1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

Shortly after the soldiers left the garden, just before sunrise, a party of a very different character arrived -- a party of timid, defenceless women, who were apparently unaware that the grave had been in military charge. These were the two Marys and Salome and the other women who had followed the Lord out of Galilee. The several accounts of their proceedings at the sepulchre appear on a rough comparison to be inconsistent with one another, but a careful sifting of the details yield a connected and harmonious narrative

Nazareth Revisited Ch 59

2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple [John], whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

Then they went out into the garden and stood in a perplexity what to do. While so engaged, Mary Magdalen -- apparently the warmest-hearted and most impulsive in her feelings concerning Christ -- darted away to the city to communicate to Peter and John the fact that the body of Christ had been removed from the sepulchre.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 59

4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

From John's outrunning of Peter, we seem to catch a glimpse of the personal peculiarity of the two men -- John, spare and agile, and Peter, thick set and full-bodied; and, corresponding with the mental difference of the two -- John arriving first, peeped into the sepulchre, but did not enter.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 59

7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

These details, though trifling in themselves [not trifling when we consider Bro Roger's study], have some value in the circumstances. They prove the body had not been taken away; for the removal of the body, either in the way alleged by the chief priests, or in the way supposed at first by Mary and the two disciples, would have involved the removal of the wrappings; as no one taking the body away, for whatever purpose, could be supposed to have taken time to undo the wrappings.

They also show the practical nature of the whole transaction of the resurrection. The Lord, awaking from his short death slumber, would find himself like Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead, enswathed with cerements of the tomb, "bound hand and foot"; these he would gently undo and lay neatly aside, in the position in which John saw them lie.

His angelic liberators would provide him with the garments in which he appeared to his disciples, arraying himself in which, he would step forth into the fresh morning air with a glad feeling of healing and relief.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 59

9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

The man Jesus, who had left behind him a character which the Father-Spirit acknowledged as His own, had been too excellent and admirable a person to be abandoned to the power of the enemy. The corpse rested, waiting to become the basis, or !greek!, hypostasis, of a new revelation-a new, or further, revelation of Spirit.

The Father-Spirit had been manifesting himself for three years and a half, terminating at the cricifixion, in word and deed; teaching great truths, and working mighty wonders and signs which Omnipotence alone could operate; this was Spirit-revelation through Mary's Son --- "Power manifested in flesh." But a Spirit-revelation was to be given to thegreek BODY REPARED (Heb. 10:5). A breach had been made in it. Its "loins were filled with a loathsome disease; and there was no soundness in its flesh" (Psal. 38:7).

This was its condition while prostrate and hidden in the noisome pit (Psal. 40:2) beneath the turf. But though sealed up in Joseph's cave, it was not concealed from the Father-Spirit, who had so recently forsaken it. Walls, and seals, and soldiers, could not bar out the Spirit from the Body he was about to repair for future manifestations.

Hence the Spirit in David represents the Son as saying, "My body was not concealed from thee when I was made in the secret place; I was embroidered in the under parts of the earth. Thine eyes saw my imperfect substance; and in thy book all of them were written as to the days they were fashioned, when there was not one among them (Psal. 139:15).

Eureka 1.1.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

"Rabboni," -- an exclamation of tender reverence, signifying much more than "master,"... "My loved Lord, guide and teacher."

Nazareth Revisited Ch 59

17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

In the evening of that same day, the Lord suffered himself to be freely handled by the disciples. Consequently, there must have been a removal of the cause which led him to prevent Mary from touching him. He said to Mary he had not ascended to the Father. He must have made this ascent in the interim: but in what did the ascent consist?

It cannot have been ascent in space, because in less than half-an-hour, it had been performed, for he was embraced by the feet within that time by the group of women to whom the angels had appeared during Mary's absence. What other ascent could he have made? The Father is everywhere present.

To rise from the low nature of the earthy to the high nature of the divine, is to ascend to the Father.

This ascent he must have performed after seeing Mary. The need for it will appear if we realise that he had emerged from the tomb a natural man, or body of life, according to the nature of Abraham and David. This had to be "changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," from the natural to the spiritual, as in the case of his brethren, who are to be developed after the pattern of his example.

Until this change had taken place, he was in the defilement which contact with death imparted to everything for those under the law of Moses. Mary was under this law; and therefore until the Lord was cleansed by change, there was a reason why she should not touch him.

