He Arose!

and told Mary Magdalene: "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."

 

Charles Spurgeon:

"It was a dark day for the disciples when Christ was crucified...Where was Peter? Where was James? Philip, and Andrew, and Nathanael, where were they? I do not know, but I know where Magdalene was...by her Lord, glad to confess a persecuted Christ. Here is the test of true love. To follow Christ in peaceful times is easy, but to follow hard after him when he is despised and rejected of men—here is the pinch. Ah, some of you young people profess to be Christians when you are with Christian people, but will you bear it when your companions sneer at you....Can you follow your Lord? Can you follow your Lord when the many turn aside?"

 

Charles Spurgeon:

"We find Mary...at the sepulchre, viewing the place where the body was laid....She was first at the sepulchre, and was the first to whom Christ appeared....I feel it no small privilege to be the means of bearing God’s message to this congregation....But what an honor to have a message to the apostles! Oh, the power of grace! Mary, once a demoniac, becomes a preacher to preachers!...Did ever man preach....a more weighty text than this Magdalene had to handle— 'I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God'? Angels told of the incarnation, but Magdalene told of the ascension."