NEWNESS OF
LIFE
BY CARRIE F. JUDD
“Why seek ye the living among the dead?”-St. Luke
xxiv;5.
To those of us who have
been seeking our blessed Lord, and yet with strange faithlessness have
persisted in seeking Him in the sepulcher from which He has triumphantly
arisen, this gentle rebuke of the heavenly messengers comes as a clear
revelation of the cause of our failure to find “Him Whom our soul loveth.”
It may be that we have
sought Him with unswerving diligence, that we have gone very early in the
morning to “the place where the Lord lay,” and because we see the stone rolled
away, and the sepulcher empty, we are “much perplexed thereabout,” not being
able to realize in the weakness of our faith that our Lord is a risen Lord, and
that we cannot find Him by looking into the cavern of death. Not until Mary
Magdalene had “turned herself back” from the gloom and emptiness of the sepulcher
did she see “Jesus standing,” and we read further that when our Lord made Himself
known to her in that one tender call by name, “she turned herself and saith unto Him, Rabboni.”-(St. John xx:14, 16.)
And likewise, beloved
friends, must we turn ourselves from
gazing at the grave and grave-clothes of our mortal nature, and seek the resurrection
life which is “hid with Christ in God.” We can know nothing of this wondrous
life of victory by continuing to gaze in grieving despair at the scene of death
which our own heart presents; we must reckon ourselves as “crucified with
Christ,” and then by His conquering grace turn our faces away from the
sepulcher of our carnal nature, and exclaim triumphantly, “Nevertheless I live;
et not I, but Christ liveth in me!”-(Gal. ii:20.)
Our Saviour has said, “because I live ye shall live also” (St.
John siv:19), and unless we realize that He has completely vanquished the enemy
who would forever keep us spiritually entombed, how shall we “sit together in
heavenly places” in Him?
How often do we err and
“seek the living among the dead;” how often do we peer into the gloom of the
rocky sepulcher and marvel and weep that we find not Him Whom our anxious love
is seeking, and how often are hearts sorely perplexed because we known not
where they have laid Him; and why this continued error? Because we remember not
with faith the word which He spake unto us.
We look at Christ’s
power form the standpoint of our own finite endeavor, not remembering that He
has said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live.” We fix our attention on the dead works of
mortality instead of seeking “those things which are above where Christ sitteth
at the right hand of God.” Alas, how is it possible for us to see the “light of
life” while we look for it in the tomb? Again and again in the midst of our
vain seeking, do the tender rebuking words penetrate the darkness of our
mourning souls. “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is
risen.”
In the apostle’s
beautiful and practical description of that marvelous and abounding love
without which we are nothing worth, we read these words, “Charity… seeketh not
her own.” How full of blessed suggestion is this brief sentence; she seeks not
the things of her own mortal nature, but rising above all thoughts of that self
which she counts forever crucified, she seeks “the things which are Jesus
Christ’s;” “being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”-(1
Peter iii:18.)
Dear friends, are there
not among us some hungering hearts, who have long “stood without at the sepulcher
weeping,” because of our lack of faith we have continued to believe that our
enemies were strong enough to rob us of our beloved Master?
“They have taken away my
Lord” (St. John xx:13), is the agonized cry of our souls as we think of the power
of sin which crucified Him and sealed His tomb, instead of realizing by faith that
greater Power which has so gloriously triumphed over death and the grave, and
vanquished all of His foes.
Beloved, “He is risen,
as He said.” What avails the strength of the armed men who watched the door of the
sepulcher, for a stronger has come upon them and overcome them (St. Luke
xi:22), and why need we fear the power of the enemy over our hearts, when, in
the might of our risen Lord, we may break the seal of sin and escape forever
from its guilt and power.
“Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that
He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”-(Rom. vi:9.10.)
What a “likewise” is this! But, alas, how few of
us are realizing the fullness of our precious privilege and our “bounded duty,”
and are consenting practically to the blessed truth, that “like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk
in newness of life.”-(Rom vi:4.)
God grant that those of
us who are gazing with perplexity and yearning into the emptiness of the sepulcher,
may turn away forever from its unsatisfying void and hear the tender call of
Jesus which shall cause us to acknowledge Him our “Master” in a spirit of
renewed love and consecration.
“She (Mary) turned
herself and saith unto Him, Rabboni”; and we marvel at the eloquence of joy and
love which could only find expression in this brief rapturous acknowledgment of
His supreme control over her consecrated life.
“O Lord, our God, other
lords beside Thee have had dominion over us; but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name.”-(Isa. xxvi:13.)
Let us praise “the
tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring from on High hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”-(St.
Luke i:78,79.)
