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「有抹大拉的馬利亞、和那個馬利亞在那裡、對著墳墓坐著。」（太廿七61）
盲目的悲哀，其實是無比的愚蠢。在這種情緒之中，既不思考，也不瞭解，更不想思考，亦不願去瞭解。當兩位馬利亞坐在主的墓門前傷心哀悼之時，我們可曾知道，此後千萬年的歲月，已在勝利中了。她們在當時心中只知道：「我們的主不見了。」
基督在她們的失望中回來；無數哀慟的心靈，在她們的悲悼中復活；然而憂悶哀悼地在墓旁守望的人，眼前雖已擺著未來結果的端倪，卻沒有看見。她們所認爲的生命末日，殊不知正是加冕大典的籌備過程；基督之所以靜默安息，是爲了在再醒時能增加十倍的力量。
她們不知道這一點。她們的悲悼、哭泣、離去，然後又受內心的驅策，回到墓地。但仍只見一個沒有預兆，沒有聲音，沒有光彩的墳墓。
我們也是如此，最初坐在自己的園子裏對著墳墓說：「此一喪失無可挽回，我看已無益處，我將從此不能得到慰籍。」然而往往就在我們最失喪的時候，基督正在那裏準備復活。
我們認爲死亡的地方，有我們的救世主在那裏。希望似乎終了，卻是豐富收穫的開始。黑暗最濃重的時候，卻是光明即將湧現了。當整個過程的變演就緒之後，我們會發現墳墓並未破壞花園的美觀。含有悲哀的歡樂，勝於一般的歡樂。我們的悲哀，爲上帝所佈置的樂園所圍繞，就變得光明。愛、信、希望、歡樂與和平，這些心靈之花，也許不爲常人所欣賞，也不是她們的花，但這些心靈之花，都種植在基督徒內心深處的每一個墳墓周圍。
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"And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre"
How strangely stupid is grief. It neither learns nor knows nor wishes to learn or know. When the sorrowing sisters sat over against the door of God's sepulchre, did they see the two thousand years that have passed triumphing away? Did they see any thing but this: "Our Christ is gone!"
Your Christ and my Christ came from their loss; Myriad mourning hearts have had resurrection in the midst of their grief; and yet the sorrowing watchers looked at the seed-form of this result, and saw nothing. What they regarded as the end of life was the very preparation for coronation; for Christ was silent that He might live again in tenfold power.
They saw it not. They mourned, they wept, and went away, and came again, driven by their hearts to the sepulchre. Still it was a sepulchre, unprophetic, voiceless, lusterless.
So with us. Every man sits over against the sepulchre in his garden, in the first instance, and says, "This woe is irremediable. I see no benefit in it. I will take no comfort in it." And yet, right in our deepest and worst mishaps, often, our Christ is lying, waiting for resurrection.
Where our death seems to be, there our Saviour is. Where the end of hope is, there is the brightest beginning of fruition. Where the darkness is thickest, there the bright beaming light that never is set is about to emerge. When the whole experience is consummated, then we find that a garden is not disfigured by a sepulchre. Our joys are made better if there be sorrow in the midst of them. And our sorrows are made bright by the joys that God has planted around about them. The flowers may not be pleasing to us, they may not be such as we are fond of plucking, but they are heart-flowers, love, hope, faith, joy, peace--these are flowers which are planted around about every grave that is sunk in the Christian heart.
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