Easter Week: A Sermon on the Resurrection, part 5

It is in this section of the sermon that Andrewes works one of his most beautiful tapestries: Mary Magdalene’s mistaking Jesus for the gardener. All along in this sermon, Andrewes has sought to show that whatever her other errors (and whatever ours), Mary’s deep love for Christ (to borrow a phrase from St. Peter) “covers a multitude of sins.”

Here—once again drawing on a variety of sources—Bishop Andrewes creates a picture of utmost tenderness, compassion, and beauty. One can imagine this being preached slowly, with great care, as his hearers are being led through the manifold ways that Mary was actually right in supposing Jesus to be the gardener.

This section of the sermon highlights one of Andrewes’ most beautiful characteristics in later life: a desire to show not only the face of God’s judgment, but a tremendous capacity to speak of God’s desire for communion with us. It is this profound sacramentality that marks his greatest sermons, and for which he has been called “Anglicanism’s Mystical Theologian.”

Ver. 14. 'When she had thus said, she turned herself about, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.'

Always the Angels, we see, touched the right string, and she tells them the wrong cause, but yet right, if it had been right.

Now to this answer of hers they would have replied, and taken away her error touching her Lord's taking away; that if she knew all, she would have left her seeking, and set her down by them, and left her weeping, and been in white as well as they.

But here is a supersedeas to them, the Lord Himself comes in place. Now come we from the seeking Him dead, to finding Him alive. For when He saw no Angels, no sight, no speech of theirs would serve, none but her Lord could give her any comfort, her Lord comes. Christus adest.

Adest Christus, nec ab eis unquam abest a quibus quæritur, saith Augustine; 'Christ is found, found by her; and this case of hers will be the case of all who seriously seek Him.' This woman here for one, she sought Him we see. They who went to Emmaus to day, they but talked of Him sadly, and they both found Him. Why, He is found of them who seek Him not; but of them who seek Him, never but found, 'For Thou Lord never failest them that seek Thee.' 'God is not unrighteous, to forget the work and labour of their love that seek Him.'

So find Him they will, but happily not all so fully at first, no more than she did. For first, to try her yet a little further, He comes unknown, stands by her, and she little thought it had been He.

A case that likewise falls out full oft. Doubtless, 'He is not far from every one of us,' saith the Apostle to the Athenians. But He is nearer us many times than we think; even hard by us and we are not aware of it saith, saith Job. And O si cognovissess et tu, 'O if we did know, and it standeth us in hand to pray that we may know when He is so, for that is, 'the time of our visitation.'

St. John saith here, the Angels were sitting; St. Luke saith, they stood. They are thus reconciled. That Christ coming in presence, the Angels which before were sitting stood up. Their standing up made Mary Magdalene turn her to see who it was they rose to. And so Christ she saw, but knew Him not.

Not only not knew Him, but mis-knew Him, took Him for the gardener. Tears will dim the sight, and it was not yet scarce day, and she seeing one, and not knowing what any one should should make in the ground so early but he who dressed it, she might well mistake. But it was more than so; her eyes were not holden only that she did not know Him, but over and beside He did appear…in some such shape as might resemble the gardener for whom she took Him.

Proper enough it was, it fitted well the time and place, this person. The time, it was the spring; the place, it was the garden: that place is most in request at that time, for that place and time a gardener doth well.

Of which her so taking Him, St. Gregory said well, profecto errando non erravit. She did not mistake in taking Him for a gardener; though she might seem to err in some sense, yet in some other she was in the right. For in a sense, and a good sense, Christ may well be said to be a gardener, and indeed is one. For our rule is, Christ as He appears, so He is ever; no false semblant in Him.

1. A gardener He is then. The first, the fairest garden that ever was, Paradise. He was the gardener, it was of His planting. So, a gardener.

2. And ever since it is He That as God makes all our gardens green, sends us yearly the spring, and all the herbs and flowers we then gather; and neither Paul with his planting, nor Apollos with his watering, could do any good without Him. So a gardener in that sense.

3. But not in that alone; but He it is who gardens our 'souls' too, and makes them, as the prophet [Jeremiah] saith, like a well-watered garden;' weeds out of them whatsoever is noisome or unsavoury, sows and plants them with true roots and seeds of righteousness, waters them with the dew of His grace, and makes them bring forth fruit to eternal life.

