little Kidron into the garden of the olives. There, quite alone in the
deep shadows of the inner trees, Jesus has His great spirit-conflict,
and great victory. The touch with sin so close, so real, now upon Him
within a few hours, the sin of others upon His sinless soul,--this
shakes Him terrifically beyond our understanding, who don't know purity
as He did. But the tremendous strength of yielding brings victory, as
ever. And the battle of the morrow is fought in spirit, and won.
Now the trailers of hate come seeking with torch and lantern, soldiers
and officers, chief priests and rulers, the ever present rabble, and in
the lead the shameless traitor. They are pushing their quest now,
seeking Jesus in the hiding whence He had gone days before[122] led by
the man who knew His accustomed haunts.
But there's no need for seeking now. Jesus is full ready. He decides the
action that follows. He is masterful even in His purposeful yielding.
Quietly He walks out from the cover of the trees to meet them. And as
their torches turn full upon His advancing figure again that marvellous
power not only of restraint but decidedly more is felt by them. And the
whole company, traitor, soldiers, rulers, rabble, overpowered in spirit,
fall back and then drop to the ground utterly overawed and cowed by the
lone man they are seeking.
Does Judas expect this? Will this power they are unable to resist not
open the eyes of these rulers! But there's no stupidity equal to that
which goes with stubbornness. In a moment Jesus reveals His purpose in
this, to shield His disciples. Now the power of restraint is withdrawn
and He yields to their desires. They shall have fullest sway in using
their freedom of action as they will. And Peter's foolish attempts are
quietly overruled.
They keep up the forms by taking Jesus to Annas the real Jewish ruler of
the nation. But it is simply an opportunity for the coarseness of their
hate to vent itself upon His person. They pretend an examination here in
the night's darkness suited to their deeds. He quietly reminds them of
the frank openness of all His teachings.
Meanwhile John's friendly act has gotten Peter entrance. The attitude of
the two men is in sharpest contrast. John is avowedly Jesus' friend,
regardless of personal danger. Peter just the reverse. And the hate of
the leaders has soaked into all their surroundings even down to the
housemaids. And John notes how exactly Jesus foreknew all, even to a
thrice-spoken denial before the second crowing of a cock.
Now comes the great Pilate phase. It was the intense malignity of their
hate that made them bother with Pilate. They could easily have killed
Jesus and Pilate would never have concerned himself about it. But they
couldn't have put Him to such exquisite suffering and such shameful
indignity before the crowds as by the Roman form of death by
crucifixion.
Clearly there is a hate at work _behind_ theirs. Their hate is
distinctly _inhuman_. Is _all_ hate? There's an unseen personal power in
action here set on spilling out the utmost that malignant hate can upon
the person of Jesus. But these men are cheerful tools. Hate is tying its
hardest knot with ugliest black thread on the end of its opportunity.
This is Pilate's opportunity and he seems to sense it. And a struggle
begins between conscience and cowardice, between right action with an
ugly fight for it, and yielding to wrong with an easy time of it.
Clearly he feels the purity and the personal power of this unusual
prisoner. The motive of envy and hate under their action is as plain to
his trained eyes.
Twice the two men, Pilate and Jesus, are alone together. Did ever man
have such an opportunity, personally, and historically? With rare touch
and winsomeness Jesus woos. And Pilate feels it to the marrow under all
his rough speech. His repeated attempts with the leaders make that
clear. But cowardice gripped him hard. It's a way cowardice has.
The name of Caesar conjures up fears,--loss of position, of wealth, of
reputation, maybe of life itself. He surrenders. Conscience is slain on
the judgment seat. Cowardice laughs and wins. A sharp fling brings a cry
of allegiance to Caesar from their reluctant throats, as their hatred
wins the day. He strikes them back an ugly blow as He surrenders. That
reluctant Caesar cry told out the intensity of their hate. They hated
Caesar much, but they hated Jesus immeasurably more. They gulp down
Caesar to be able to vent their spleen upon Jesus.
And so they crucified Him. At last they succeed. They have gotten what
they were bent on. The hate burning within, these months and years,
finds its full vent. Its hateful worst is done, and horribly well done.
