Christmas gold, p.278
Christmas Gold, page 278
By the time the two Marys and Salome reached the garden, the dawn was light enough for them to see objects at some distance. They do not seem to have known of the guard being set to watch the grave; for their talk was only of the difficulty of removing the large stone which filled the opening of the cave. Probably their special purpose in coming to view the sepulchre was to ascertain whether the women alone could roll it away, and effect an entrance without aid. On Friday evening, in the twilight, and overwhelmed, as they were, with grief, they had not sufficiently noticed this difficulty. Now, as they drew near, what was their amazement and dismay to see the stone already removed, and the cave open!
Their fears sprang to one conclusion, and only one. The beloved body of their Lord had been violently taken away—stolen by His implacable enemies—during the night It had been still further degraded and dishonoured by being cast into the common grave of criminals. Mary Magdalene, leaving the other Mary and Salome, fled back into the city, to seek Peter and John, and arouse them to help, if help were not too late. Very probably these two disciples were lodging in the same house; for at the time of the feasts every dwelling in Jerusalem was crowded with guests. ‘They have taken away the Lord,’ cried Mary, when she found them, ‘and we know not where they have laid Him.’
In the mean time Mary Cleophas and Salome went on to the sepulchre. They were women past middle life, with the calmness and passiveness of years and sorrows, and they did not shrink from entering into the sepulchre. They had set out, indeed, with the intention of preparing the body for a second burial But there was no lifeless corpse there. They were affrighted, however, by seeing an angel, clothed in white, sitting on the right side. ‘Fear not,’ he said to them, ‘for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He is arisen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples and Peter that He is risen from the dead; and behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you. Lo, I have told you.’ Salome and Mary Cleophas fled from the sepulchre trembling and amazed; and probably passing by John and Peter in their bewilderment, they said nothing to them about what they had seen, but went on into the city, in fear and great joy, to bring the disciples word.
Now, when they were going, some, but not all, of the Roman guard hastened to the chief priests, and told them what had come to pass. A council was immediately summoned; and, after much discussion, they seem to have persuaded themselves that the soldiers had been sleeping, and that as they slept the disciples had stolen away the body. The guard owned to having been like dead men from fright: and none of them professed to have seen Jesus leave the grave. The council gave them large sums of money to spread about this report, which they did so successfully, that those who thought better of the testimony of two or three heathen soldiers than of that of hundreds of their own countrymen, who had nothing to gain but everything to lose by their testimony, believed the saying, and commonly reported it as a fact.
Very shortly after Salome and Mary Cleophas left the grave, John and Peter reached it John had outrun Peter, but, with the sensitive shrinking of a young nature, unused to death, he did not go in. Stooping down, he saw the linen clothes, that fine linen Joseph had prepared, lying on the floor of the cave. It was quite evident his Master was not there. But Peter, coming up, stepped at once into the sepulchre, to look round it. There was no sign of haste or violence, as there must have been if a band of rough foes had trampled in to steal away the body. The fair linen cloth was unsoiled, and the napkin that had been bound about the worn and anguished face had been wrapped together, as if His mother’s gentle hands had folded it up tenderly, and laid it aside by itself. There was nothing terrifying about the quiet, empty tomb; and John, with all his sensitive love for his Lord, might enter and feel no shock. He also went in, and looking round, felt a gleam of faith, like the dawn of a new and splendid day, breaking upon him. But they could not linger in the empty grave. Mary, the mother of Jesus, ought to hear these strange tidings; and they went away to tell her.
