WITH Christ Jesus buried in the tomb, the aim of materiality seemingly had been accomplished, and to those who, mocking and rejecting the spiritual idea, had crucified its human representative, the spiritual teachings of the great Master undoubtedly appeared a failure. Few in those days saw beyond the evidence of the senses and understood what really took place in the tomb. Nevertheless, the voice of Truth has ever since proclaimed this victorious achievement, "He is risen! He is risen!" until to-day it is a general conviction that from the realization of the truth within the tomb there transpired one of the greatest events that has ever taken place.
Beyond all human aid, bound hand and foot in graveclothes, yet Christ Jesus was not helpless. Despite a lacerated body his divine individuality was consciously at work. The Master was depending upon the might of Mind to produce its own phenomenon. He was bringing to bear upon that evidence of supposed lifelessness in the tomb the divine forces of righteousness, the Life-power and Love-power of the universe. There, where to material sense nothing appeared to be active, the crucified Saviour was alive, mentally demonstrating the unbroken harmony of man's indestructible individuality. In writing of Jesus' experience in the tomb, Mrs. Eddy states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 44), "He met and mastered on the basis of Christian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims of medicine, surgery, and hygiene." So completely did Christ Jesus link his consciousness to the divine Life that even the human sense of his body was preserved, despite what appeared to be death.
Was there, then, a lifeless man entombed within the walls of the sepulcher? No! The spiritual intelligence Jesus individualized could never die. Through the Master's sublime victory his enemies' temporary success was turned into defeat. While the world had looked upon the tomb as an end of his life, Christ Jesus made of it a quiet retreat, where, apart from world-thought, he could break the belief of mortal limitation. Despite the gloom of the sepulcher, the brightness of the Christ-mind illumined his consciousness with the glory of eternal life.
