'The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.'
--LUKE xxiv. 34.
The other appearances of the risen Lord to individuals on the day of
Resurrection are narrated with much particularity, and at
considerable length. John gives us the lovely account of our Lord's
conversation with Mary Magdalene, Luke gives us in full detail the
story of the interview with the two travellers on the road to
Emmaus. Here is another appearance, known to 'the eleven, and them
that were with them' on the Resurrection evening, and enumerated by
Paul in his list of the appearances of the Lord, the account of
which was the common gospel of himself and all the others, and yet
deep silence is preserved in regard to it. No word escaped Peter's
lips as to what passed in the conversation between the denier and
his Lord. That is very significant.
The other appearances of the risen Lord to individuals on the day of
Resurrection suggest their own reasons. He appeared first to Mary
Magdalene because she loved much. The love that made a timid woman
brave, and the sorrow that filled her heart, to the exclusion of
everything else, drew Jesus to her. The two on the road to Emmaus
were puzzled, honest, painful seekers after truth. It was worth
Christ's while to spend hours of that day of Resurrection in
clearing, questioning, and confirming sincere minds. Does not this
other appearance explain itself? The brief spasm of cowardice and
denial had changed into penitence when the Lord looked, and the
bitter tears that fell were not only because of the denial, but
because of the wound of that sharp arrow, the poisoned barb of which
we are happy if we have not felt the thought--'He will never know
how ashamed and miserable I am; and His last look was reproach, and
I shall never see His face any more.' To respond to, and to satisfy,
love, to clear and to steady thought, to soothe the agony of a
penitent, were worthy works for the risen Lord. I venture to think
that such a record of the use of such a day bears historical truth
on its very face, because it is so absolutely unlike what myth-making
or hallucination, or the excited imagination of enthusiasts would
have produced, if these had been the sources of the story of the
Resurrection. But apart from that, I wish in this sermon to try to
gather the suggestions that come to us from this interview, and from
the silence which is observed concerning them.