1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; The memory of the burial of Jesus is stamped upon the heart of Christendom. There are many reasons why it should be so. 1. Since our dear Lord is the Eternal Word, every act of that most sacred life and death has its special significance. 2. It is one of that store of mortal experiences laid up, not by omniscient power, but by personal trial, in the heart of God. 3. It stands in direct relation to that strange borderland, at the memory of whose twilight indistinctness voices are hushed, and dreams of ambition die. The question is, Why was He buried? I. DEATH IS AN ACT OF SOLEMN SEPARATION, BUT HENCEFORTH THE GRAVE TO THE CHRISTIAN IS A WITNESS TO — 1. Its meaning. Well, the souls of the dead are robed in mystery; but this at least is clear, there is some special force in the separation for the ennobling of the body; some peculiar power for developing the energy of the soul. 2. Its limits. It cannot last. The strange dark sleep of death is the prelude to a resurrection morning. II. THE BURIAL NIGHT OF THE REDEEMER GIVES A TENDER TOUCH OF SENTIMENT TO THE GRAVE. Nor is this wrong. False sentiment is never so detestable as in religion. But Christianity, because it is a religion of Divine everlasting realities, rouses the deepest feeling and expresses them in sentiments of beauty, as the deep and massive energy of the ocean flings up the sun-bespangled spray. There is a sweet touch of the real truth of things expressed in a pure poetic sentiment, in the Christian certainty that death is sleep. Now the calm majestic rest of the Redeemer is the evident witness that there is this mystery in the grave. It is the sleeping-place of the weary. "They rest from their labours." Their graves are symbols of faithful service. Ah! as you love them you would not call them back again. (Canon Knox-Little.) Parallel Verses KJV: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; |
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