can be satisfied with nothing but Himself. We use to say the thing that
one longs for is the thing they maun [must] have, and no other thing will
satisfy them. A man that is hungry, and longing for meat, he maun have meat,
and meat only, or else he is not satisfied, albeit he get some other thing. A
man that is in prison and longs to be free, nothing will satisfy him but
liberty. Even so it is with this woman at this time; albeit the disciples were
with her, yet nothing can comfort her till she get her lovely Lord whom she was
seeking. Learn that lesson of spiritual importunity, never to give over seeking
of Christ when once ye have begun to it. Blessed are they that ware [spend in
this manner] their time this way, in seeking Christ.
Mary stayed there
weeping for want of Him, and yet looking into the grave to see if He were
there. That is a good and blessed desire, and sorrow that is accompanied with
doing. That is heaven's sorrow indeed that is accompanied with doing and using
the means. There are two things said of Jacob (Hos. xii. 4), that he wept and
wrestled in prayer with God. What is the matter of a dumb sorrow for the want
of Christ? But that is a right sorrow for want of Christ that is joined with
using the means to get Him. As it is in Solomon's Song iii. 3, the spouse is
wanting Christ there; she uses all means to get Him again. She goes to the
watchmen, and says to them, "Watchmen, saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" She
goes round about the city, and to the daughters of Jerusalem, and charges them.
That proves her sorrow to be a right sorrow for the want of Christ.
And ye
know what sort of tears the Scripture says Christ had (Heb. v. 7). He shed
tears while He was in His flesh, and withal He offered up prayers and strong
cries to Him who was able to save Him, and was heard in that He feared. And
that is the grief and sorrow that will only hold the feet when men are
sorrowful for want of Christ, and withal use the means to get Him; and not only
has a mere wish for Christ, and will not want a morning nor a night's sleep to
meet with Him. That sorrow that is so is but a vain sorrow, and will do no
good. What followed upon this? She saw two angels in white sitting, the one at
the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. What needs
this guard to be here now when the Lord is risen from the dead? They stay here
to be witnesses of Christ's resurrection, and to preach the same to this woman
and to the disciples.
And Matthew, he has a circumstance of this preaching
of the angels that John has not. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" Why
are ye papists, to seek Christ at the holy grave now when He is risen? You may
see that the work of man's redemption it is a very glorious and a very
honourable work, for the angels in all the parts thereof are appointed to
attend Christ and to wait. When He is born they maun [must] speak to Joseph and
His mother to flee for His safety, they foretell His birth, when they are to
return with Him again they tell them, and when He was in the garden the angels
are appointed to wait upon Him, to dight [wipe] the bloody sweat off His face.
And now, when He is in the grave, they are set to be a guard to His blessed and
glorious body, and to preach of His resurrection. When Ho shall come again at
the last day to judge the quick and the dead, He shall come with innumerable
multitudes of angels to let us see that the work of our salvation it is a very
honourable work; and the angels they wait well upon it, and upon us. Even like
a loving brother, who has his brother lying sick: O but he will run many
errands for him in the time of his sickness, and will make all the house ado
[stirred up] to get him well and at ease.
Even so do the angels to us. They
run many errands for us, and O but they are glad of our welfare; and (Heb. i.
10) it is said the angels are ministering spirits for the good of the heirs of
salvation. Count ye little or meikle [much] of your salvation as ye will, yet
it is the angels' great task that they are employed about. They are appointed
to wait on Christ, when is about the working thereof, both in His birth, in His
agony, in His burial, in His ascending to heaven, and shall attend Him in His
coming again to judge the quick and the dead. The Lord has them sent out to all
the airts [quarters, or parts] of the world to bring in His elect ones. Woe to
ye who think little of salvation, fra [since] the Lord employs such honourable
messengers about the same. Alas! the work of our salvation is little thought
upon by many. Twenty a hundred thoughts will come in men's heads from morn to
night, and scarce have we one thought of this great work at any time. And what
think ye shall become of them who are so careless of the work of the salvation
of mankind whereof the angels are so careful.
Thir [these] witnesses, they
were clad in white. The angels, they have not our common country clothes, but
they are like heaven in their apparel; to teach all those who are looking to be
heirs of heaven to be clad like their country. The angels, they are clad with
glory and with majesty, and therefore a sight of them will make a sinner to
fall to the ground dead. If we think to be heirs of God in Christ, let us not
be like the rest of the corrupt world. The apostle, he has a word for this
(Rom. xii. 2): "Be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed in the
spirit of your mind." When ye are drunkards, and swearers, and break the Lord's
day, as the rest of the world does, that proves you to be of the world, and not
to have your affections up above.
If ye would prove yourselves to be heirs
of heaven, strive to be like your father, and like your country, and wear the
livery of the house which is holiness; "Holiness becomes Thy house, O Lord."
