THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE RESURRECTION
When the morning came, the priests met once more with all the chief
Jews, and said Jesus must die. But the Jews could not put anyone to
death. The Romans would not allow it. So they took Jesus to the Roman
governor, whose name was Pontius Pilate.
When Judas saw that the priests had made up their minds to kill Jesus,
he began to feel very unhappy. He did not care for the money now. He
came to the Temple, and brought it back to the priest, and said, 'It
was very wrong of me to give Jesus up to you. He had done nothing
wrong.' But their hearts were as hard as stone. They said to Judas,
'What is that to us? See thou to that.' Then Judas had no hope left.
He flung the thirty pieces of silver down in the Court of the Priests,
and went and hung himself. But oh! what a pity that he did not go to
Jesus and ask Jesus to forgive him, instead of going to the priests!
Jesus is a good, kind, loving Master. When we do wrong, if we are very
sorry, like Peter, and will come and ask Jesus, He will forgive us. For
'THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, GOD'S SON, CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN.'
Pilate took Jesus inside his splendid palace, away from the Jews, and
asked Him, 'Art thou a King then?'
'Yes,' Jesus said, 'but My kingdom is not of this world. I came into
this world to teach people the truth. That is the reason I was born.'
'What is truth?' said Pilate. But he did not wait for an answer. He
went out again to the Jews.
When the Jews saw Pilate again, they began to tell him lies which they
had been making up about Jesus. And Jesus stood by and said nothing.
Presently Pilate said to Jesus, 'See what a number of things they are
saying against you. Have you nothing to say?'
But Jesus did not answer one single word, and Pilate was greatly
surprised. He felt sure that the quiet prisoner was right and that the
Jews were wrong; and he said to the priests and to the people, 'I find
in Him no fault at all.'
It was the custom for Pilate at Passover time to set free from prison
any one prisoner the people liked to ask for. So Pilate said to the
crowd, 'Shall I let Jesus go?' Then the priests told the people what
to say, and they shouted, 'Not this man, but Barabbas.'
Pilate wanted very much to let Jesus go, and he said, 'What shall I do
then with Jesus?'
The crowd shouted, 'Let Him be crucified! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!'
'Why,' said Pilate, 'what has He done wrong? He does not deserve to
die. I will scourge Him and let Him go.'
Then the people cried out more loudly than ever, 'Let Him be crucified!
Crucify Him!'
But Pilate did not want to be shouted at for five or six days and
nights again. And, besides, he rather wanted to please the Jews if he
could, because he had done many things to vex them; so he thought, 'I
will do what they wish.' But first he had a basin of water brought,
and he washed his hands before all the people, and said, 'I have
nothing to do with the blood of this good Man. See ye to it.' And all
the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us, and on our
children.' Sometimes now, when we don't want to have anything to do
with a thing, we say, 'I wash my hands of it.' But Pilate did have
something to do with the death of Jesus, and water would not wash away
that sin.
And at last, wishing to please them, Pilate had Barabbas brought out of
prison, and gave Jesus up to be beaten. The Roman soldiers seized
Jesus, and took off His clothes and put a scarlet dress on Him, to
imitate the Emperor's purple robe; and they twisted pieces of a thorny
plant which grows round Jerusalem into the shape of a crown, and put it
on His head; and they put a reed in His hand for a sceptre. And then
all the soldiers fell down before Jesus, and said, 'Hail, King of the
Jews.' And then they spit at Jesus, and slapped Him; and they snatched
the reed out of His hands and struck Him on the head, so as to drive in
the thorns.
Outside the city gate, on the north side of Jerusalem, there is a round
hill, called the Place of Stoning. On one side of that hill there is a
straight yellow cliff, and prisoners used sometimes to be thrown down
from that cliff, and then stoned. And sometimes they were taken to the
top of that round hill and crucified. It is very likely that this is
where the soldiers took Jesus. That hill is often called Calvary.
The soldiers made Jesus lie down on the cross, and they nailed Him to
it--putting nails through His hands and His feet. Then they lifted up
the cross with Jesus on it, and fixed it in a hole in the ground. And
Jesus said,
'FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.'
Then the soldiers crucified two thieves, and put them near Jesus, one
on each side; and they nailed up some white boards at the top of the
crosses with black letters on them, to say what the prisoners had done.
They put over Jesus Christ's head the words--
'THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.'
Three hours of fearful pain passed away. It was twelve o'clock. And
now it became quite dark and it was dark till three o'clock in the
afternoon. That was a dreadful three hours more for Jesus. It was a
time of agony of mind, like the time He spent in the Garden of
Gethsemane. He was having His last fight with Satan, and He felt quite
alone. When it was about three o'clock, Jesus cried out with a loud
voice, 'It is finished.' And He cried again with a loud voice, and
said, 'Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.' And He bowed His
head and died.
