Today we hear of the burial of our Lord by the righteous Joseph of Arimathea. Mark 15:46 says, “And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.”
Blessed Theophylact explains how we can spiritually imitate St. Joseph saying: “Let us also take the Body of Jesus, through Holy Communion, and place It in a [memorial] tomb hewn out of a rock, that is, place It within a soul which always remembers God and does not forget Him. And let that soul be hewn from a rock, that is, from Christ Who is the Rock on which we are established. And let us wrap the Body of Jesus in the linen, that is, let us receive It within a pure body. For the body is the linen and, as it were, the garment of the soul. For we must receive the divine Body of the Lord not only with a pure soul, but with a pure body as well. And we must wrap It and enfold It within ourselves, and not leave It exposed. For this Mystery is something veiled and hidden, not something to be exposed.”
Next, we hear about the Myrrh-Bearing women. Mark 16:1 says, “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.”
St. Gregory the Great explains how we can spiritually imitate the myrrh-bearing women saying: “Thus as we hear of what they did, we must also think of our responsibility to imitate them. We too, who believe in Him who died, approach His sepulcher with spices if we are strengthened with the sweet smell of the virtues, and if we seek the Lord with a reputation for good works. And the women who came with spices saw angels, since those who advance toward God through their holy desires, accompanied by the sweet smell of the virtues, behold the citizens from on high.”
We are given a glimpse of the communion with God and His Angels and the Saints that was established by the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ. The whole objective of creation is shown by the angels clearly communicating with Christ’s followers. The angels had lost a great number to the hand of Satan, but as St. Gregory the great again explains, our Lord brought about the restoration in heaven.
He says, “Our Redeemer’s resurrection was our festival day because it led us back to immortality, and also a festival day of the angels, because by recalling us to the things of heaven it completed their number.”
“Let us hear what the angel said to the women: ‘Do not be terrified.’ This is as much as to say: Let them be frightened who do not love the coming of those who live on high, let those be afraid who are weighed down by bodily desires and despair of being able to belong to their fellowship: but why are you who see your fellow citizens afraid?”- Gregory the Great
St. Gregory Palamas shares an Orthodox tradition that is somewhat hidden in the four Gospel accounts of the myrrh bearing women. He explains how the Mother of God was actually the first myrrh bearer.
He says, “All the other women came after the earthquake when the keepers had fled, and found the sepulcher open and the stone rolled away. The Virgin Mother, however, was there when the earthquake took place, the stone was rolled away, the tomb opened and the keepers were still present, though shaken with fear. When they got to their feet after the earthquake they immediately took to flight, whereas the Mother of God delighted herself in the sight without fear. It seems to me that the life-bearing tomb opened first for her sake (because everything in heaven above and on earth below was opened first for her, and through her for us) and that the angel shone like lightning on her account, so that even though it was still dark, by the angel’s abundant light she could see not only the empty tomb, but also the graveclothes lying in order and bearing witness in many ways to the fact that He who had been buried there had risen.”
It was fitting that the one through whom the creation encountered our God in the flesh was there at the first observance of the resurrection. The Archangel Gabriel once again proclaiming to the Theotokos the plan of salvation.
We are reminded of how all graces pass through her and we would wisely ask for her help in any difficult circumstance we find ourselves in seeing as it is only by her that we receive our Lord’s aid.
St. Nikolai Velimirovich makes a great observation about our Lord’s visitation to man, dead and alive saying, “A mother’s love cannot separate her dead children from those living. Still less can Christ’s love. The Lord is more discerning than the sun: He sees the approaching end of those still alive on earth, and sees the beginning of life for those who have entered into rest. For Him who created the earth from nothing, and man’s body from the earth, there is no difference between the earth’s, or his body’s, being a man’s grave. Grain lying in the field or stored in a granary – what difference does this make to the householder, who is thinking in both cases of the grain, and not of the straw or the granary? Whether men are in the body or in the earth – what difference does this make to the Householder of men’s souls? Coming on earth, the Lord paid two visits to men: the first to those living in the grave of the body and the second to those in the grave of the earth. He died in order to visit His dead children. Ah, how very truly a mother dies when she goes to the graves of her children!”
Our Lord is concerned with the dead, not because He can’t give them physical life, but because He does not force them to be spiritually alive. They must willingly do this themselves.
Likewise, we, imitating our Lord who loves each person more than their own mother, must be like Joseph of Arimathea and the myrrh-bearing women, caring for the dead with love and sacrifice, showing them the path to Life.
May our Lord count us worthy of those brought from death to Life when he visits the graveyard of this world for the last time at His second coming, Amen.
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