Editorial August 17, 1940 Issue

The "task of glory"

Evelyn F. Heywood

THE disciples had looked into the sepulcher from which the stone was now rolled away; they had seen that the body of their Master was no longer there, and they had gone back to their own homes. But the woman who had come with them did not go away. She stood there weeping, looking into the sepulcher. She saw, through her tears, what the disciples had not seen—two angels. And the angels asked her why she wept. But this was not yet sufficient to arouse her from her grief. A moment later, however, someone else asked her the same question, and she made the same answer. She was seeking the human form of Jesus. Then he spoke one word to her, "Mary." It was enough. On page 258 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mary Baker Eddy writes of this scene: "To the woman at the sepulchre, bowed in strong affection's anguish, one word, 'Mary,' broke the gloom with Christ's all-conquering love. Then came her resurrection and task of glory, to know and to do God's will."

To teach men to understand and do the will of God, and to make them see the danger, the futility of that will which is in opposition to it, was the purpose of Jesus' mission. Mary, in this moment of marvelous restitution, of gratitude, of joy, must have understand something of what the presence of the risen Lord meant to herself and to the world. The fulfillment of the divine will, the understanding, the proof of it, were in evidence before her. Death and the grave had been overcome; eternal Life had been demonstrated.

"I came down from heaven," Jesus had said, during the early days of his ministry, "not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." And now his "task of glory" was well-nigh fulfilled. The final temptation to do his own will had been conquered; death had been overcome; the cross had been replaced by the crown.

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