Hurlbut's Life Of Christ For Young And Old Part 51

These are the opening words of the twenty-second psalm, written many hundred years before as a prophecy of what Christ should suffer. It may be that Jesus spoke those words to show that all his suffering had been foretold long before. Jesus in speaking those words used the old Hebrew tongue, the language in which the psalm was written. In the old Hebrew the words, "My G.o.d! My G.o.d!" were "Eloi! Eloi!" But the language had changed so greatly since the psalms were written that the people who heard him did not understand the words. Some said, "He is calling upon Elijah the prophet to help him!"

Then Jesus spoke again and said:

"I am thirsty."

There was standing by a jar full of vinegar. One of the men took a sponge, soaked it in the vinegar, fastened it on the end of a stick, and placed it on the lips of Jesus. This also had been foretold in the sixty-ninth psalm, in the words,

"In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

As soon as Jesus tasted the vinegar, he said:

"All is finished."

Then, after a moment's pause, he spoke with a loud voice to G.o.d:

"Father, into thy hands I give up my spirit!"

And with those words his head dropped forward, and Jesus was hanging dead upon his cross.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The people on Mt. Calvary looking at the dying Jesus were filled with fear, and went back to the city in terror at the darkness and earthquake.]

Just at the moment when Jesus died, suddenly there was an earthquake; the ground was shaken, the rocks were torn apart, and many of the tombs around Jerusalem were opened. In the Temple on Mount Moriah, a wonderful event was seen. The great veil that hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was suddenly torn from the top to the bottom, as if by a mighty unseen hand, so that the priests in the Temple could see what none of them, except the high priest, had ever seen before, the inside of the Holy of Holies.

The people who were standing on Mount Calvary, looking at the dying Jesus, were filled with fear. They beat upon their b.r.e.a.s.t.s with their hands, and went back to the city in terror at the darkness and the earthquake. The Roman captain, who was in charge of the soldiers around the cross, said:

"Surely this was a good man, a son of G.o.d!"

You know that the Sabbath among the Jews was kept on the seventh day of the week and that it always began at sunset on the evening before. It was on Friday that Jesus was crucified, and three o'clock on that afternoon. The Jews did not wish to have the men upon the three crosses hanging there upon the Sabbath, for that day, the Pa.s.sover Sabbath, was kept especially holy.

The Jewish rulers came to Pilate and asked him that the men should not be left upon the cross over the Sabbath, but that they should be killed and their bodies taken away. They did not know at that time that Jesus was already dead. Pilate gave orders to the soldiers to have the men killed. This they did by breaking their legs, as they hung upon the crosses. As they saw that Jesus was no longer alive, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers, to be sure of his death, drove his spear into the side of Jesus, to strike his heart. John the disciple was still standing there watching beside the cross to the very last, and he wrote in his gospel many years afterward that he saw both water and blood pour forth from the side of Jesus, out of the wound made by the spear.

The Tomb in the Garden

CHAPTER 97

YOU REMEMBER that from the garden of Gethsemane, very early on Friday morning, Jesus was brought before the high council of the Jews for trial, and that by the council it was ordered that Jesus should be put to death as one who falsely claimed that he was Christ, the King of Israel. But not all the members of this council were enemies of Jesus. A very few of them were his friends, but in secret, not daring to speak for him or to vote for him, for fear of the rulers and the people.

One of these secret friends of Jesus was Nicodemus, the ruler who had come to see Jesus at night three years before, on his first visit to Jerusalem. Another was a good man named Joseph, a rich man, who lived at a place called Arimathea, some miles out of Jerusalem, in the country.

This man, Joseph of Arimathea, did a very bold thing. He went to Pilate in his palace, and asked Pilate to allow him to take down from the cross the dead body of Jesus, and to bury it. To us this may not seem a brave act, but it was, for the Roman rulers were very suspicious of anybody who appeared to be the friend of one who had been condemned to death.

Some time before this, when a man asked the governor for the body of a man who had been put to death, the governor ordered that his friend should also be slain as an enemy of the Romans and the governor's enemy.

It might be said that Joseph of Arimathea "took his life in his hands"

when he asked Pilate for the body of Jesus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: In the side of a rocky hill was a cave which Joseph of Arimathea had hollowed out for his own tomb, and there they laid the body of Jesus.]

But Pilate was not angry with Joseph; and at heart he was not an enemy of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to learn that Jesus was already dead, for sometimes upon the cross men lived several days of terrible pain. He sent for the Roman captain who had been in charge at the cross, and asked him if Jesus the Nazarene was dead. When the captain told him that Jesus was dead, he allowed Joseph to take away the body and do with it as he pleased.

Then Joseph, with some of the disciples of Jesus, carefully and tenderly took down from the cross the body of Jesus; and after the manner of Jewish burials at that time, wrapped it round and round with long strips of linen cloth. They also tied a napkin over the face of Jesus.

Nicodemus came to help in the burial, bringing with him the weight of a hundred pounds in fragrant and costly spices, aloes and myrrh, which they laid in the linen cloth around the body.