But it is none of all these, but besides all these, no over and above all these, this day if ever, most properly He was a gardener. Was one, and so after a more peculiar manner might take this likeness on Him. Christ rising was indeed a gardener, and that a strange one, Who made such a herb grow out of the ground this day as the like was never seen before, a dead body to shoot forth alive out of the grave.

I ask, was He so this day alone? No, but this profession of His, this day begun, He will follow to the end. For He it is That by virtue of this morning's act shall garden our bodies too, turn all our graves into garden plots; yea, will one day turn land and sea and all into a great garden, and so husband them as will in due time bring forth live bodies, even all our bodies alive again.

Long before, did Esay see this and sing of it in his song resembling the resurrection to a spring garden. 'Awake and sing,' saith he, 'ye that dwell for a time are as it were sown in the dust, for His dew will be as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall shoot forth her dead.' So then He appeared no other than He was; a gardener He was, not in show alone, but opere et veritate, and so came in His own likeness. This for Christ's appearing. Now to His speech, but as unknown still.

Easter Week: A Sermon on the Resurrection, part 4

This sermon is a product of the 17^th century Church of England. Thus, it contains elements that we would think of today as distinctly dramatic, perhaps even a bit “operatic” in tone (this was the era that produced opera and the elaborate Court Masques, after all). In this section of the sermon, Lancelot Andrewes brings to bear his rhetorical and dramatic powers in speaking of Mary Magdalene’s emotions manifest in one sentence: “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” He uses repetition to build a sense of Mary's unavoidable pain in this moment, and to show that the Resurrection is the balm for the wound not only in her life, but for all people, ages, and places.

Andrewes draws an exceptionally poignant conclusion in this section: the fact that we are often mistaken in our sorrows and our joys, frequently turning what should be our sorrow into a false joy, and turning our joys into occasions for sorrow. This is a way into understanding what humility truly means for the Christian: seeing things as they are and responding appropriately.  He returns to this theme as the section ends by examining the meaning of Mary's many tears, encouraging us to see where we have become dry in our faith, without tears of compunction for wasted opportunities to love and serve.

Indeed, this entire sermon is motivated in large measure by a deep appreciation for the Magdalene’s love for Christ, and how this love is the quality above all that overcomes a lack of understanding or faith. Andrewes was a theologian of the Trinity, and his vision for the human life was one of mystical communion with the Trinity in love and humility. As the sermon progresses, St. Mary Magdalene becomes ever more clearly the model for authentic discipleship in the midst of a world of struggle, sorrow, and change.

Ver. 13. 'And they said to her, Woman, why weepest thou? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.'

Now to their speech. It was not a dumb show this, a bare apparition, and so vanished away. It was visio et vox, 'a vocal vision.' Here is a dialogue too, the Angels speak to her.

And they ask her, Quid ploras? Why she wept, what cause she had to weep. They mean she had none, as indeed no more she had. All was in error, piae lachrymae sed caecae, 'tears of grief but false grief,' imagining that to be that was not, Him to be dead who was alive. She weeps, because she found the grave empty, which God forbid she should have found full, for then Christ must have been dead still, and so no Resurrection.

And this case of Mary Magdalene's is our case oftentimes. In the error of our conceit to weep, where we have no cause; to joy, where we have as little. Where we should, where we have cause to joy, we weep; and where to weep, we joy. Our ploras hath never a quid. False joys and false sorrows, false hopes and false fears this life of ours is full of--God help us!

Now because she erred, they ask her the cause, that she alleging it they may take it away, and show it to be no cause. At the elench [a Socratic dialogue of question and answer], a non causa pro causa, makes foul rule among us, beguiles us all our life long.

Will ye hear her answer to 'Why weep you?' Why? Sustulerunt, that was the cause, her Lord was gone, was 'taken away.'

And a good cause it had been, if it had been true. Any have cause to grieve who have lost, lost a good Lord, so good and gracious a Lord as He had been to her.