And they stand about the cross with unconcealed gloating in pose and
face and speech and eyes. Their part of the story is done.
Masterful Dying.
But Jesus' part--ah! that was just begun. John lays emphasis on the
mastery of Jesus here. It is marked, and reveals to John's faithful
love-opened eyes the dominating purpose of Jesus in yielding to death.
Strong, thoughtful, self-controlled, anticipating every move, He was
using all the strength of His great strong will in yielding. He was
doing it masterfully, intelligently.
This is marked throughout. At the arrest He walks frankly out to meet
those seeking Him, and restrains them in that strangely powerful way
till He was quite ready. He makes the personal plea to Pilate for
_Pilate's_ sake, impressing him so greatly, but interposing nothing to
change the purpose of His accusers. When Pilate's final decision is
given John notes that Jesus "went out _bearing the cross for Himself,_"
though provision had been made for this.[123] His influence upon Pilate
is seen in the accuracy of the kingly inscription that hangs over the
cross. In the midst of the excruciating bodily pain He thinks of His
mother, and with marvellous self-control speaks the quiet word to her
and to John that insures her future under his filial care.
And then John significantly adds, "_Jesus, knowing that all things are
now finished._"[124] With masterly forethought, and self-control and
deliberation He had done the thing He had set Himself to do. Never was
yielding so masterful. Never was a great plan carried out so fully
through the set purpose of one's enemies. His every action bears out the
word He had spoken, "No man taketh My life away from Me, I lay it down
of Myself."[125]
So now His great work is done, and thoroughly done. His lips speak the
tremendous word, "It is finished." And He bowed His head and _gave up_
His spirit. It was His own act. The self-restraint was strong upon Him
till all was done that was needed for the great purpose in hand. Then
His head is bowed, His great heart broke under the terrific strain on
His spirit as He allowed His life to go out.
From that moment no indignity touches His body. The Jews with their
wearisome insistence on empty technicalities would have added further
indignity to crucifixion. But that body is sacredly guarded from their
profane hand by unseen restraint. John with solemn simplicity points to
the unmistakable physical evidence, in the separation of blood and
water, that Jesus had actually died; no swooning, but death. And
reverently he finds the confirmation of Scripture.
Only tender love touches that body now. Two gentlemen of highest
official and social standing and of large wealth, brothers in their
faith in Jesus, and also in their timidity, now take steps at once to
have the precious body of their dear friend tenderly cared for without
regard to expense. So He is laid away in a new tomb in a garden among
the flowers of the spring time. The last touch is one of tender love. So
His greatest wooing was done, and begun; the great act done, its
tremendous wooing influence only just begun.
Jesus died deliberately. This is quite clear. It was done of love
aforethought. It was His own act fitted into the circumstances
surrounding Him. This makes His death mean just what He meant it to
mean. Run back through His teachings rather carefully and that meaning
stands clearly out.
He was the Father's messenger; simply this; but all of this. The ideals
of right so insistently and incessantly held up and pressed were the
Father's ideals. His mere presence told the Father's great love for men.
They two were so knit that when the one suffered the other suffered,
too.
It was the love for men in His own heart that drew Him down here and
drove Him along even to the Calvary Hill. He died _for_ men, in their
place, on their behalf. This was His one thought. Through this their
bondage to sin and to Satan would be broken and they would be set
free.[126] And they would be drawn, their hearts would be utterly melted
and broken by His love for them.[127] The influence would reach out
until all the race would feel its power and respond; and it would reach
into each one's life who came till the life he lived was of the
abundant, eternal sort.
The devil was a real personality to Jesus. This whole terrific struggle
ending at the cross was a direct spirit-battle with that great spirit
prince. So Jesus understood it. All the bitter enmity to Himself traces
straight back to that source. That enmity found its worst expression in
Jesus' death. The pitched spirit-battle was there. But that prince was
judged, condemned, utterly defeated and cast out in that battle, and his
hold upon men broken.[128]
And so this was the greatest wooing of all. It was greatest in its
intensity of meaning _to the Father_ looking eagerly down. It revealed
His unbending, unflinching ideals of right, and the great strength and
tenderness of His love for men. He would even give His Son. It was
greatest in its intensity of meaning _to the Son_. It meant the utmost
of suffering ever endured, the utmost of love underneath ever revealed;
and it would mean the race-wide sweep of His gracious power.
