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NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 26

It is very affecting to see Mary Magdalene’s sense of desolation because she does not know where the Lord is. “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. He does not resume natural or human associations. He says, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”. It is a great fact that He is not here. We may think of His work, or of His path as He was here; but He is not here now, and if you do not enter into this solemn fact, that He is not here, you are not set on finding Him where He is. In this psalm He is called away from this place to sit down at God’s right hand, and not only this, but He is to be there a great Priest after the order of Melchisedec. If you do not ^[p. 70] feel that He has gone away, you do not know Him as your Priest in the presence of God. The attempt in christendom is to ignore His rejection, and to assume that everything is done to honour Him here. Hence they have no idea of knowing Him as Priest in heaven. They look on the minister as the priest between the congregation and God. If you do not know Christ as Priest in heaven, you do not know the blessedness of His nearness to God, you do not enjoy what we read in 1 John 4: 17: “As he is, so are we in this world”. It is not as He was, but as He is. God has no other standard, and if God’s love shines in its reality into your heart, you would know that as He is, so are you in this world. But it is only as you are with Him now that you can know all He is to you. When you know union with Him, it is then you know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. The more truly you accept the fact that He is not here, the more - as your heart is true - will you seek to find Him where He is.

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