「抹大拉的馬利亞，和另一個馬利亞，卻在那裡對著墳墓坐著。」－馬太福音27:61
當兩位傷痛的婦人坐在墓前為主一廂情願的哀悼時，她們看不到此後復活一路得勝的兩千年；她們的眼目只看得見眼前的事：「我們的基督不在了！」
她們看不見基督正在她們哭泣時籌備祂的加冕大典，她們看不見基督暫時的離去，是為了不久在榮耀裡的復活。她們沒有看見這些，因此她們悲悼，她們哭泣，她們離去。
這也正是我們的情形。我們坐在我們的荒蕪的園中，背後倚著墓碑，哀傷地喃喃自語：「這次的傷痛已經無可挽回，我無法看出其中任何的益處，我也看不出絲毫的安慰。」
然而，當我們在最深的悔恨和失喪時，基督正準備從墳墓中起身，迎接復活。
死亡牢牢盤據之處，也是我們的救主復活之地；我們的希望在哪裡殞落，豐美的果實也會在哪裡收成；黑暗最深之時，也是光明即將顯露之時。
當生命的路程走完一圈，我們會發現，其實墳墓未曾破壞花園的美好，其實喜悅因著悲哀的點綴顯得更為燦耀。
因為神在哀哭的周圍栽種了盼望、信心、喜樂與和平，這些心靈深處的花朵或許不為外人珍賞，他們卻在基督徒的心土裡綻放，在他們心中的墓園中長出多采多姿的華美。
"And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre" (Matt. 27:61).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.