But that is not all; a worse matter, a greater grief than that. When one dieth, we reckon him taken away; that is one kind of taking away. But his dead body is left, so all is not taken from us; that was not her case. For in saying 'her Lord,' she means not her Lord alive--that is not it; she means not they had slain Him, they had taken away His life--she had wept her fill for that already. But 'her Lord,' that is, His dead body. For though His life was gone, yet His body was left. And that was all she now had left of Him that she calls her Lord, and that 'they had taken away' from her too. A poor one it was, yet some comfort it was to her, to have even that left her to visit, to anoint, to do other offices of love, even to that. Etiam viso cadavere recalescit amor, at the sight even of that will love revive, it will fetch life of love again. But now here is her case; that is gone and all, and nothing but an empty grave now left to stand by. That St. Augustine saith well, sublatus de monumento grieved her more than occisus in ligno, for then something yet was left; now nothing at all. Right sustulerunt, taken away quite and clean.

And thirdly, her nescio ubi. For though He be taken away, it is some comfort yet, if we know where to fetch Him again. But here, He is gone without all hope of recovery or getting again. For 'they,' but she knew not who, 'had carried Him,' she knew not whither; 'laid Him,' she knew not where; there to do to Him, she knew not what. So that now, nescio ubi with her right. Put all these together, His life taken away, His body taken away, and carried no man knows whither; and do they ask why she wept? Or can any blame her for it?

The truth is, none had 'taken away her Lord' for all this; for all this while her Lord was well, was as she would have had Him, alive and safe. He went away of Himself, none carried Him thence. What of that? Non credens suscitatum, credidit sublatum, 'for want of belief He was risen, she believed He was carried away.' She erred in so believing; there was error in her love, but there was love in her error too.

And, give me leave to lay out three more arguments of her love, out of this verse, to make up eight, towards the making up of her multum.

The very title she give Him, of Dominum meum, is one; 'My Lord,' that she gives Him that term. For it shews her love and respect was no whit abated by the scandal of His death. It was a most opprobrious, ignominious, shameful death He suffered; such, as in the eyes of the world any would have been ashamed to own Him, or say of Him, Meum; but any would have been afraid to honour Him with that title, to style Him Dominum. She was neither. Meum, for hers; Dominum meum, for her she acknowledgeth Him, is neither ashamed nor afraid to continue that title still. Amor scandalo non scandalizatus.

Another, which I take to be far beyond this, that she having looked into the grave a little before, and seen never an Angel there, and of a sudden looking in now and seeing two, a sight able to have amazed any, any but her, it moves not her at all. The suddenness, the strangeness, the gloriousness of the sight, yea, even of Angels, move her not at all. She seems to have no sense of it, and so to be in a kind of ecstasy all the while. Domine, propter Te est extra se, saith Bernard. Amor extasin patiens.

And thirdly, as that strange sight affected her not a whit, so neither did their comfortable speech work with her at all. Comfortable I call it, for they ask the cause why, 'Why weep you?' show they would remove it if it lay in them. Neither of these did or could move her, or make her once leave her weeping--she wept on still: Christ will ask her quid ploras? by and by again. If she find an Angel, if she find not her Lord, it will not serve. She had rather find His dead body, than them in all their glory. No man in earth, no Angel in Heaven can comfort her; none but He Who is taken away, Christ, and none but Christ; and till she find Him again, her soul refuseth all manner comfort; yea even from Heaven, even from the Angels themselves; these three. Amor super amissum reuens consolari.

Thus she, in her love, for her supposed loss or taking away. And what will become of us in ours then. That lose Him,

1. not once, but oft;

2. and not in suppose as she did, but in very deed;

3. and that by sin, the worst loss of all;

4. and that not by any other's taking away, but by our own act and wilful default; and are not grieved, nay not moved a whit, break none of our wonted sports for it, as if we reckoned Him as good lost as found. Yea, when Christ and the Holy Ghost and the favour of God, and all is gone, how soon, how easily are we comforted again for all this! that none will need to say, quid ploras? to us rather, quid non ploras? ask us why we weep not, having so good cause to do it as we then have? This for the Angels' part.