Nazareth Revisisted Ch 59

After resurrection is ascension; but not necessarily instantaneously after. This is evident from the example given in the case of the Lord Jesus. He first came out of the sepulchre; and then, after a certain interval, "ascended to the Father;" an ascent which is not to be confounded with his assumption from the Mount of Olives, forty-three days after his crucifixion (John xx. 17; Acts i. 11).

He ascended to the Father before he was "taken up." The ascent was a necessary preparation for the taking up of the resurrected body; for a body such as he had, when he forbid Mary to touch him, was unfit for translation through the higher regions of our atmosphere, and the airless ethereal beyond. It was necessary that he should be "in spirit" and so become spirit, that he might be with the Father.

Eureka 4.1.3.

He was buried under the curse of the law, which "made him a curse for" our benefit (Gal. 3:13): he came forth while that same law was in force and Operation. His coming forth upon the arena of his execution did not relieve him from the curse of that law, which sentenced him to continuous and everlasting death; so that, if they could have recaptured him, the Mosaic authorities would doubtless have returned him into death.

That law regarded him as dead, and its authorities refused credence to the report, that he had come to life. After he had come forth he saw Mary, a Jewess, who mistook him for the gardener, so like other men did he appear. Having convinced her of her error, he checked the impulse of her affection by saying to her,

"Touch me not!"

It was defiling for Jews to touch a thing declared to be unclean by the law. Any thing from the grave was enacted to be unclean, in reference to him who should come out of the tomb, until that he should be 'revived" (Rom. 14:9) or "made a quickening Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45). Christ was "the end of the law," the substance or body of the shadow (Rom. 10:4; Col. 2:17); its lines concentred in the things pertaining to his body.

The interdict forbidding it to be touched was indicative of its not then having been changed into spirit; and that it was still earthy and inferior to the substance of the Father. He gave the reason why he forbade his body to be touched; "for," he said,

"I have not yet ascended to my Father".

No one might touch him until that ascent had taken place. It did not occur till after Mary left him; but it had doubtless taken place before his walk with Cleopas and another to Emmaus; for they appear to have travelled very sociably together. The swallowing up of every particle of the earthiness of an earthy body, is an instantaneous operation; the work of

"a moment, or the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor. 15:51,52).

It was one of the events that transpired in relation to Jesus on the third day. He "rose and revived" on the third day (Rom. 14:9). He not only rose on the third day, but he revived on the same day. Rising is one thing, reviving is another; and two different words are used by the apostle to express the different ideas.

The Father who is Spirit, had "forsaken" Jesus upon the cross, and left him to die there. Having become a corpse and been laid in a tomb, that corpse was like all other corpses, utterly without intelligence and power; for "the dead know not anything" (Ecc. 9:5,10); and

"the Lord (YAHWEH) is not the Deity (AlL, or Power) of dead, but of living ones, for they all live by him" (Luke 20:38).

When this corpse, named Jesus, opened its eyes, stood upon its feet and came forth from the tomb, it "rose". At this point of time it was neither Lord nor Christ. The Father, who had forsaken him and left him to die, had not yet returned to him; for if he had returned to the corpse while in the tomb in causing it to stand and walk, that risen body after coming forth would not have said,

"I have not yet ascended to my Father".

This was equivalent to saying, I am an earthy, or natural, body just come forth from the unclean place; and have not yet been "made perfect," "justified by the spirit," or "made a quickening spirit".

The Father hath not yet clothed me with my house which is from heaven; so that that which constitutes me earthy and mortal is not yet "swallowed up of life;" therefore, "Touch me not" until I have been

"constituted Son of Deity in power, through Spirit of holiness, out of a resurrection of dead ones" (Rom. 1:4).

I am now simply Jesus born of the tomb, "of the earth earthy;" but when my earthiness of body is instantaneously "swallowed up of life," I shall be Spirit; I shall be of equal and identical substance with the Father; and by this anointing, I shall become Christ, or the Anointed One, and "the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. 15:47).

This anointing with Spirit and Power was the revival in a greater degree of the former relations subsisting between the Father and the Son.

He had been "anointed with holy spirit and power" after he had been born of water. This did not change his body into Spirit; it only invested the body born of unclean flesh, or "made of a woman," with the wisdom and power of the Father in heaven, who discoursed and worked through it (John 5:19,30; 6:38,63; 8:42,58; 10:30; 14:10,28).