Mind the things that are above. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
This would seem to be a needless question to propose to her, for she might
[have] said, "I have tint [lost] my Saviour; who can blame me to weep? Who can
reprove me for it, seeing I want my Lord? But there is something in this
question that is unseen, that is the reason wherefore they ask it, and this is
it: "Your salvation is now finished, and the devils are cast out of you, and so
what gars [makes] you weep now?" Our Lord would tell us by this, that ofttimes
we weep when we have cause to rejoice. She should have said, "This is the day
which the Lord hath made, we will be glad and rejoice in it." "This is a day
when a decreet [the final sentence of a judge] is passed in heaven in your
favours, that the lost seed of Adam is redeemed; and thou also art in the
decree of redemption among the rest, therefore thou should not weep."
O
that we could learn to accommodate our affections, and all that is in us, to
God; to weep when He weeps, and to rejoice when He rejoices. And when our Lord
is without in the fields, it is not time for us then to laugh, and to rejoice,
and to be feasting. It is a time matter for mourning, now when our Lord is out
into the fields, and when His armies are out, and are in scarcity. And yet we
trust that our Lord is keeping a day for us of this land, wherein we shall say,
"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it."
Whom seekest thou? This question is speered [asked] at her to make her hunger
to be the greater, for the greatest hunger that any has for Christ they may,
aye [always], be more hungry for Him. And so learn to rap out [quickly to throw
out] all your desires and affections for Christ, not only love Him, but be sick
of love for Him. That is more than ordinary love to be like to die for love of
Him.
And so all your desires and longing for Christ, strive to make them
more, ay, till you come to that which the spouse has; "I charge you, O
daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell Him that I am sick of love.
I charge you, as ye will answer to God, that ye tell Christ I am sick of love
for want of Him," and till ye come to heaven to sing songs of Him eternally.
"They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." This
is her apology that she uses for justifying of herself in her weeping, "Why may
not I weep, who once had Christ, and now I want Him?" That is a sorrow that may
be avowed before God and before the world, to be sorrowful for the want of
Christ. There are some who are sorrowful, and it is a shame to hear of it, the
cause thereof not being good. Sorrow for want of my bairns [children], for want
of my husband; sorrow for the loss of something of the world, or giving out
something for Christ, &c.; that is a shameful sorrow that cannot be avowed.
But that is an honest sorrow that comes from the want of Christ. Look that
ye ware [spend] all your affections that way as ye may avow them, and avow the
cause of them before God and man. That is a sorrow that may be avowed that a
soul has for want of Christ. What is the matter and cause of her sorrow? "They
have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." " He is out
of my sight, and yet He is my Lord for all that; He is dead, and yet He is my
Lord; for that she says, "They have taken Him away, and know not where they
have laid Him," is as meikle [much] as if she doubted yet of His resurrection.
And a little after she says to Christ Himself, supposing Him to be the
gardener, "Sir, if thou hast borne Him away, tell me where thou hast laid Him,
and I will take Him away." "I will think Him a sweet burden to come upon my
back for all the pounds weight of spices that are about Him."
The doctrine
is clear. To the children of God, lost Christ is their Christ when all is done.
In Cant. v. the Lord's party, the Kirk of Christ, is there sleeping in her bed,
and Christ, her husband, standing at the outside of the door knocking, and she
says, "I slept, but my heart waked; it is the voice of my beloved." Thy
beloved, and, yet for all that, He is out of thy sight. Let the believer's
Christ be where He will, yet He is theirs. If they were in hell and He up in
heaven, the believer will say, "He is my Christ, albeit Christ should cast me
off, and not count me to be His, yet He is mine." So does David's word as the
type, and Christ's word as the antitype, testify, "My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me? " He is a forsaking Lord, and yet He is their Lord when all
is done. Ay, the believer will say, "He is my Lord, albeit He forsake me, and I
will come to Him." Then true faith when it has the back at the wall will claim
to Christ, and count Him to belong to them. And that is a very good mark of
faith, that when one is setting Christ a speering [asking] on all airts
[quarters], and cannot get Him for no seeking [notwithstanding seeking], yet to
count Him to be their Christ. This is the thing that the devil would fain be in
hands with, to make you to doubt that He is your Christ or your Lord.
This
was the temptation wherewith he assaulted Christ our Lord. "If Thou be the Son
of God, cast Thyself down from the pinnacle of the temple," &c. All that
the devil would be at in his temptations is to make us doubt that Christ is
ours. But never give it over when all is done, but evermore take Christ for
thine. And, oh, that this land would believe this now, that He is our God, and
the God of this land. Then suppose that our armies were put to the worst***
that are now out into the fields-as we trust in God it shall not be but albeit
it should be so, I say, yet seeing He is Scotland's Lord, if so be that we will
wait upon Him, and trust in Him and in His salvation, it shall be found that it
is not a vain thing to do so, but that He shall grant us His salvation who
trust in Him. And to this Lord, &c.
[***The Scottish army had just
invaded England and would be defeated.]