Easter Week: A Sermon on the Resurrection, part 3

Lancelot Andrewes was both a highly creative and a deeply orthodox preacher. These things—so often treated as if mutually exclusive—are ultimately interdependent. Creativity in preaching when disconnected from orthodoxy results in heresy, cults-of-personality, and the dead end of idiosyncrasy. Orthodoxy without creativity leads to emotional sterility, contempt for mystery, and intellectual narrowness. When reading Andrewes’ sermons, one is struck by the way his grounding in the catholic faith frees him from contemporary obsessions (so much the character of current preaching in the Episcopal Church) to find a vital message in the ancient-yet-ever-new text of Scripture.

This section of the Easter Day sermon looks at the angels in the tomb, bringing up the fact that such a juxtaposition of God’s presence and death is a novel feature of the Resurrection, made explicit in this image. The color of the angels’ vesture is linked to the wider narrative of salvation, and their placement—one at the head and one at the feet—is likened to everything from the cherubim in the Temple to the way Christians are meant to live lives of humility as well as leadership.

The end of this section makes a tremendous point: the Christian may not rest on his or her laurels: we must always be growing in holiness with God. When Andrewes’ wrote this sermon, many in the Church held a strict Calvinist doctrine of Predestination, making sanctification almost irrelevant. Here Andrewes argues that true Apostolic faith requires both right response as well as the gift New Life in Christ. In our own day, when the so-called “gospel of inclusion” has been applied like a wrecking ball to the whole fabric of the Faith, we see many ignoring just this point: being called into fellowship with Christ requires a corresponding holiness of response. Without it, the Cross and Empty Tomb become mere tokens, taken for granted, as we go on living lives more in league with sin and death than redemption and eternal life.

Ver. 16. 'And saw two Angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.'

For what came of this? Thus staying by it, and thus looking again and again, though she saw not Christ at first, she sees His Angels. For so it pleased Christ to come by degrees, His Angels before Him. And it is no vulgar honour this, to see but an Angel; what would one of us give to see but the like sight?

We are now at the Angels' part, their appearing in this verse. There are four points in it:

1. Their place;

2. Their habit [vesture];

3. Their site;

4. and their order.

1. Place, in the grave;

2. Habit, in white;

3. site--they were sitting;

4. and their order in sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet.

The place. In the grave she saw them; and Angels in a grave, is a strange site, a sight never seen before; not till Christ's body had been there, never till this day; this the first news of Angels in that place. For a grave is no place for Angels, one would think, for worms rather; blessed Angels, not but in a blessed place. But since Christ lay there, that place is blessed. There was a voice heard from Heaven, 'Blessed be the dead:' 'Precious the death,' 'Glorious the memory' now, 'of them that die in the Lord.' And even this, that the Angels disdained not now to come thither, and to sit there, is an auspicium of a great change to ensue in the state of that place. Quid gloriosius Angelo? quid vilius vermiculo? saith Augustine. Qui fuit vermiculorum locus, est et Angelorum. 'That which was the place for worms, is become a place for Angels.'

Their habit. 'In white.' So were there divers of them, divers times this day, seen 'in white,' all; in that colour. It seems to be their Easter-day colour, for at this feast they all do their service in it. Their Easter-day colour, for it is the colour of the Resurrection. The state whereof when Christ would represent upon the Mount, 'is raiment was all white, no fuller in the earth could come near it.' And our colour it will be, when rising again 'we shall walk in white robes,' and 'follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.'

Heaven mourned on Good-Friday, the eclipse made all then in black. Easter-day it rejoiceth, Heaven and Angels, all in white. Solomon tells us, it is the colour of joy. And that is the state of joy, and this the day of the first joyful tidings of it, with joy ever celebrated, even in albis, eight days together, by them who found Christ.

'In white,' and 'sitting.' As the colour of joy, so the situation of rest. So we say, Sit down, and rest. And so is the grave made, by this morning's work, a place of rest. Rest not from our labours only--so do the beasts rest when they die; but as it is in the sixteenth Psalm, a Psalm of the Resurrection, a 'rest in hope' 'hope' of rising again, the members in the virtue of their Head Who this day is risen. So to enter into the 'rest,' which yet 'remaineth for the people of God,' even the Sabbath eternal.

'Sitting,' and in this order, 'sitting;' at the head one, at the feet another, where His body had lain.

