The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 455

thi• modo or hcin!?, tlic eye ni:-eds special ie prepemlion for the great revelation. training snd prcpernl.ion. Though the eyes "The Lord hR.8 risen indeo,l;" but, unlike nf love ore the quickest to disoom these what poetry or theology might have plotured, wondrous realities, yet the vision tarries, and or the mythopCllio faculty have woven out is for an appointed time, e,nd even they who of its elTong persuA.Bion of the Lord's in- ultimately eee have to we.it for it. dissoluble life, he has chosen first or all to present this signal ml\nifcst11.tion of spi- Ver. l.'i.-.Tes111 l&i.th to her, in the worils of the angels, Woman, why weepest thou t ritual corporeity to a loving honrt orushcd The11e are the first words of the risAn Jesus, with grief, to one groo.niug over irrepo.roble wroug, without a spark of hope, that death we.a for l\lerk tells ns., "He o.ppelU"ed first of all to l\fary of Magda!&." And Matthi,w'a indeed vanquished. But she who received summn.tion of the entire ne.rrative makes the objective presentation was too much preoccupied to feel her footing and hor home it clear that. she will! et l01U!t one of the first group who 11aw the risen Lord. He recalls in two worlds. It we.s not "11n enthusinst hi,r to hcnmlf. He seeks to assuage the ( urut hallucint'e, Renan) who gave the world grief of desolation, the hittemcss of de- (un Dieu ressuaciU) a resuscitated God," ,;peiring love. As his first great Beatitudes but a doubter, a despairing, broken-he!Ll'tec:J had been " Blessed are the poor in spirit," sufferer, who did not know him when sht. "Blessed are those who mourn and weep," saw him. and " Blcased nre the meek," ao the first Ver. 16.-Jeana 118.ith unto her, Mary. The words he uttered aft.er he rose from the more general expression, "woman" (ver. 15), dead were intended to console human weep- mo.kes her seem to us the represento.ti ve of the ing over the most irremediable of human whole of suffering humanity, weeping over sorrows. They are the beginning of a the inability to find any link of fellowship fulfilment of the Divine promise "to wipe between itself and the invisible God, feeling away tears from off all faces." Bnt the unconsciously after the Christ 11nd haply Lord adds, Whom aeekest thou 1 She has not finding him, weeping because hostility lost some one, not some thing. Quest.ions had obliterated him or superstition had these which he has been asking the souls of concealed him, while o.11 the while ho is men and women ever sinoe, when their grief near at hand. But now Jesus stirred the and tears, their unoonscious e.ud unsatisfied affection of the living, weeping person at yearnings after himself, have confused their his side by uttering her own name in tonea perceptions e.ud riven their hearts. She, that thrilled her to the heart, and oreated 1111ppo&ing him m be the gardener, a friend, the new sublime conviction that he hlld not a stranger, a disciple, not a Boman risen, as he snid. She turned herself, as ~eldier or a hostile priest, perbe.ps some though the previous glance had been man who had been with Joseph of Arimathll!& momentary and partial, o.nd now the vision on the Friday evening, or even the senator and voice blended, and she knew him. And himself, a.id to him, Lord, (Bir,) if thou ha.stsaith unto him in Re brew, Rabbonni ('E/Jpa.• borne him hmce, tell me where thou hast ftrr, is here introduced by modem editors. laid him, and I will take him away. This This word only occurs in this Gospel and the paaaionat.e burst reveals the blinding domi- Apocalypse), a word (the evangelist adds) nance of a fixed idea. She had no notion which ill to say, l!le.ster. The Hebrew term of the liesunection. She was utterly over- -probably preserved in its Galilean form, whelmed with one bitter, cruel thought. ';il::il.'.:1, rabbouni, ro.ther than in the ordinary The sacred body was t.o be embalmed with form (see .Authorized Version) •)i::il.~ rab- the precious spioes which she had spent booi-if strictly translated, would be " my her all to buy. Others have forestalled her. Teacher," or " my Master," yet the personal Perhapti nnsympathizing hands have been pronoun mnst not be preBBed. It doubtless doing their womt. She does not know, in had lost its specialty as we find in many her terrified grief, if some wicked he.nds other languages (monBieu.r, mein herr, "my have not cast out his body int.o the Valley Lord," are familiar instances). Even if the of Hinnom. She seems to imply that the full force of the pronoun were urged, Mary's K71To11p&s hw! heard the words of the angels, ,faith bad not gone beyond the ideo.l of her e.nd her previous reply to them. She ill so devotedly loved Teacher, Friend, Master, filled with one thought, that the him, not it, and fell far short of the insight which even explains itself. She ill reckleas of her.elf, the incredulous Thomas would soon exhibit, and does not stay t.o count t.he ooet. Had that the Lord had put on Divine glory, and she not poured t.he precious ointment on filled all things. She apparently fell in his feet, in happier days, and we.shed them speechless, passionate affection at bill feet, wub her tears? Of whom can she spea.k ILi the other women did ahortly afterwards but af him who ll&id, "Thy sins, which are (eee Matt. :uviii 9); but with the idea many, e.n, forgiven;" "She loved much;" that now the old relations between Toaeber "Thv f&i$h bath 1111,,red thee"? Se> far all and loving dillciplea would bo resuw.ed, otr. H. 1-31.] THt GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S'r. ,JOH~.