But when the body was anointed again with holy spirit and power, or "spirit of holiness," after it was born of the second unclean place, the tomb, it was not only endued and embued with wisdom and power as before, but it was itself transformed into an embodiment of eternal power, in which there is no weakness, or corruption, or principle of death at all.

It was then "revived," anezese, as well as risen again, aneste. It became "the body of his glory," soma tes doxes autou (Phil. 3:21), "raised in glory" from the earthy body which is "without honour," en atimia (1 Cor. 15:43); and forty days after, "taken up in glory" (1 Tim. 3:16).

Eureka 16.11.3.1.

The Sheaf of Firstfruits

... we understand ... to refer to ... the morning of his resurrection on the "morrow after the sabbath," when presumably presenting himself before the Father as the "sheaf of the first fruits," he was accepted and changed in the twinkling of an eye into the image of the deathless and incorruptible, or in other words (as Dr. Thomas explains it) ascended to the Father - John 20:17.

Bro. F. R. Shuttleworth

The Christadelphian, June 1888

19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

A Special and private interview

On the first day of the creation-week God said, "Let there be light, and there was light;" so on the first day of the week "THE TRUE LIGHT" came forth from the darkness of the tomb "like dew from the womb of the morning."

This event constituted the day after the sabbath, or eighth day, the day of the Lord's resurrection; and therefore styled by His disciples "THE LORD'S DAY."

It is a day to be much remembered by them, because it assures them of their justification "in Him," of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of His ruling or "judging the world in righteousness" as Yahweh's king, when they also shall reign with Him as kings and priests of God (Rom. 4:25; 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:14-20; Acts 17:31; Rev. 5:9-10).

This day is also notable on account of the special interviews which occurred between Jesus and His disciples after His resurrection (John 20:19-26). He ascended to heaven on this day, even the forty-third from His crucifixion; and seven days after, that is the fiftieth, being that Lord's day styled "the day of Pentecost," the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and the gospel of the kingdom preached for the first time in His name.

Elpis Israel 2.1.

He left the tomb, and "was refreshed." Having "spoiled the principalities and the powers" constituted by the handwriting, He made the spoliation manifest, "triumphing over them in Himself that is, in His resurrection; thus, for ever delivering men from the bondage of the law, which Peter says, "was a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear" (Acts 15:10). With the abolition of the Mosaic handwriting the obligation to keep the seventh day as a rule of spiritual life was cancelled as a matter of course.

Elpis Israel 1.2.

22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit:

When the breath of a man from the tomb is holy spirit, that man must have been corporeally quickened, or have become spirit...

Now some time in the interval between the dawn and the evening of the resurrection day, the cause for the interdict, " Touch me not," must have been removed ; in other words, the ascent from the lower nature, begotten to incipient life in the tomb, to the Father, " who is Spirit " (John iv. 24), must then have taken place.

This transition from the one nature to the other, when the fulness of the time is come, is " in the twinkling of an eye " : which instantaneous operation of Almighty power constitutes the putting on of incorruptibility and deathlessness; and confers upon the quickened being a life independent of the natural laws, by which " death is swallowed up in victory."

Anastasis

23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Confession

The "auricular confession" of the Roman church, which an attempt is being made to revive in the Anglican, has no foundation in the Scriptures. Passages are quoted in support of it; but the quotation of a passage is not proof unless it can be shown that the passage quoted relates to the matter in question, and affirms the view contended for, whatever it may be.

When James says, "Confess your faults one to another," he does not mean "confess" to a priest; but that in their dealings one with another, brethren should practise that frank and humble demeanour which finds no difficulty in admitting mistake or fault towards another, if it have been committed.

Nothing rectifies a wrong position so thoroughly as the admission of the wrong, with purpose of amendment. On the other hand, nothing perpetuates mischief and bad feeling more than the stubborn refusal of concession where it ought to be made.

James' exhortation is, therefore, founded on common sense, James did not mean "confess to a priest" or "confess" to an official brother. Our general confessions are to be made to God alone through Christ; but breaches of decorum or rectitude towards particular persons are to be admitted to them. As for the words of Christ to the disciples,

"Whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained,"

they were true concerning the apostles only. It was not to priests and parsons these words were addressed. They were addressed to men who were to be infallibly guided by the presence of the Spirit, and whose decisions as to who were fit subjects for remission of sins by the obedience of the gospel were, therefore, unerring.

