Christian symbols

The Empty Tomb and the Cross and Crown

Death defeated, the King crowned

The empty tomb and the cross and crown are the symbols of Easter, of a death that ends in victory. The empty tomb declares that Jesus, who was crucified, is risen: He is not here, but is risen. The cross and crown, a crown set upon or above a cross, joins the suffering of Christ to his triumph, saying that the way of the cross leads to the crown of glory. Together they hold the two great truths at the center of the faith, that Christ died and that Christ lives and reigns.

He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,Luke 24:6 (KJV)

The stone rolled away

On the first day of the week, the Gospels tell us, the women came to the tomb where Jesus had been laid and found the stone rolled away and the grave empty. An angel said to them, He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. The linen cloths lay folded, and the body was gone.

The empty tomb is the hinge of the Christian faith. The cross would be only a tragedy if the tomb were still occupied. But the church has always confessed that the tomb was found empty and that the risen Christ appeared to many, and so the empty tomb became a sign not of loss but of victory, the proof that death could not hold him.

The cross and crown

The cross and crown pairs the instrument of Christ's death with the sign of his kingship and reward. It draws on the promise, running all through the New Testament, that suffering with Christ leads to reigning with him, and that a crown awaits those who are faithful. Scripture speaks of a crown of life, a crown of righteousness, and a crown of glory laid up for the people of God.

So the symbol makes a single statement: no cross, no crown. The path to glory runs through the cross, for Christ and for those who follow him. The crown is not won apart from the cross but through it, and the one who was crucified is the one who now wears many crowns.

How these symbols have been used

The empty tomb appears in Christian art wherever Easter is celebrated, an open grave, a rolled stone, an angel, the folded cloths. It is often shown with the rising sun, since the resurrection came at dawn, and light breaking over a tomb has become a natural emblem of new life.

The cross and crown has been adopted widely as a badge of faithful endurance and hope, appearing on church furnishings, banners, and gravestones. On a grave it says what the whole gospel says: that the one who died in the faith will share in the victory of Christ, and that beyond the cross of this life lies the crown.

Why the empty tomb matters

The first Christians did not preach a Jesus who lived on only in memory or in the hearts of his followers. They preached a Jesus whose tomb was empty and who had appeared to them alive. Paul went so far as to say that if Christ is not risen, then the whole faith is empty and believers are still in their sins. Everything hangs on the emptiness of that grave.

The Gospels are honest about how unexpected it was. The disciples did not go to the tomb expecting a resurrection; they came to anoint a dead body and were bewildered by what they found. The first witnesses were women, whose testimony carried little weight in that society, which is an unlikely detail to invent. The accounts have the ring of people struggling to describe something that broke all their expectations.

The empty tomb changed everything about how the church saw death. If the grave could not hold Jesus, then for those who belong to him the grave is not a final home but a lodging for the night. This is why the earliest believers could face lions and fire with a strange calm. They were persuaded that the one who raised Jesus would raise them also, and that nothing, not even death, could separate them from his love.

So the open grave and the risen Lord stand at the center of Christian hope. The cross without the empty tomb would be only a noble tragedy. The empty tomb declares that the sacrifice was accepted, the debt was paid, and death itself has been defeated. He is not here, the angel said, but is risen, and on those five words the whole weight of Christian joy rests.

A new day at dawn

The Gospels are careful to note that the women came to the tomb early, while it was yet dark, and found the resurrection had already happened before they arrived. The light was only beginning to rise as they discovered the stone rolled away. It is a fitting picture, for the resurrection is the dawn of a new day, not only for Jesus but for the whole world, the first light of a morning that will never end.

For this reason the empty tomb is often shown with the rising sun, and Christians have long gathered before dawn on Easter to greet the risen Lord as the light returns. The night of sorrow that began at the cross gives way to a morning of joy at the grave. Weeping may endure for a night, the psalm says, but joy comes in the morning, and no morning has ever carried such joy as this.

The empty tomb also reframes every grave that has ever been dug. Because Christ's tomb was found empty, the tombs of those who belong to him become places of waiting rather than of ending. The seed is sown in the ground, but a harvest is promised. Death is real, and grief is real, but they are not the last word for those who are in Christ.

This is the hope that turned a band of frightened disciples into fearless witnesses. They had seen the risen Lord, and they could not be silenced by threats or death, for they knew that the grave had lost its power. The empty tomb is the reason the church still sings at its funerals, and the reason it can face its own dying with hope: the tomb of Jesus is empty, and because he lives, his people shall live also.

How the empty tomb points to Christ

The empty tomb points to Christ as the living Lord, not a dead teacher but a risen Savior. It is the sign that his sacrifice was accepted, that death is defeated, and that all who are joined to him will share in his rising. Because the tomb is empty, the grave of every believer is a temporary lodging and not a final home.

The cross and crown completes the picture. It tells the weary and the suffering that their present cross is not the end of their story, for the King who wore a crown of thorns now wears the crown of glory, and he shares his victory with his own. Death defeated and the King crowned, this is the hope at the heart of the Christian faith.

A note across traditions: these symbols are shared by Christians everywhere as ways to point to Christ, never as objects of worship, for worship belongs to God alone. Where a symbol grew out of a later tradition or legend rather than the Bible, this page says so plainly. In every tradition there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, and every sign the church uses is meant to lead the heart to him.

Related: The cross · The crown · Who is Jesus? · All Christian symbols