[Illustration: Calvary.]
And now wonderful things happened. The ground shook; the graves
opened; dead people woke up to life again; and a great veil, or
curtain, which hung before the most holy part of the Temple, was
suddenly torn into two pieces. The high priest used to go once a year
into that Most Holy Place to offer sacrifice for sin before God. But
when the great purple and gold curtain was torn down without hands, it
was just as if a voice from heaven had said, 'No more blood of lambs,
no more high priest is wanted now. Jesus, the real Passover Lamb, has
been sacrificed. Jesus has offered His own blood before God for
sinners, and God will forgive every sinner who trusts in the blood of
Jesus.'
Then a rich man, called Joseph, came to Pilate and begged Pilate to let
him have the body of Jesus to bury. Pilate said that Joseph might have
the body of his Master. And Joseph came and took it down from the
cross; and he and Nicodemus wrapped the body round with clean linen,
with a very great quantity of sweet-smelling stuff inside the linen.
There was a garden close to the place where Jesus was crucified, and in
that garden there was a grave which Joseph had cut in a rock. The
grave was not like those which we have. It was a little room in the
rock, with a seat on the right hand, and a seat on the left, and with a
place in the wall just opposite the door for the body. Joseph and
Nicodemus laid the body of Jesus in this new grave. Then they came
out, and rolled a great round stone over the door, and went away.
Jesus was crucified on Friday, and now it was Sunday. It was very
early in the morning. The soldiers were watching at the grave of
Jesus, and all was still; when suddenly the earth began to tremble and
shake. And behold, an angel came down from heaven, and rolled away the
stone at the door of the tomb, and the Lord of Life came out. The
soldiers did not see Jesus, but they did see the shining angel. The
Roman soldiers shook with fright. They were so frightened that they
had no strength left in them, and as soon as they could they ran away
from the place.
And now that the soldiers had gone, some women came near--Mary
Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Salome, and at least one
or two more women. They had brought with them some sweet-smelling
spices, which they had made or bought, to put round the body of Jesus.
The light was beginning to come in the sky, to show that the sun would
be up soon, but it was still rather dark. As the women came along,
they said one to the other, 'Who will roll away the stone for us from
the door of the tomb?' For it was very great. Then they looked, and
behold! the stone was gone. And Mary Magdalene ran back to the city,
to tell Peter and John that the door of the tomb was open. But the
other women went on, and went into the tomb where they had seen Jesus
laid. He was not there now, but an angel in a long white robe was
sitting on the right-hand side of the tomb. Then the women saw two
angels standing by them in shining clothes, and they were afraid, and
fell on their faces to the ground. Then one of the angels said to
them, 'Fear not. He is not here; He is risen.'
[Illustration: The empty tomb.]
But Mary Magdalene after all had been the first to see Jesus. She had
run off to tell Peter and John that the stone was rolled away. As soon
as Peter and John knew that, they ran off to the grave as fast as they
could, and Mary Magdalene went after them. John could run the fastest,
so he got there first, and just peeped in through the little door in
the rock. The angels had gone away, but he could see the linen
bandages. They were not thrown about here and there, but they were
lying neatly together. But when Peter came up he wanted to see more
than that, and he went straight into the tomb, and John followed him.
When Peter and John saw that the body of Jesus had really gone, they
went away back to the city and told the other disciples.
But Mary Magdalene did not go back. As she turned away from the grave
she saw that somebody was standing near the grave. It was really
Jesus, but she did not know that. She was too sad to look up.
And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?'
Mary thought, 'It is the gardener,' and she said, 'Sir, if you have
carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him
away.'
Then Jesus said, 'Mary.' And Mary turned round quickly, and said,
'Master.' Then she saw that it was Jesus, and He sent her with a
message to His disciples. So Mary hurried back again into the city
with her good news. She found the disciples, and when she said, 'I
have seen the Lord,' they would not believe it. And when some other
women who had met Jesus a little later came in, and said, 'We have seen
the Lord,' it was just the same. The disciples only thought, 'What
nonsense these women talk!' Before the women came in, two of the
disciples had gone for a very long walk. As they walked along, and
talked, Jesus came near, and went with them.
While Jesus talked and the disciples listened, they came to the village
of Emmaus. That was the end of the disciples' journey, and now Jesus
began to walk on by Himself. But the disciples begged Him to stay with
them, 'Abide with us,' they said; 'it is getting late. It will soon be
evening.' So Jesus went in, and sat down at table with them. And He
took bread in His hands, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to
them. Perhaps Jesus had some special way of saying grace which made
the disciples know who He was. Anyway, they knew Him now. And then,
suddenly, He was gone. Cleopas and his friend could not keep their
good news to themselves. They got up at once, and went back, more than
seven miles, to Jerusalem, and found a number of the Lord's friends and
disciples sitting together at supper. Some of them were saying, 'THE
LORD IS RISEN INDEED.'