1. Which order may well refer to Christ Himself, Whose body was the true ark indeed, 'in which it pleased the Godhead to dwell bodily;' and is therefore here between two Angels, as was the ark, the type of it, 'between the two cherubim.'

2. May also refer to Mary Magdalene. She had anointed His head, she had anointed His feet: at these two places sit the two angels, as it were to acknowledge so much for her sake.

3. In mystery, they refer it thus. Because caput Christi Deus, 'the Godhead is the head of Christ;' and His feet which the serpent did bruise, His manhood; that either of these has his Angel. That to Christ man no less than to Christ God, the Angels do now their service. In principio erat Verbum, His Godhead; there, an Angel. Verbum caro factum, his manhood; there another. 'And let all the angels of God worship Him' in both. Even in His manhood, at His cradle the head of it, a choir of Angels; at His grave, the feet of it, Angels likewise.

4. And lastly, for our comfort thus. That henceforth even such will our graves be, if we be so happy as 'to have our parts in the first resurrection,' which is of the soul from sin. We shall go to our graves in white, in the comfort and colour of hope, lie between two Angels there; they guard our bodies dead, and present them alive again at the Resurrection.

1.Yet before we leave them, to learn somewhat of the Angels; specially, of 'the Angel that sat at the feet.' That between them there was no striving for places. He 'that sat at the feet,' as well content with his place as he that 'at the head.'  We to be so by their example. For with us, both the Angels would have been 'at the head,' never an one 'at the feet;' with us none would be at the feet by his good will, head-Angels all.

2. Again, from them both. That inasmuch as the head ever stands for the beginning, and the feet for the end, that we be careful that our beginning only be not glorious--O an angel at the head in any wise--but that we look to the feet, there be another there too. Ne turpiter atrum desinat, 'that it end not in a black Angel,' that began in a white. And this for the Angels' appearing.

Easter Week: A Sermon on the Resurrection, part 2

In this section of the sermon, Bp. Andrewes focuses on the character of St. Mary Magdalene’s love for Christ by looking carefully at her physical actions at the tomb, her words to the angels and Christ, and the words used to describe her interior mindset at that moment. This is a splendid example of the minute way Andrewes goes about examining the text, drawing more and more out of it. It also shows his deep appropriation of the Greek and Latin Fathers (here Origen and St. Augustine) as a tool for exegesis. This is a hallmark of catholic (and truly Anglican) reading of Scripture. Finally, the reader will note that Andrewes frequently ends complex passages about the text with short, pithy, and almost earthy sentences drawing emotionally-laden conclusions for application to our lives—serving to keep the intellectual and the emotional balanced in the sermon. This, too, is a necessary element of good Anglican preaching.

Ver. 11. 'But Mary stood by the Sepulchre weeping, and as she wept she stooped, and looked into the Sepulchre.'

Of the favours vouchsafed this same felix peccatrix, as the Fathers term her, this day;

1. To see but Christ's Angels,

2. To see Christ at all,

3. To see Him first of all,

4. But more than all these, to be employed by him in so heavenly an errand, reason we can render none that helped her to these, but that which in a place Christ Himself renders, Quia dilexit multum, 'because she loved much.'

'She loved much;' we cannot say, She believed much; for her by her sustulerunt thrice repeated, the second, thirteenth, fifteenth verses, it seems she believed no more than just as much as the High Priests would have had the world believe, that 'he was taken away by night.'

Defectus fidei non est negandus, affectus amoris non est vituperandus: it is Origen; 'We cannot commend her faith, her love we cannot but commend,' and so do--commend it in her, commend it to you. Much it was, and much good proof gave she of it. Before, to Him living; now, to Him dead. To Him dead, there are divers.

1. She was last at His cross, and first at His grave.

2. Stayed longest there, was soonest there.

3. Could not rest till she were up to seek Him.

4. Sought Him while it was yet dark, before she had light to seek Him by.

But to take her as we find her in the text, and to look no whither else. There are in the text no less than ten, all arguments of her great love; all as it were a commentary upon dilexit multum. And even in this verse there are five of them.