It was greatest in its intensity of meaning _to Satan_, the hater of God
and man. It told his utter defeat, and loss of power over man. So it
broke our bonds and made us free to yield to the wooing. And it was
greatest in its intensity of meaning _to us men_. For it showed to our
confused eyes the one ideal of right standing out clear and full. It
set us free from the fetters of our bondage, gave us the tremendous
incentive of love to reach up to the ideal of right, and more, immensely
more, gave us _power to reach it_.
It was the greatest wooing _in the out-reach_ of its influence, for all
men of all the earth would be touched.[129] And it was greatest _in the
in-reach_ to all the life of each one who came under its blessed
influence. The whole ministry taught this. It would mean newness of life
in body, in mind, in social nature, in spirit, and in the eternal
quality of life lived here, and to be lived without any ending.
And all the world has responded to this greatest wooing as they have
come to know of it. That three-languaged inscription on the cross was a
world appeal and a world prophecy. In Hebrew the religious language of
the world whose literature told of the one true God, in Latin the
language of the masters of the world, in Greek the language of the
culture of the world, that message went out to all the world. This Jesus
is our Kinsman-King, our Brother-Ruler, our Love-Autocrat. He revealed
His love for us in His death for us.
And men answer to Jesus' great plea. With flooded eyes and broken
hearts, and bending wills, and changed lives, men of all the race bow
gratefully at the feet of Jesus, our Saviour and Lord and coming King.
VI
An Appointed Tryst Unexpectedly Kept
_A Day of Startling Joyous Surprises_
"Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand outstretched caressingly?
'Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest!
_Thou drawest love from thee, who drawest Me._'"
--"_The Hound of Heaven._
"After I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee."--_Mark
xiv. 28._
VI
An Appointed Tryst Unexpectedly Kept
(John xx.)
The Appointment.
Jesus had made an appointment. It was with these dear friends who had
responded so lovingly to His wooing. It was a significant appointment,
most significant. He had appointed to meet them three days after His
death. He had made a further appointment to meet them in Galilee. What a
stupendous appointment to make!
It was a sacred appointment, sacred as the love that made it, sacred to
Jesus as the friendship of these men with whom it was made, sacred as
His word that never was broken. Our Scottish friends use a most
significant word for appointment, the word _tryst_. They used to use it
some for ordinary appointments, but chiefly it is used for friendship
and for love-appointments. The appointment is a tryst.
Tryst is the same word as _trust_. In the old Gothic language it was one
of the words used for a covenant or treaty. In medieval Latin it was a
pledge given that an agreement would be kept. It is a fine turn of a
word that uses the very spirit of confidence in one's heart in another
as the name for the appointment made with him. The trust in the heart
gives the name to the appointment. It's an appointment with one who
_can_ be trusted to keep his word, and who _is_ trusted.
So an appointed tryst becomes more than a mere appointment. It is a
pledge of faith. Now this is the real force of the word here. Jesus had
appointed a tryst with these men, and in making it He was plighting His
troth, pledging His word to them. He had asked them to risk all for Him.
In this tryst He is pledging all to them.
He never forgot that sacred appointment. He had thought much before He
made it. He knew it would involve much to keep it. The power of God was
at stake in the making and the keeping of it. He knew that. He thought
of it. He made the appointment and He kept it. Jesus keeps His
appointments. His word never fails. Not even the gates of death, nor the
power of the evil one, can prevail against it.
This was a staggering appointment. It took so much for granted. It
reckons God's power is as big as it is. But then that's a way Jesus had,
and has. And it is a way he will come to have who companions much with
Jesus.
Jesus had spoken of this indirectly but distinctly when first He told
His disciples of His suffering and death, six months before. And each
time afterwards when He told them of His death the words were always
added, "and the third day rise again."[130] I The two things are nearly
always linked. But they hadn't seemed to sense what He meant. The thing
seems quite beyond them.
He spoke of it again on that never-to-be-forgotten night of the
betrayal, the night of the feet-washing, and that last long talk, and
that wondrous Kidron-prayer. He spoke of it more than once that night.