Near the place where Jesus was crucified was a garden belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, and in the side of the rocky hill was a cave which Joseph had hollowed out for his own tomb. No dead body had ever been buried in this tomb; and there they laid the body of Jesus. Then they rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and left it.

Near by, at this time, were some of the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee; looking on while the body of Jesus, whom they had loved so fondly, was laid in the tomb. One of these women was Mary Magdalene, or "Mary of Magdala" by the Sea of Galilee, a woman from whom Jesus had driven out evil spirits more than a year before. Another woman was Mary, the wife of Clopas; and another was named Salome, who may have been the mother of the disciples James and John, and the wife of Zebedee the fisherman. These women noticed carefully the place where the body of Jesus was buried.

On the next morning, which was the Jewish Sabbath day, the chief priests and leading men among the Jews came to Pilate and said to him:

"We remember, sir, that while this man who deceived the people was alive, he said, 'After three days in the tomb I will arise again.' Now, then, give orders that the tomb where he is buried be kept under guard for three days. For if it be not watched, his disciples may come and steal his body out of the tomb and hide it; then they will tell the people, 'He is risen from the dead,' and the last false report will do more harm than the first, that he was the King of Israel."

"Take a guard of soldiers," said Pilate, "and make it just as sure as you can."

So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the great stone at the door. Also they placed a guard of soldiers in front of the tomb, with orders to stay there for three days.

On one side of the rounded skull-like hill which may have been Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, there has been found a very ancient tomb, which may have been the place of the Saviour's burial. No one can be sure of this; but we may be certain that either in this tomb, or in one like it, not far away, Jesus was buried.

The Risen Christ and the Empty Tomb

CHAPTER 98

IT WAS FRIDAY evening at sunset, only three hours after Jesus had died upon his cross, when the stone at the door of the tomb was rolled against the door, and the body of Jesus was left alone in its resting place. All day on Sat.u.r.day, the Jewish Sabbath, and through that night, the body lay in the tomb, watched by Roman soldiers. But early on Sunday morning, before the sun rose, something wonderful took place such as had never been seen from the beginning of the world and never has been seen since that day.

There was a great earthquake, shaking the ground around the tomb, as an angel from heaven came down. His face and his form shone with dazzling brightness like lightning, and his clothing was white as snow glittering in the sun. The soldiers on guard trembled as they saw the angel, and fell down on the ground as if they were dead; and after a little while rising up, crept away in their fear, and left the garden.

The bright angel laid his hand on the stone at the door of the tomb, paying no attention to the seal upon it, and rolled the stone away. As he stood at the open door of the tomb, the Lord Jesus Christ walked out from it, no longer dead but living, and living never to die again. The grave clothes were not now wrapped around his body, and the napkin had been taken from his face.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The women at the empty tomb listened in fear and wonder to the words of the angel: "He is not here; he has risen!"]

If the Roman soldiers were still there, they could not see Jesus, for a change had come over him, and he was now seen only by those whom he wished to see him and by no others. And he could suddenly appear and disappear as he chose. He could be seen suddenly in one place, and then a moment after could be seen just as suddenly in another place miles and miles away. He could pa.s.s through closed doors just as if they were wide open; and after being seen by his friends could vanish out of their sight.

A few moments after the earthquake, and after the risen Christ had come from his tomb, a few women came from the city to the tomb, bringing some more spices and perfumes to place around his body. Those women were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Clopas, and Salome, and a woman named Joanna, and perhaps others. They may have felt the earthquake shock, but they did not know the wonderful things that had taken place, and supposed that the body of Jesus was in the tomb. As they came near, they said to each other:

"Who will roll away for us the great stone at the door of the tomb?"

But when they came to the tomb, they found the stone already rolled away, and the tomb open. Mary Magdalene came a little before the others, and was the first to see that the tomb was open, and looking inside she saw that it was empty. She took but one glance, and then, without waiting for the others, ran away to tell some of the disciples of Jesus that the tomb had been opened and the body of Jesus taken away, for she did not know that Jesus had risen and was living.

A moment after Mary Magdalene had gone away, the other women came to the tomb. They, too, saw that the stone had been rolled away, the tomb was open and the body of Jesus was not there. But these women saw what Mary Magdalene had not seen, a young man with s.h.i.+ning face and long white robe, seated on the right side of the place where the body of Jesus had been laid. They were frightened as they looked upon him, for this young man was the angel who had rolled away the stone. But he calmed their fears, saying to them:

"Do not be afraid, you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; he is not here! Look! this is the place where his body was laid; and you can see it is empty! But go, find his disciples, and Peter, and tell them that he will go before you into Galilee, to the mountains. There they will see him, as he said to them before he died."

So these women, like Mary Magdalene only a few minutes before, went away from the tomb to find some of the disciples. They found Peter and John, and told them the news that the angel had given to them.

Peter and John at once hurried to the tomb. John was younger than Peter, and came to the tomb first. He saw the stone rolled away and the tomb open, and stood at the door, hesitating, uncertain whether to go into the tomb or not. But Peter, who came a moment afterward, did not hesitate. He rushed past John into the tomb, and saw that it was empty.