The Illumination of Death
Matthew iv. 16 v.
“To them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
What a strange antithesis! — “to them which sat in death light is sprung up.” We should have expected “life is sprung up.” Is not life the natural contrast to death? Is there any cure for death but to abolish it? Yes, there is another cure — to throw light upon it. What makes death horrible is its darkness. It is not a thing which I know to be bad; it is a thing of which by nature I know nothing. What I want is light. It may be that when the light comes, I shall find that death needs no transforming. It may be, the sunshine will reveal it to be already a form of life. I want the sunshine; I want something to see by, something to judge by, something to read by. I do not ask that the valley should be made a mountain; I want light in the valley. Who can tell but under the shadows of night there may rest treasures ‘of purest gold. Who can tell that the valley is not richer than the mountain, if only the morning were here to disclose its gems. Truly it was a wonderful insight that made the prophet say, “to them that sat in death light is sprung up.”
Oh, Thou who hast made all things new by Thy rising sun, I understand death in Thee. I have called it the great eclipse — and so it is; but it is the eclipse by Thee. It is Thy shadow passing between me and the earth.
Never art Thou so little eclipsed as then. Thou shuttest all the doors that I may speak to Thee alone. Thou drawest the curtains of the eye, Thou hushest the songs of the ear, Thou closest the gates of the past, that I may be alone with Thee. I do not see any change in the shadow, but I have found a new cause for the shadow. I used to think it was an eclipse of life — an eclipse of Thee. I thought it was the earth putting out the heaven; I see now it was the heaven putting out the earth. It is not new life but new light that has come. Life was always in the valley, but I mistook its shadow. Thou art the shadow of death, oh, my Father; Thou art the veil of the temple, Thou art the cloud on the mercy- seat, Thou art the darkness on the cross. I shall not fear any longer to sit in the region of blinding death, since I know that I am blinded by the light above the brightness of the sun.