The first in these words, stabat juxta monumentum, that 'she stood by the grave,' a place where faint love loves not to stand. Bring Him to the grave, and lay Him in the grave, and there leave Him; but come no more at it, or stand not long by it. Stand by Him while He is alive--so did many; stand and go, and sit by Him. But stans juxta monumentum, stand by Him dead; Mary Magdalene, she did it, and she only did it, and none but she. Amor stans juxta monumentum.

The next in these, Maria autem stabat, 'but Mary stood.' In the autem, the 'but'--that helps us to another. But Mary stood, that is as much to say as, Others did not, 'but' she did. Peter and John were there but even now. Thither they came, but not finding Him, away they went. They went, but Mary went not, she stood still. Their going away commends her staying behind. To the grave she came before them, from the grave she went to tell them, to the grave she returns with them, at the grave she stays behind them. Fortior eam figebat affectus, said Augustine, 'a stronger affection fixed her;' so fixed her that she had not the power to remove thence. Go who would, she would not, but stay still. To stay, while others do so, while company stays, that is the world's love; but Peter is gone, and John too; all are gone, and we left alone; then to stay is love, and constant love. Amor manens aliis recedentibus, 'love that when others shrink and give over, holds out still.' The third in these, 'she stood, and she wept;' and not a tear or two, but she wept a good as we say, that the Angels, that Christ Himself pity her, and both of them the first thing they do, they ask her why she wept so. Both of them begin with that question. And in this is love. For if, when Christ stood at Lazarus' grave's side and wept, the Jews said, 'See, how He loved Him!' may not we say the very same, when Mary stood at Christ's grave and wept, See, how she loved Him! Whose presence she wished for, His miss she wept for; Whom she dearly loved while she had Him, she bitterly bewailed when she lost Him. Amor amare flens, 'love running down her cheeks.'

The fourth in these, 'And as she wept, she stooped, and looked in' ever and anon. That is, she did so weep, as she did seek withal. Weeping without seeking, is but to small purpose. But her weeping hindered not her seeking, her sorrow dulled not her diligence. And diligence is a character of love, comes from the same root, dilectio and diligentia from diligo, both. Amors diligentiam diligens.

To seek, is one thing; not to give over seeking, is another. For I ask, why should she now look in? Peter and John had looked there before, no had been in the grave, they. It makes no matter; she will not trust Peter's eyes, nor John's neither. But she herself had before this, looked in too.

No force, she will not trust herself, she will suspect her own eyes, she will rather think she looked not well before, than leave off her looking. It is not enough for love to look in once. Thus we use, this is our manner when we seek a thing seriously; where we have sought already, there to seek again, thinking we did it not well, but if we now look again better, we shall surely find it then. Amor quæens ubi quæsivit, love that never thinks it has looked enough. These five.

And by these five we may take measure of our love, and of the true multum of it. Ut prosit nobis ejus stare, ejus plorare et quærere, saith Origen, 'that her standing, her weeping, and seeking, we may take some good by them.'

I doubt ours will fall short. Stay by Him alive, that we can, juxta mensam; but juxta monumentum, who takes up His standing there? And our love it is dry-eyes, it cannot weep; it is stiff-jointed, it cannot stoop to seek. If it do, and we hit not on Him at first, away we go with Peter and John; we stay not out with Mary Magdalene. A sign our love is little and light, and our seeking suitable, and so it is without success. We find not Christ--- no marvel; but seek Him as she sought Him, and we shall speed as she sped.

Easter Week: A Sermon on the Resurrection, part 1

Seeking the Dead and Finding the Living

Bishop Andrewes was one of the greatest preachers Anglicanism has produced. His extraordinary knowledge of the Scriptures, the Latin and Greek Fathers, medieval theology, and the Reformation-era scene allowed him to speak with authority and nuance. His poetic soul, coupled with a logical mind trained in teaching and public speaking, made his sermons fascinating on multiple levels. Reading them aloud slowly and with care reveals much each time.

One of the greatest of Andrewes’ sermons was that preached before King James on Easter Day, 1620. It is a careful and minute study of the encounter between Mary Magdalene, the Angels, and Christ. It traces a psychological as well as a spiritual journey, and it reveals an entire world of meaning from a few verses. During the Octave of Easter Day, we will make our way through this extraordinary sermon. Read it carefully, slowly, and with an open mind. Andrewes speaks in a distinct way, but if one learns to work at the text (as opposed to the modern tendency to want pre-digested, ideological encounters with Scripture and information), it feeds the soul in much the same manner as the Holy Sacrament Andrewes do deeply valued.