Now, Mary Magdalene stood without, at the door of the cave, weeping. Like John, she did not venture to go in. She was alone; Peter and John were gone, and the other women were not yet come. The garden was a solitude. Nothing had occurred to deliver her from her agonizing fears. To her it was her Lord, not His body merely, that they had taken away. The hurried departure of Peter and John, and the absence of Salome and Mary Cleophas, must have confirmed her suspicions. She stooped down, as John had done, to look at the place where He had lain. There was the spot where His thorn-crowned head had been pillowed, and His pierced feet had rested. But the grave was no longer empty. At the feet, and the head, where the body of Jesus had lain, sat two angels, bending over the place, as if still watching Him, just as she would have sat and watched Him if she might but have stayed beside Him, even in the sepulchre. The angels neither astonished nor affrighted her: she was too engrossed in her sorrow. ‘Woman, why weepest thou?’ they asked. She answered them without fear—the only human being who has spoken to angels with no tremor—‘Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.’ She even turned away from them, as from those who could give her no comfort, while her Lord was lost. Dimly through her tears she saw some one standing near her, and heard the same question, ‘Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?’ These last words gave her the idea that it must be the gardener, who would know all that had taken place in the garden under his care. ‘Sir,’ she cried, ‘if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, that I may take Him away.’ She had but one thought in her mind: where was her Lord?
‘Mary,’ said the voice behind her—a familiar voice; and she turned quickly, crying gladly, passionately, ‘Rabboni!’ He called her from the abyss of despair to a rapture of joy, beyond words. She sprang towards Him to touch Him, to make sure that it was He Himself whom she had seen die upon the cross. In a moment she was back again to the happy hours in Galilee, when she had ministered unto Him, before all this agony came. As before, one thought alone possessed her soul. Here was her Master, He who had saved her in the old bad days.
But Christ was not the same. A solemn change had passed over Him, which must alter all His relations with His old friends. She was too excited to feel this; but His first words arrested her. ‘Touch Me not,’ He said, possibly meaning, ‘Stay not to touch Me now, for I am not yet ascending unto My Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; unto My God, and your God.’ He was their elder brother, who could remain with them but a little while, and then they would see Him no more, but He would represent them in the Father’s house, where He was going to prepare a place for them. Mary knew she also should see Him again; and when He vanished out of her sight she stayed not a moment longer at the sepulchre, but went to tell them she had seen the Lord.
All these circumstances had followed one another rapidly: and it may be that the women who were to bring the spices and ointments had been delayed, or perhaps had waited some little time for Salome and the two Marys at the appointed place of meeting. Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, was the chief person among them, as the woman of greatest wealth and rank. They were not at all surprised at finding the stone rolled back from the door of the sepulchre, supposing that it had been done on purpose for them. But they found the body they had come to embalm taken away. This very much perplexed them; though they were not afraid until they saw two men standing by them, in shining garments. So terrified were they, that they bowed their faces to the earth before them. The angels said to them, as if marvelling at these repeated visits to the grave, ‘Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen; remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ Then the women remembered these words, wondering at their own forgetfulness. They returned at once to the city; and as they were not likely to single out Peter or John, as Mary Magdalene had done, to be the first hearers of their tidings, they went quickly to some common place of meeting among the disciples, and there found a large party assembled, which had been probably called together by Peter, to hear that the body of the Lord was gone no one knew whither. The women told the vision they had seen; but the disciples could not believe them, and their words seemed as idle tales. Peter, however, hearing of the appearance of angels, arose, and ran again to the sepulchre for the second time; but stooping down, he saw no such vision, only the linen clothes laid as he had seen them before. He returned to the assembly of the disciples, full of wonder at what had come to pass.
It is natural to suppose that Mary Magdalene, who had hastened to John’s house when she knew the grave was open, would also go there after she had seen Christ Mary, His mother, would thus hear first of the appearance of her son. Finding there that Peter and John had left to call together the disciples at some appointed place, Mary Magdalene followed them; and soon after Joanna, and the women from Galilee had told of their vision of angels, she entered to relate the appearance of the Lord Himself to her in the garden. She had even a message to deliver to them. But the incredulous and bewildered disciples could not believe her, and probably said among themselves that grief had distracted her mind. When Peter returned from the sepulchre, having seen nothing, this conviction would naturally be deepened.