There is no greater imposture on the face of the earth than the ecclesiastical claim to a power which was confided to the apostles only.

The Christadelphian, Apr 1874

25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

It was a happy circumstance for the faith of subsequent generations that one of the very apostles should have been allowed to take such an attitude. His absence from the first interview can scarcely have been an accident, in view of its providential value. The ardent faith that succeeded to such determined unbelief must have been the result of strong evidence, which we accordingly see.

For at the end of the seven days, the disciples being again assembled within closed doors because of the public hostility, Jesus again presented himself among them. On this occasion, there was none of the surprise or trepidation that agitated the disciples on the first interview.

Seven days' reflection on what happened then had enabled them to settle to the calm and joyful conviction that "the Lord had risen indeed." They now received him with the pure delight that belongs to the intercourse of enlightened, cordial, living friendship.

To Thomas Didymus, the doubter only, was the occurrence the cause of some painful excitement, but it was soon at an end. Jesus greeted the company with a salutation of peace, and then directed his attention specially to Thomas

Nazareth Revisited Ch 60

27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

What stronger proof can we need of the substantial and tangible nature of the Spiritual body? It is the animal body purified, not evaporated into gas, or vapour.

It is a bloodless body; for in the case of Jesus He had poured out His blood upon the cross. The life of the animal body is in the blood; but not so that of the Spiritual body: the life of this resides in that mighty power which suspends "the earth upon nothing," and is diffused through the immensity of space.

Elpis Israel 2.1

28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

‭"‬My Lord and my God‭!"

The view held by the apostles respecting Jesus could only have been one that was in accordance with the teaching of Jesus concerning himself.‭ ‬He asked the question of them,

‭ "‬But whom think ye that I am‭?"

and Peter replied,‭

‭"‬Thou art the Christ‭ (‬anointed‭)‬,‭ ‬the‭ ‬Son of the living God.‭"

‭ ‬Here was made a marked distinction between Christ and the Deity,‭ ‬which was evidently recognised by the apostles.‭ ‬If Peter had been an‭ "‬orthodox‭" ‬professor of the present day,‭ ‬his answer would have been quite different.‭ ‬He would have said,‭ ‬in addition to the answer he gave,‭ "‬begotten of the Father before all worlds,‭ ‬God of God,‭ ‬Light of Light,‭ ‬very God of very God,‭ ‬begotten,‭ ‬not made,‭ ‬being of one substance with the Father,‭ ‬by whom all things were made,‭" ‬and a lot more of such rubbish as is taught in the Church of England Prayer Book.‭

But this is not the light in which the apostles regarded the Saviour,‭ ‬because it is not the light in which they were taught to regard him.‭ ‬He himself had disclaimed the ascription due to God alone.‭ ‬Jesus was not the Father‭; ‬but though not the Increate himself‭ (‬a fact which Jesus always takes pains to enforce‭)‬,‭ ‬yet in a very well understood sense,‭ ‬he was God.

‭ ‬In‭ ‬John‭ x. ‬31,‭ ‬it states that the Jews took up stones to stone him:‭ ‬Jesus asked them why they did so‭; ‬they replied,

‭ "‬Because that thou,‭ ‬being a man,‭ ‬makest thyself God.‭"

We find the answer in‭ ‬John‭ v. ‬18‭—‬Because he called himself the‭ ‬Son of God‭; ‬one member of a Royal house in general estimation to the present day,‭ ‬sharing the honour and glory of the whole of it in common with the Head of the family himself.‭ ‬How did Jesus defend himself from this charge‭? ‬By declaring that he was really the Almighty‭? ‬and vindicating his claim by some terrible act of vengeance upon his accusers‭? ‬No‭; ‬he clears himself by an argument which excludes the Trinitarian view of the matter.‭ ‬He contends that he was as much entitled to the name of God as some of the Jewish fathers,‭ ‬who had received that name.‭

‭"‬Is it not written in your law,‭ '‬I said ye are gods‭?'" (‬Psalms‭ lxxxii. ‬6‭)‬.‭ ‬If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came,‭ ‬and the scripture cannot be broken,‭ ‬say ye of him,‭ ‬whom the Father hath sanctified and sent unto the world,‭ ‬Thou blasphemest,‭ ‬because I said‭ ‬I am the Son of God‭?‬

By this answer he shewed his right to the title‭ "‬God‭;" ‬and Thomas,‭ ‬who no doubt was present on this occasion,‭ ‬was only giving expression to the view inculcated by this argument,‭ ‬when he found by the resurrection of Jesus,‭ ‬that he was really the Son and the sent of God,‭ ‬at a time when the apostles had almost,‭ ‬if not quite,‭ ‬begun to doubt it,‭ ‬in consequence of his unexpected death.‭ ‬He gave fervent expression to his revived faith,‭ ‬in the exclamation to the Saviour,

‭ "‬My Lord and my God‭!"

