| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 40 |
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It was the first day of the week, very early. A little company of women were hurrying toward the tomb where their Master had been buried three days before. Worthy of notice is the beautiful and loyal devotion of the women friends of Jesus. Woman’s ministry gave Jesus much comfort during His sorrowing years, and now, when He is dead, women are the first to come to His grave. The women friends of Jesus are as brave and tender in their loyalty to Him today as they were when He was on the earth.
What brought these women friends to the tomb that morning? They had no thought that Jesus had risen or would rise again. They supposed that His body still lay in the grave, and they wished to honor it. It was a beautiful sentiment which sought thus to show love’s tender regard for the departed. It was fitting to pile fragrant spices in the sepulcher, filling the place with sweet odors. In like manner friends lay flowers on the coffins of their beloved dead in our own time. It is one of love’s tender ways of expressing itself. It is fitting and beautiful. But let us not forget to put flowers also upon the pathways of our friends while they live. That is better. It is a poor compensation to allow hearts to starve for acts of kindness along all the years, and then to send elaborate floral designs to be laid on their coffins or graves. Let us be kind to our friends while they are living, and then honor them in death.
As the women hurried on through the dim dawn they were perplexed about the stone which had been rolled to the door. It was too heavy for their feeble strength to roll back, and they asked each other, “Who shall roll us away the stone?” Apparently they did not know that the stone had been sealed with the Roman seal, and that, also, a guard of soldiers had been set to watch the grave. If they had known this, their anxiety would have been still greater. But when they came near enough to see the grave, they found that the stone was already rolled back. An angel had been there before them.
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