0957. Rejoicing

Rejoicing

"And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him" (The marginal reading is–"Saying, Rejoice!") (Mat_28:9)

1. Weeping. When the Lord Jesus Christ died, He left the disciples with broken hearts. They had not only lost a Friend Whom they loved more than they loved their father or mother or brother or sister; but they had lost the One in Whom all their hope and trust had been staked.

Let Us Note the Effect of Christ's Death

(1) On the twelve. Christ had once been accosted by the Pharisees concerning the disciples of John the Baptist. They had said, "Why do your disciples mourn not?" The Lord replied, "Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast." And mourn they did. When Mary Magdalene found the disciples, she found them "as they mourned and wept" (Mar_16:10).

(2) On two disciples going to Emmaus. On the third day, following the crucifixion, there were two disciples going to Emmaus, a town some seven miles distant from Jerusalem. As they walked, they went sorrowing, and saying, "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel." They too were broken-hearted.

(3) On the women. Mary Magdalene, and Johanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women had gone out early the third morning to the tomb. They had gone with aching hearts, but when they found the stone rolled away their hearts were sadder still. They wept. To one of them, Mary Magdalene, the angel said, "Woman, why weepest thou?" and Mary replied, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." A little later Christ also said to Mary, "Woman, why weepest thou; whom seekest thou?"

Thus to them all it seemed that chaos had come again. Their night was darker than that which overhung the earth when darkness lay upon the face of the deep, and when the earth was without form and void. They did not have left one ray of light, to pierce their gloom.

2. Hearing. In the midst of the tears and mournings of the disciples and of the women, came the glorious announcement, "He is not here, but is risen." As Mary wept Christ said unto her, "Mary." Filled with astonishment, she answered, "Raboni."

The Lord Himself came suddenly upon certain women on the morning of His resurrection, and He said unto them, "All hail." The word means, "rejoice;" and, "they came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him."

3. Rejoicing. The darkness fled away. The joy that filled the disciples' hearts was as great a contrast to their sorrow as the contrast between the darkness that hung over the earth and the light that ensued when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said, "Let there be light."

In speaking of this hour Peter says, "We were begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead."

Matthew put it this way: "They departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy."

The Book of Acts records that this same joy and rejoicing filled the hearts of the disciples as they preached Christ crucified and risen again. The resurrection had brought unto them a joy that nothing could take away. They rejoiced amid persecutions. They rejoiced in prison, and in privations, and in perils by land and by sea. They were filled with joy.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR