Sepulchre of Christ

“ Commenting on the empty tomb L. K. Washburn says: “If Jesus got out of the grave alive, he was put into it alive. If he was put into it dead, he was taken out dead. A depopulated sepulchre is not proof that its former tenant has moved to heaven. It is merely proof that somebody has stolen a dead body.” ”

“ In the grave, earthly accomplishments, and even earthly love, avail us nothing; but religion does avail; and the religion of the cross of Christ, so full of hope and glory, she was led to adopt by this visit to Calvary and to the sepulchre of Christ. ”

“ We may have no sympathy with the practice of pilgrimages and little interest in the identification of holy places; but the holy sepulchre cannot but attract the believing heart. It was a practice of the piety of former days to meditate among the tombs. The piety of the present day inclines to more cheerful and, let us hope, not less healthy exercises. But every man with any depth of nature must linger sometimes beside the graves of his loved ones; every man of any seriousness must think sometimes of his own grave. ”

“ Finding that which was once Jerusalem, desolate ‘as a Preserve for autumnal fruits,’ [1]
according to the prophet, she sought carefully the sepulchre of Christ, from which he arose after his burial; and after much difficulty, by God’s help she discovered it. What the cause of the difficulty was I will explain in a few words. Those who embraced the Christian faith, after the period of his passion, greatly venerated this tomb ”

“ Come. “Enter with me into the sepulchre; for your sake, that you may enter, I have removed the great stone.” See the place where the Lord lay. That by the beholding of it with your eyes, says S. Chrysostom, ye may see that His body is not here, but has risen from it, so that, “if ye believe not my words, ye may believe the empty sepulchre,” says S. Jerome. The angel therefore led the way, and as a guide introduced the women into the sepulchre, and showed it to them empty, that they might not doubt that Christ had risen from it. ”

“ Six saints in ecstasy assist at the triumph, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Paul, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Peter Martyr and St. Benedict, three on the right and three on the left, in a semicircular composition, all in attitudes of contemplative ecstasy.
The frescoes of the Maries at the Sepulchre, may also be considered one of our artist's masterpieces. The risen Christ emerges to half His figure from the clouds which envelop Him, while the holy women contemplate the empty sepulchre, and the angel seated in it points out the miracle which has happened. ”

“ Now, just in this same way if you were to drive through a cemetery and look at a vault, which is the nearest that we have in this country in likeness to the sepulchre in which the body of Christ was laid, you would not suppose for a moment that there would be living people in that vault. While the bodies that are in the vault are dead bodies, yet they have the promise of life, God will some day raise them up, unite again the soul and the body and give them that everlasting life and resurrection glory which Jesus has promised. ”

“ If the Lord, however, delivers him into the hands of his enemies to kill him, or if he meet his death in any way, he begs that his body may be brought to the Paraclete for burial, so that the sight of his sepulchre may move his daughters and sisters in Christ to pray for him; no place could be so safe and salutary for the soul of one bitterly repenting of his sins, as that consecrated to the true Paraclete—the Comforter; [Pg 17] nor could fitter Christian burial be found than among women devoted by their vows to Christ. ”

“ The personal pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, as a mode of wiping out sin, was undertaken by thousands, who perished miserably, or, if they lived, came back not better men than they went: under a system of less tangibility, and a preaching as effective, they might have staid in their homes, and glorified God by a life such as Christ came to teach and to exemplify. ”

“ Peter and John go to the Sepulchre.
I. The devout women relate to the disciples what they had seen at the sepulchre, and it "seemed to them as an idle tale." (Luke xxiv. 11.) The Apostles were as yet attached to sensible things, and were not enlightened by the Holy Ghost. The mysteries of the Cross and Resurrection always appear folly to the wise ones of this world. Entreat Christ to enlighten your darkness, and not to suffer you to follow the incredulity or fashionable errors of the world. ”

“ There is a superb cupola over the sepulchre, and in the aisles are the tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin, kings of Jerusalem. In 302, St. Helena instituted the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This Order was confirmed in 304 by his Holiness, Pope Marcellinus; they were bound by a sacred vow to guard the Holy Sepulchre, protect pilgrims, and fight infidels and enemies of the cross of [Pg 125] Christ. The city of Jerusalem was rebuilt and ornamented by Ælius Adrian, Emperor of Rome, and given to the Christians in 120. ”

“ CHAP.⁠XXIV.
1 Christ's resurrection is declared by two angels to the women that came to the sepulchre, who report it to others, but are not believed. 12 Peter visiteth the sepulchre. 13 Christ appeareth to two disciples going to Emmaus; 36 and to the apostles, eating before them, and explaining the scriptures concerning himself: 49 he promiseth them the Holy Ghost, 50 and ascendeth into heaven. NOW [754] upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, [755] bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. ”

“ The service being ended, the said two monks carried the cross to the sepulchre with great reverence, which sepulchre was set up in the morning on the north side of the quire, nigh the high altar, before the service time, and they did lay it within the said sepulchre with great devotion, with another picture of our Saviour Christ, in whose Breast they did enclose, with great reverence, the most holy and blessed Sacrament of the Altar, censing and praying unto it upon their knees, a great space ”

“ Much effect is produced by the situation of some of the groups. The access to the place where Christ is laid in the sepulchre is by a vault where little light is admitted; and as it is difficult on entering from the open day to distinguish at first any object, the result is very impressive. Many of the figures are clothed in real drapery, and some have real hair. The executioners conducting the Saviour to Calvary are made as hideous and repulsive as possible, and are represented with goitres appended to their throats. This Sacro Monte originated in the piety of the blessed St. ”

“ Mes ennemis ont écrasé ma tête; tous les lieux saints sont profanés: le saint sépulchre, si rempli d'éclat, est couvert d'opprobre; on adore le fils de la perdition et de l'enfer, là où naguères on adorait le fils de Dieu. ”

“ However, his tomb is in a good state of preservation.
When one enters the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Sepulchre itself is the first thing he desires to see, and really is almost the first thing he does see. The next thing he has a strong yearning to see is the spot where the Saviour was crucified. But this they exhibit last. It is the crowning glory of the place. ”

“ If he were to take Jesus to his house and hide him he would become a party to Jesus' crime, and were Jesus discovered in his house the angry Pharisees would demand their death from Pilate. If he would escape the doom of the cross he must roll the stone up into the entrance of the sepulchre.... A dying man perceives no difference between a sepulchre and a dwelling-house. He would be dead before morning; before the Sabbath was done for certain; and Mary and Martha would begin the embalmment on Sunday. He would be dead certainly on Sunday morning, and dead men tell no tales, so they say. ”

“ Those that have least of this earth find a grave in it. Abraham provided, not cities, as Cain and Nimrod, but a sepulchre, [1.] To be a constant memorandum of death to himself and his posterity, that he and they might learn to die daily. This sepulchre is said to be at the end of the field (v. 9) ; for, whatever our possessions are, there is a sepulchre at the end of them. ”

“ The Holy Sepulchre, the most sacred spot on earth, was in the hands of the heathens; it was despised and defiled—what greater thing could a man do than hasten to its [Pg 71] rescue and wrest it from the grasp of pagans, giants and sorcerers? In the fantastic imagination of the men of that period the Lord's sepulchre was nothing but the earthly realisation of their yearning for the Holy Grail. ”

“ A third Answer to the foresaid Argument of Fraud in the Resurrection of Jesus, drawn from the Nature, Use and Design of sealing the Stone of the Sepulchre, is, that tho' the Sealers of the Sepulchre were not present, opening the Seals and beholding the Miracle; yet Jesus did certainly arise from the Dead, or the Belief of his Resurrection could never have been at first propagated by the Apostles, nor would for so many Ages of the Church since have stood its Ground. ”

“ And the spirit of the sepulchre, which all who came there must feel, was one unattainable in sunlit, sweet-smelling cemetery or cool cathedral crypt. It brought the living nearer to the dead; it left the dead more convincingly at peace and rest for ever. ”

“ Permit me to remark here, that all that ingenuity has ever invented about how the body of Jesus was disposed of, can have no weight at all against the doctrine of the resurrection which the apostles propagated. The body's being absent from the sepulchre never convinced one reasonable being in the world, of the fact of the resurrection. ”

“ It is the sleeping place, and "Christianity has turned the Sepulchre into a Cemetery assuring us, as it does, that those who die in Jesus, Sleep in Him, awaiting a future awakening, in augmented vigour, and with renovated powers. To the Christian, the grave should be associated with the idea of calm and undisturbed repose, after a life of honourable toil, with the hope of a glorious and blessed resurrection." The Greeks had their burial places at a distance from the towns. ”

“ The sepulchre, for long an object of such great veneration, will remain in the open, exposed to the sight of the heavens, the Sun and the Moon. The holy place will be converted into a stable for a herd large and small, and used for profane purposes. Oh, what a calamitous affliction will pregnant women bear at this time. ”

“ We go to Thy sepulchre, mortal, mourning human creatures, for Thou also wast mortal once. Thou also hast died and hast been buried!"
Thus, in stooping lowly, nearer her fellow-men, she grew nearer Him who stooped lowest of all.
"The whole earth is a sepulchre," she said; "for it was Thine! Not our beloved only; Thou also hast lain in the grave! When we and our beloved lie down in ours, it will be but where Thou hast lain before."
Meanwhile, all the time the earth was bearing her lowly witness to the resurrection in opening buds and nestling birds, and all the renewal of the spring. ”

“ Then I, who wished to see what would now befall them, beheld God's angel, who, according to His divine command, sought out for each of them a spot where he was to have his little chamber, and where his body should have rest. When it had been laid there either by friends or by enemies, or by the angels themselves, they guarded the sepulchre, that the graves of the holy might be preserved safely from Satan, and that not even the smallest atom of the dust within them should be lost. Meanwhile, other angels took the soul, and carried it upward with splendour and divine rejoicing. ”

“ Go a little farther upon the mountain, and you come to “a new tomb hewn out of the rock.” There lies a dead body. It is the body of Jesus. His disciples have laid it down in sorrow, and returned weeping to the city. Mary’s heart is broken, Peter’s zeal is quenched in tears, and John would fain lie down and die in his Master’s grave. The sepulchre is closed up and sealed, and a Roman sentry placed at its entrance. On the morning of the third day, while it is yet dark, two or three women come to anoint the body. ”

“ As far as my eye can tell, the distance between “Skull Hill” and this sepulchre is much the same as between Calvary and the sepulchre that tradition hallows. I send you a sketch that I made on the spot of Gordon’s “sepulchre,” to show you the universal plan of these burial-places. You will see three tombs (their lids are gone) in the inner chamber. At the Holy Sepulchre only Our Lord’s is preserved, tallying with the one I have marked with a cross ”

“ These are two angels, of a most terrible and fearful aspect, who shall place [every] man upright in his grave, consisting again both of soul and body, and ask him concerning the unity and the mission [of the apostle] , saying, Who is thy Lord? and, What is thy religion? and, Who is thy prophet? For these are the searchers of the grave, and their examination the first trial after death. Everyone must also believe the torment of the sepulchre, and that it is due and right and just, both upon the body and the soul, being according to the will of God. ”

“ The events of the Passion have been detailed at some length, with the object of showing that the accounts in the four Gospels do not disagree as a whole with one another, and that the close proximity of the sites fits with the limited time that elapsed between the first trial in the Prætorium and the Crucifixion of our Lord. Like the early Christians, we must be content with a very general idea of the localities; and as regards the “new sepulchre,” we must “let the dead bury their dead.” ”