‭Bro J Butler - Ambassador of the Coming Age, Aug 1868

Personal love towards Christ can only be generated by contact with the personal manifestation of him which we have in the apostolic writings. It is thus that all love comes by knowledge and acquaintance of the things or persons to be loved. The means of acquaintance in this case are wonderfully ample. How full, in the biographic sense, is the exhibition of Christ in the gospels.

No one spoken of in the Scriptures receives the prominence that Christ receives. We have very little concerning even Moses in the personal sense. He appears merely as the medium and instrument of the divine commands. The prophets, as persons, are scarcely visible in their communications. Of the apostles, we get but a very casual glimpse in their relations with Christ; but Christ stands before us in prolonged and full drawn brightness, with many details of word, and work and gesture.

We are permitted to make his full acquaintance, though nothing is said of the colour of his hair, the contour or complexion of his face, the measure of his stature, or other such immaterial particulars. We hear his voice, and see his demeanour and discern his spirit. The contemplation leads us to exclaim, with Thomas, "my Lord and my God."

Bro Roberts - Knowledge, Love, Obedience

29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

It would be a very great stimulus to our profession,‭ ‬if we could for one moment enjoy the privilege which many of the disciples in the first century enjoyed‭; ‬if we could but for a moment‭ ‬see our High Priest.‭ ‬This privilege we are denied,‭ ‬and so far,‭ ‬we are at a disadvantage‭; ‬but our very disadvantage may work glorious things for us in the future.‭

...We look forward with consolation to the prospect of seeing him,‭ ‬after believing.‭ ‬We shall see him,‭ ‬then,‭ ‬as the disciples saw him not.‭ ‬They saw him in his humiliation‭; ‬they companied with him in the flesh for‭ ‬3‭½ ‬years‭; ‬and there is no doubt he was great company even then:‭ ‬for the testimony of his enemies was that he spake as never man spake.‭

We can quite understand the strong feelings of affection that would be developed in the breasts of the disciples,‭ ‬by keeping the company of such a man for such a period.‭ ‬But they did not understand him as we understand him,‭ ‬and as we shall understand him when we see him‭; ‬for they did not comprehend the full bearing of his mission,‭ ‬nor the full richness of his nature.‭

‭Seasons 1.32.

We cannot so look on him as they looked. We are assembled in his name, and he is, doubtless, cognizant of and attentive to us; but we lack the refreshing satisfaction of those who "saw, and heard and handled the Word of life" (1 John i. 1). Yet this lack may prove much in our ultimate favour. It may ensure to us the blessedness expressed in the words of the Lord when he said to Thomas,

"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Will it not be a great joy on that day to see himself, after assembling so many times in his absence in remembrance of him? What a glorious termination to our patience to be permitted to sit down at the higher table in the kingdom of God! It will come. We shall see him then as really as his disciples saw him when he rose and girt himself with a towel, and poured water and washed their feet; but we shall see him in happier circumstances. We shall realise the full blessedness of the words he spoke when he said,

"Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Verily, I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them."

Our eyes will rest upon him with a rapturous sweetness when we behold him the living omnipotent fountain of the covenanted blessedness which is to prevail to the utmost bounds of the habitable globe. We shall shout for joy when permitted to share his everlasting life, and

"sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God."

In the days of his flesh, men

"wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth."

What shall be our admiration in the day of his glory, when his superlative excellence in word and demeanour will not only be seen with our own eyes, and heard with our own ears, but seen and heard with such enlarged capacity to appreciate and enjoy!

We shall be like them that dream. Our mouth will be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. We shall say,

"The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."

Of all these glorious things we are reminded by the recollection that he broke bread 1,800 years ago, and said to his disciples,

"Do this in remembrance of me."

Seasons 1.2