This sermon is just amazing.  The Temple walkthru in John’s Gospel is excellent.  And then this:

So we continue. “But Mary is standing outside the tomb weeping and so as she weeps she stoops down (in the posture of humility) and she looks into the tomb and she sees two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Do you see what she sees? Here is a place about the length of a man and at either end sits an angel. Lying between them on this slab of stone are the grave clothes sprinkled with blood. And the angels are wondering at the sight, gazing down upon the grave clothes. And so they say “Why are you seeking the living among the dead? He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Behold where he lay!”

Mary Magdalene, this little woman of Galilee who had been defiled by seven demons — it is to Mary that the glorious vision of the Ark of the Covenant and what it truly represented — it is to Mary that this great vision is given. She sees the greatest wonder in all the Bible. It is freely given to her, given to this little Mary. What a vision, what a glory! Here is a woman who had been defiled. What right does such a one have to be compared to the high priest. Only the high priest, the holiest man in Israel, can look behind the veil and then only to see the type, not the reality. But Mary is enabled to see the reality, the fullness, the Ark of the Covenant! Don’t you see, the tomb is the reality that the Ark of the Covenant foreshadowed. It is in the tomb, that place of corruption, where our Lord Christ reigns over death. The Ark had represented the throne of God. So it is in the tomb where our Lord reigns over death and hell. This is the vision that is given to Mary. What a love, what an honor and a grace that is put upon her!

There are several things I want to say here to back this up and fill it out (nothing really necessary), but I’m pressed for time.  Go read the whole thing.