Then Jesus Himself came to them, and He told them that it was very
wrong not to believe. Then, when He saw that they were frightened, He
said, 'Peace be unto you,' and He showed them His hands and His feet,
and ate some fried fish and honey which they had put on the table for
supper. That was to make them understand that His body was really
alive as well as His soul. And now the disciples were filled with
gladness and Joy.
Then Jesus told them the same things that He had been explaining to
Cleopas and his friend, and He said to them--
'AS MY FATHER HATH SENT ME, EVEN SO SEND I YOU. GO YE INTO ALL THE
WORLD, AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE.'
That is the great missionary text. A missionary means, you remember,
'one who is sent.' That text was meant for you and for me, as well as
for the first disciples of Jesus.
After these things, the eleven disciples went away to Galilee, and
waited for Jesus to meet them there.
One day Thomas and Nathanael, and James and John, and two other
disciples, were together by the side of the Sea of Galilee. Peter was
there too, and he always liked to be doing something, so he said to the
others, 'I go a-fishing.' And they said, 'We will also go with you;'
and at once they all jumped into a little ship, and pushed off into the
lake. But that night they caught nothing.
[Illustration: The Sea of Galilee.]
Next morning Jesus came and stood on the shore. The disciples could
see Him, because the little ship was now pretty near to the land, but
they did not know Him. Jesus said to the men in the boat, 'Children,
have you anything to eat?'
They thought, I suppose, that this stranger wanted to buy some fish,
and they said, 'No.' Then Jesus said, 'Cast the net on the right side
of the ship, and you shall find.'
And the disciples did what Jesus had said, and at once the net became
so heavy with fish that the fishermen could not pull it into the boat.
Then John said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.'
When Peter heard that, he jumped into the water, so as to get quicker
to land. The other disciples stayed in the boat, and dragged the fish
along after them. When the boat got to land, Peter helped the other
men to pull the net in. It was full of great fishes--a hundred and
fifty and three. Jesus had got a fire of coals ready on the beach, and
some bread; and some fish were broiling on the fire. And now Jesus
said to the tired fishermen, 'Come and dine,' and He waited upon them
Himself.
After that day by the Sea of Galilee, the disciples went to a mountain
which Jesus told them about. And Jesus met them there, and said to
them, 'Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AND LO I AM WITH YOU
ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD.' There is another splendid
missionary text.
[Illustration: The Mount of Olives.]
Jesus stayed on earth for forty days, and when the forty days were
over, He went for a last walk with His disciples. He took them the way
they had so often gone together--over the Mount of Olives, and so far
as Bethany. There He stopped, and lifted up His hands, and blessed
them. And it came to pass, that while He blessed them, He was taken
from them, and carried up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand
of God. As the disciples looked up earnestly towards heaven after
Jesus, two angels in white robes came and stood by them, and said, 'YE
MEN OF GALILEE, WHY DO YOU STAND LOOKING INTO HEAVEN? THIS SAME JESUS
WHICH IS TAKEN UP FROM YOU INTO HEAVEN SHALL COME AGAIN IN THE SAME WAY
AS YOU HAVE SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN.'
Yes, dear children, Jesus is coming again some day. He will not come
as a little baby next time. He will come as a King, to cast out Satan,
to judge the world, and to take away all who love Him to be with Him
forever.
"SAVIOR, LIKE A SHEPHERD, LEAD US."
Savior, like a shepherd, lead us,
Much we need Thy tend'rest care,
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use Thy folds prepare.
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.
We are Thine, do Thou befriend us,
Be the Guardian of our way;
Keep Thy flock, from sin defend us,
Seek us when we go astray.
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Hear, O hear us, when we pray.
Thou hast promised to receive us,
Poor and sinful though we be;
Thou hast mercy to relieve us,
Grace to cleanse, and power to free.
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
We will early turn to Thee.
"ONE THERE IS ABOVE ALL OTHERS."
One there is, above all others,
Well deserves the name of Friend;
His is love beyond a brother's,
Costly, free, and knows no end.
Which of all our friends, to save us,
Could or would have shed his blood?
But our Jesus died to have us
Reconciled in him to God.
When he lived on earth abaséd,
Friend of sinners was his name;
Now above all glory raiséd,
He rejoices in the same.
Oh, for grace our hearts to soften!
Teach us, Lord, at length, to love;
We, alas! forget too often
What a friend we have above.
THE LORD'S PRAYER
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
PSALM XXIII
1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the
still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for
his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.