But presently Mary Cleophas and Salome, the aunt of Jesus, and the mother of James and John, women not likely to be deceived, or to mistake a stranger for their Lord, came in with another account of having seen Him, and of receiving a message from Him for His brethren. But still the incredulous disciples refused to believe. Mary Magdalene owned that she had not touched Jesus, had indeed been forbidden to touch Him; but these two women declared that they had not only met Him, but that when they heard His greeting, they had fallen down to worship Him, being afraid, and had held Him by His feet ‘Be not afraid,’ He had said; ‘go, tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.’
There was this excuse for the unbelief of the disciples that as yet the only manifestations, either of angels or of the Lord Himself, had been to women, who are always more excited, and more open to superstitious fancies, in hours of sorrow, than men are. The simple facts, as known to the disciples, were, that the sepulchre was open at daybreak, and the body of their Master missing. Who had broken open the grave they could not tell; but their suspicion must have been that some enemy had done it.
The news spread rapidly throughout Jerusalem, and no doubt crowds of curious spectators flocked to the garden to see the open tomb. Amongst them the partisans of the Sanhedrim diligently spread the report that the body was stolen away by the disciples, while the guard slept It would be no longer prudent for the well-known followers of Jesus to be seen near Calvary and Gethsemane; but those who were less marked among His friends probably mingled with the throng, and from time to time brought tidings to the assembly of disciples of what was going on. The hours wore away, and still they were in perplexity and unbelief. Three women only had seen Him: one of these had not touched Him, and the other two had been so bewildered and amazed, as to have kept their interview with Him to themselves, until after Mary Magdalene had given-her account.
CHAPTER X.
EMMAUS.
Table of Contents
When the disciples were first called together by Peter and John, there were among them two friends, one of whom was named Cleophas, not the husband of Mary, but probably a native of Emmaus, a village about nine miles from the city. They were present when the party of Galilean women, with Joanna, came to tell of seeing two angels in the sepulchre. Possibly they went with Peter, when he ran a second time to the grave; but they did not return with him, as they did not hear the statement of Mary Magdalene, or of Salome and Mary Cleophas. Very likely they lingered about the garden amongst the crowd, listening to the various guesses and rumours concerning the strange event, until it was time to, start on their long walk homewards. Calvary lay north or north-east of the city walls, and Emmaus to the east; there was no need therefore for them to return through the busy streets, where they might have heard that their risen Lord had appeared to, not one, but three of the women, who had loved Him so faithfully, and ministered to Him so long. Sad, though it was a feast time when joyousness was a duty, these men might well be.
It is a toilsome road, and the afternoon sun beat hot upon them. But they heeded neither the heat of the sun nor the roughness of the road. They were reasoning and pondering over the events that had followed quickly upon one another, since they had entered Jerusalem to eat the feast of the passover. There had been the betrayal, the arrest, the mock trial before the Sanhedrim, the real trial before Pilate, the scourging, the crucifixion, the darkness at noon-day, and earthquake, all hurried one upon another. They might well be sad and downcast as they communed about these things.
Presently a stranger, journeying the same toilsome road, drew near and asked them how it was they could be thus sorrowful during the feast Cleophas answered him, ‘Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that are come to pass there in these days?' All Jerusalem was busy about them, and this stranger, who seemed to be coming from the city, might surely guess what they were talking about. Yet he said, ‘What things?’ And now Cleophas, concluding that he was indeed a stranger, told him of Jesus of Nazareth, the mighty prophet, who had been condemned to death by the Great Sanhedrim, their rulers. ‘But we trusted,’ he went on, sorrowfully, ‘that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel.’ Then he narrated how certain women had astonished them that morning, who did not find His body in the sepulchre, but came saying they had seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive. ‘But Him they saw not,’ added Cleophas to the stranger walking at his side.
