“Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.” John 20:11-12
At the tomb on Easter morning Mary encountered an unbelievable sight. In Jesus’ tomb sitting where he once lay were two cherubim. One sat at where the Lord’s head once lay, the other at his feet. Scripture does not tell us but it is likely that they faced each other with their wings outstretched over the empty tomb. The cherubim’s presence tell a special story on the first Easter morning.
We first met the Cherubim in Genesis 3:24. Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the paradise God had created for them. After they were driven from the Garden, cherubim were placed on the east side of the garden. The Garden of Eden was the place where God’s presence onEarth dwelt with man and now the cherubim are assigned to prohibit access to God’s presence.
In Exodus 25:10-22 we read God’s instructions for the Ark of the Covenant. The lid of that Ark was called the “Mercy Seat”. This was the place where the atoning sacrifice for the sin of Israel was offered once a year. It was where God’s presence dwelt among His people, where God would communicate with Moses, passing on his laws for Israel and where the blood of the sacrifice was offered. At either end of the mercy seat were two cherubim facing each other with their wings outstretched over the Ark of the Covenant. Again the cherubim guarded the access to God. There would be no other way into God’s presence than the shed blood of the required sacrifice without blemish sprinkled on the Mercy Seat by the High Priest.
Later in I Samuel 4 we read that God’s presence is enthroned between the two Cherubim who sit at either end of the ark of the covenant. Again we see that they guard access to the presence of God.
When we come to the tomb of Jesus we see that the mercy seat has now been moved from a box in the Temple to the body of Jesus Christ. But there is something different at this mercy seat. The perfect sacrifice that was shed for the sins of mankind is not dead – the sacrifice lives. This sacrifice did not cover the sin of mankind for a limited period of time after which it had to be repeated. This
sacrifice, the God-man, The Lord Jesus Christ, rose from the dead showing that His sacrifice paid for all the sin of man for all time.
The Lord’s resurrection from the dead signified that, just as a man would be released from of prison only after completely serving his
penalty, so the Lord in a much greater way, paid for all sins forever.
When Mary saw the two Cherubim siting in the tomb that day did the message strike her heart? God sent His cherubim to guard the only access to God. There is one way, and only one way, to enter His presence and that was through the shed blood of His perfect sacrifice, His Son.
In the Old Testament we read that if any man attempted to approach God through any other way than what He had specified, he would die. Today we are told the same truth. God has made one way for each of us to be forgiven for our sin. That Easter Sunday morning hundreds of years ago a “fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins”
was poured onto the mercy seat so that God never again will see the sins of those who come to dwell with Him in the only way possible. Jesus told us. “ I AM the way”, the only way to peacefully enter the presence of a holy God. That’s the message of Easter morning.