'And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus
met them, saying, All hail.'--MATT. xxviii. 9.
'Then the same day at evening ... came Jesus and stood
in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.'
--JOHN xx. 19.
So did our Lord greet His sad followers. The first of these
salutations was addressed to the women as they hurried in the
morning from the empty tomb bewildered; the second to the disciples
assembled in the upper room in the evening of the same day. Both are
ordinary greetings. The first is that usual in Greek, and literally
means 'Rejoice'; the second is that common in Hebrew. The divergence
between the two may be owing to the Evangelist Matthew having
rendered the words which our Lord actually did speak, in the tongue
familiar to His time, into their equivalent Greek. But whatever
account may be given of the divergence does not materially affect
the significance which I find in the salutations. And I desire to
turn to them for a few moments now, because I think that, if we
ponder them, we may gain some precious lessons from these Easter
greetings of the Lord Himself.