‘O foolish men!’ he answered gently, ‘and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?’ They, like all other Jews, were well versed in the writings of Moses and the prophets; but as this stranger explained to them passages perfectly familiar to them, they stood out in a new light, with deeper meaning than any they had had before. Their hearts, slow to believe, burned within them. Was it, then, true that Jesus was that Holy One whose soul should not be left in hell, nor His flesh see corruption? The long road seemed short; the rocky path no longer rugged to their feet; the heat of the sun was unfelt How fast the time fled! How quickly Emmaus was seen on its hill before them! Who could this stranger be, so wise and gracious, whom they loved already, and could listen to unweariedly, almost as if He were the Lord Himself?
They were close to the village now, and He made as though He would have gone farther; but they could not part with Him yet, stranger though He was. It was getting on for evening, and the day was far spent ‘Abide with us,’ said both of them; and He went in to tarry with them, as they hoped, until the morning. He had charmed away their sadness, and taught them what they had never known before. How gladly would they minister to this new friend! When they sat down to supper they set Him in the most honourable place, to preside over their evening meal. He took bread, blessing and breaking it with some words or gesture peculiar to Christ, and gave it to them, as He had been wont to do when He sat at meat with His disciples. Now their eyes were no longer holden that they should not know Him. It was He Himself: their crucified and risen Lord. For one brief, glad moment they saw His beloved face, and the pierced hands, which had given to them the bread. Then He vanished out of their sight; but this was yet another proof to them that it was indeed the Lord.
At once they rose up to return to Jerusalem, thinking nothing of the long walk and the coming night, when they had such tidings to carry to the disciples, and the mother and kinsmen of Christ It must have been late when they reached the city, but they found ten of the apostles, with a number of the disciples, gathered together, though with closed doors, and precautions taken, for fear of the Pharisees. Who was there? The women probably, Lazarus from Bethany, Nicodemus, perhaps, and Joseph of Arimathea, whose garden had been trampled by so many feet that day. There was great agitation among them still. Had the body of Jesus been stolen away from the grave? Was it not His spirit only which had been seen by the women? Even Peter, who had also now seen the Lord, the apostle who denied Him being the first to whom He revealed Himself; Peter could hardly believe that it was his Master, and not a spirit Yet when the two disciples from Emmaus entered, they were met by the cry, ‘The Lord has arisen indeed, and appeared unto Simon.’ But Cleophas and his companion had something more to tell of than a mere brief appearance. They described the stranger joining them, and walking mile after mile with them, conversing all the while familiarly; how He went in to tarry with them, and sat down to meat, and was known to them in the breaking of bread. This the disciples could not believe. Cleophas and his friend do not seem to have been very renowned followers of Jesus, and the other disciples were hard of belief. Those among them who had seen Him had caught but brief glimpses of Him. Mary Magdalene had not been allowed to touch Him; Salome and His aunt Mary had only held His feet; to Peter He had appeared certainly, but not in this homely manner as a fellow-traveller along the same rough way.
They were still speaking incredulously about these new tidings, when suddenly, with no opening of the fastened doors, and no sound of entering, they .saw Jesus Himself standing in the midst of them, and heard His voice, saying, ‘Peace be unto you.’ But they were terrified and affrighted, supposing that they saw a spirit. There was none bold enough to try to touch Him, and no one dared to speak. With great gentleness and tenderness He reproached them. ‘Behold My hands and My feet,’ He said, showing them the print of the nails; ‘handle Me, and see. It is I myself. A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.’ Their terror and trouble were pacified, but still they were not calm enough for faith. They could not now believe for joy. But to give them time to collect themselves, He asked for food, as once before He had commanded something to eat to be given to the ruler’s little daughter, when He called her back from the grave. He ate before them, a convincing proof that He was no spirit; and then He was seen no more by them. But there was no room for unbelief among them now. The load upon their hearts, like the great stone of the sepulchre, was rolled away for ever. Their Lord was arisen indeed.
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