Article April 7, 1980 Issue

Open house for angels

RONALD GRAY WALKER

Describing the poignant events surrounding Christ Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, St. Matthew's Gospel records that Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus' body "and laid it in his own new tomb...; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre." Matt. 27:60;

Perhaps one might see this deed of blocking the sepulcher door as a bit ironic. While it must have been motivated by a humane desire to protect Jesus' body, did it not perhaps also indicate this disciple's inability to accept the Master's promise that he would rise again? Didn't it provide an additional obstacle for Jesus to overcome? How typical of the activity of error visible in some chronic problems today. Seeking to intensify mental darkness in a last-ditch effort to prevent the dawn of truth, error would add a last straw to human suffering.

But the continued gospel account shows how one can overcome error, however severe. The two Marys at the sepulcher saw the stone rolled away by "the angel of the Lord," and heard the announcement, "He is not here; for he is risen, as he said." 28:2, 6; Through this divine message they must have glimpsed something of the great fact that materiality is illusory and so cannot imprison the Christ nor thwart its holy mission. Today Christian Science proclaims the same stupendous truth—that material sense with its suffering, however intense and prolonged, is a lie and therefore cannot resist the healing light of the Christ, Truth, revealed through God's angels, or thoughts.

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