A note: Andrewes in this sermon avails himself of the tradition associating Mary Magdalene with the Sinful Woman in the Gospel according to Luke. This association has largely been repudiated by the Church today, but Andrewes finds new meanings and new power in this identification that raises it from the usual, unfortunate and often misogynistic use made by preachers of the period. Also, Andrewes often puts in the Latin text for a particular passage of Scripture, in addition to the English. Just keep reading, even if you do not read Latin yourself. The sense will be made clear.

A Sermon 

(in serial form) 

by Bishop Lancelot Andrewes 

Preached on Easter Day, 1620

[As transcribed by Dr. Marianne Dorman AD 2002]

Text John 20.11-17

But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping; and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, And saw two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman why weepest thou? She saith unto them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, and to My God and your God.

It is Easter-day abroad, and it is so in the text. We keep Solomon's rule, Verbum diei in die suo. For all this I have read, is nothing lese but a report of Christ's rising, and of His appearing this Easter-day morning, His very first appearing of all. St. Mark is express for it, that Christ was no sooner risen this day but 'He appeared first of all to Mary Magdalene;' which first appearing of His is here by St. John extended, and is set down at large.

The sum of it is, 1. The seeking Christ dead; 2. The finding Him alive.

The manner of it is, That Mary Magdalene staying still by the sepulchre, first she saw a vision of Angels; and after, she saw Christ Himself. Saw Him, and was herself made an Angel by Him, a good Angel to carry the Evangel, the first good and joyful tidings of His rising again from the dead.

And this was a great honour, all considered, to serve in an Angel's place. To do that at His resurrection, His second birth, that at His first birth an Angel did. An Angel first published that, Mary Magdalene brought first notice of this. As he to the shepherds, so she to the Apostles, the Pastors of Christ's flock, by them to be spread abroad to the ends of the world.

To look a little into it. 1. Mary is the name of a woman; 2. Mary Magdalene of a sinful woman.

That to a woman first--it agreeth well to make even with Eve; that as by a woman came the first news of death, so by a woman also might come the first notice of the Resurrection from the dead. And the place fits well, for in a garden they came both.

That to a sinful woman first--that also agrees well. To her who most needed it; most needed it, and so first sought it. And it agrees well, He be first found of her who first sought Him; even in that respect she was to be respected.

In which two there is opened unto us 'a gate of hope,' two great leaves, as it were; one, that no infirmity of sex--for a woman we see; the other, that no enormity of sin--for a sinful woman, one who had the blemish that she went under the common name of peccatrix, as notorious and famous in that kind; that neither of these will debar any to have their part in Christ and in His resurrection; any, who will seek Him in such sort as she did. For either of these non obstante, not withstanding both these, she had the happiness to see His Angels--and that was no small favour; to see Christ Himself, and that first of all, before all others to see and salute Him; and to receive a commission from Him of vade et dic, 'to go and tell,' that is as it were to be an Apostle, and that to the Apostles themselves, to bring them the first good news of Christ's rising again.

There are three parties that take up the whole text, and if I should divide it, I would make those three parties the three parts; I. Mary Magdalene, II. the Angels, III. and Christ our Saviour.

Mary Magdalene begins her part in the first verse, but she goes along through them all.

Then the Angels' part in the verses next. 1. Their appearing, 2. and their speech to her; appearing in the twelfth, speech in the thirteenth.

And last, Christ's part in all the rest. 1. His appearing, 2. and speech likewise. Appearing first, unknown, in the fourteenth, and His speech then in the fifteenth.

After, His appearing and speech again, being known, in the sixteenth and seventeenth. 1. Forbidding her, mane et tange, to stay and touch; 2. and bidding her, vade et dic, to get her quickly to His brethren, and tell them His resurrection was past, for ascendo, He was taking thought for His Ascension, and preparing for that. Thus lieth the order and the parts.

The use will be, that we in our seeking carry ourselves as she did;--and so may we have the happiness that she had to find Christ, as He is now to be found in the virtue of His resurrection!