It was a very emphatic word He spoke as they were walking along the
darkly shadowed Jerusalem streets out towards the east gate. He said, "a
little while and ye shall behold Me no more; and again a little while
and ye shall see Me."[131] And the disciples pick this up and puzzle
over it.
And the Master explains rather carefully and at some length. There was a
time of sore trouble coming for Him and for them. And while they were
sorrowing the outer crowd would be making merry. But it would be just as
with the expectant mother, He said. All the while even when the pains
cut she is thinking of the great delight that is to be hers. Her
after-joy clean wipes out of her thought the sharp cutting of the pain.
So it would be. "_I will see you again_," He said in plainest speech.
And again that same night He said, "after I am raised up, _I will go
before you into Galilee_." Could any appointment be more explicit as to
time and place?
But they forget. Aye, there's the bother, this thing of forgetting. The
memory is ever the index of the heart and the will and the
understanding. You can tell the one by the other. Some things are never
forgot. A bit embarrassing and odd this thing of forgetting what Jesus
says.
His _enemies_ remembered, and took special pains to head off any
breaking of their careful plans.[132] And even when the angels remind
the women of the promised appointment, and they with great joy repeat
the reminder to the disciples, it seems like "_idle talk_" and is not
accepted. The thing couldn't be, they think.[133] Finally the evidence
becomes so convincing that they start off for the trysting place, "into
Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them."[134]
How the Appointment Was Kept.
Let us look a bit at the wonderful keeping, so unexpected, of this
sacred tryst. It's the third day now since Jesus' death. It is in the
dark dusk of the early morning. A little knot of women make their way
slowly along the road leading out of the city gate. Mary Magdalene is in
the lead, so far ahead of the others as to be alone. They are carrying
packages of perfumed ointments. They are thinking only of a dear dead
body and of clinging fragrant memories.
They are troubling themselves about how to get the big stone at the tomb
pushed aside. It was too much for their strength. As she drew near the
tomb Mary Magdalene's love-quickened eyes notice something quite
unexpected. The stone is moved aside! She naturally thinks some one has
taken the body secretly away in the night.
Quickly she turns and runs back towards the city to tell Peter and John.
And as quickly as they hear the startling news they are off on a smart
run towards the tomb. Meanwhile the other women go on into the tomb.
They are further startled to see a glorious looking person who assures
them that Jesus is living, having risen up out of death. All a-quiver
with fear intermingled with the first glimmering light of a great hope
that they hardly dare hope, they flee hastily back to town to tell the
others.
Now Peter and John, who have been eagerly running, arrive breathless,
with John in the lead. Gazing reverently, intently, in through the
opening John sees, not a body, but on the spot where the body had been
laid, the linen wrappings lying, held up in the shape of a body by
Nicodemus' abundant and heavy ointments just as when they held the body
of Jesus. But clearly there is nothing in them now.
Now Peter comes up, and, just like him, goes straight in, and is at once
struck by the arrangement of these cloths, just as John had been. Then
they comment on the fact that the head cloths are lying where they
naturally would be, a little apart from the others, the distance of the
head from the body.
The evidence convinces them that Jesus' spirit had indeed returned to
His body, and that He had risen up _through the cloths_, and gone. And
they start back to town in a great maze of wonder and delight.
And now Mary Magdalene, knowing nothing of all this, comes slowly back
absorbed with her thoughts that the body has been secretly removed. She
stands at the open tomb weeping. Then for the first time she stoops down
and looks in. She is startled to see two angels left there to explain
matters.
They gently say "Why weepest thou?" Still sobbing, she says, "They have
taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." And
turning aside as she speaks she sees some One standing near her. Her
tear-misted eyes think Him the attendant in charge of the garden. Again
the question by this man, "Why weepest thou?" How strangely they talk,
these angels and this gardener! She makes a plea for the body.
Then the one word, her name, spoken in that voice she knew so
well--"_Mary_." Ah! there's no question about _that voice_. She needs no
explanation nor evidence more than this, as she cries out, "Oh, my
beloved Master." Then He acts so like Himself; He gives her an errand to
do for Him. And off she goes. She has had the wondrous privilege of the
first sight of Him, and the first errand for Him. The tryst has been
kept with Mary Magdalene.
