On the third day after they had crucified him, a woman made her way to the sepulcher. She along with some others bore spices to anoint the body. Had we been present, we might have thought: "Is there any hope? Will one who has died be known to us alive again?" There was the widow's son. The Master had stopped the funeral procession, touched the bier, and restored the young man to his mother. There was Lazarus. He had been four days in the grave. The Master called him and he arose, walked from his tomb, alive.
Jesus had said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). But now he was dead; and though "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" (Matt.27:51), the temple still stood. What could he have meant?
As the woman came to the sepulcher, she found that the stone had been rolled away. Jesus had risen. It was not the material temple but his body that was to be raised up again on the third day.