And now the other women who had gone running down the road after
hearing the angels' startling message are amazed to meet Jesus standing
in the roadway in front of them. And the same quiet rich voice so gently
and simply gives them the usual "good-morning" salutation. At once they
are on their knees at His feet. And He softly says, "Don't be afraid. Go
tell My brethren to meet Me at the old place appointed, up by the blue
waters of Galilee." And again the tryst is kept.
But before all this, the soldiers on guard, terror-stricken by the
earthquake that had taken place, and dazed at the sight of the "angel of
the Lord" had fled at top speed to the chief priests with their
startling story. Here was a wholly unexpected bothersome finish to the
thing. But quick consultation follows. And then free use of money makes
the soldiers willing to tell what they know to be a lie. And so the two
utterly different stories, the truth and the lie, get into circulation
at once. The soldiers and the chief priests' circle have learned that
the appointment was kept.
Meanwhile Peter has gone down the road back to town in a maze of
conflicting emotions. John, lighter of foot, had hurried ahead, very
likely to tell the great news to Jesus' mother, now his own. Peter plods
slowly along, thinking hard. It was still early morning, the air so
still and fragrant with the dew. Maybe down by some big trees he is
walking, absorbed, when all at once, _some One is by his side_. It's the
Master. The appointment has been kept with Peter. But we must leave
them alone together. Peter has some things to straighten out. That's a
sacred interview meant only for him.
That afternoon two disciples walking out to a little village a few miles
away are joined by a Stranger whose talk makes their hearts burn like
the Master's used to. And as they gather about the evening meal with
Him, and He gives thanks and breaks the loaf, all at once their eyes
_see_. It is _Jesus Himself_ who has been with them all the time. Again
the appointment is kept.
At once they hasten back to town, and are just telling the news in
joyously broken speech to the disciples gathered in an upper room with
locked doors when again, all at once, Jesus appears in their midst, and
eats some bread and fish, and tells them to know by the feel that it is
really Himself with them. He has kept His sacred appointment with the
Twelve. Then a week later He comes in like manner among them again for
the sake of one man, Thomas. So He keeps the appointment with Thomas,
also.
Our Guarantee of His Promises.
Two things stand out sharply. The resurrection was not expected. It was
the most tremendous surprise. The news was received at first by those
most interested with utter stubborn unbelief. Then the evidence was so
clear and repeated, and incontestable that these same men staked their
lives on it. They suffered to the extreme for their witness that Jesus
had indeed risen.
Jesus rose from the dead. His body was re-inhabited by His spirit. The
spirit didn't die. Spirits neither sleep nor die. The body died. Then
life came into it again. It was a real body that could eat and be
touched. It was recognized as the same one they had known. But it was
changed. The old limitations were gone. New powers had come.
Jesus keeps His appointments. His pledged word never fails. Not a word
He has spoken can ever be broken. Some day He is coming back. It is an
appointment.[135] Then we, too, who have slipped the tether of life and
left our bodies temporarily in the dust, shall rise up again to meet
Him. It is a sacred appointment He has made with us.
And some of us who live in that day shall be changed instead of dying,
and shall be caught up to meet Him and our own loved ones in the air.
That's His true tryst with us up in the blue, some day. And He will keep
it.
And meanwhile everything He has promised us in the Book is sure, as
being His plighted word. His resurrection is our bond, our guarantee. As
surely as He rose on that third morning He will keep His word regarding
every matter to you and me.
His appointments never fail, whether of guidance, of bodily health and
strength, of supplies for every sort of need, of peace, of power, of
victory. The power that raised Jesus up from out the dead is pledged to
us for every promise of this Book for to-day's life. He will do an act
of creation before He will let His Word fail. He will leave no power
unused to keep the appointment of His Word with us.
Let us trust His Word to us fully. And let us _live_ our trust.
VII
Another Tryst
_A Story of Fishing, of Guests at Breakfast, and of a Walk and Talk
by the Edge of Blue Galilee_
"I come unto you."--_John xiv. 18._
"Lo, I am with you all the days."--_Matthew xxviii. 20_.
VII