He wore a purple robe. Peter could see he was in pain. "Behold! Here is the man!" cried Pilate.
"Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Pilate hesitated. "If you let him go, you are an enemy of the Roman emperor!" shouted a priest. Peter could tell that Pilate was afraid. He walked to the stone seat where he announced his decisions. Embedded in the pavement before him was the Roman seal and some Latin words. The Roman guards led Jesus to another seat. He was very weak from his beating. While the people were shouting, Pilate turned toward the priests gathered in a knot near his judgment seat and said bitterly: "You have wanted a Jewish king--well, here he is! Behold the king of the Jews!"
The high priest looked coldly at Pilate and said, "We have only one king: Caesar." Pilate looked down at the ground. There was one more possibility. This innocent Galilean might yet go free. Pilate remembered that custom allowed him to set free one prisoner at Pa.s.sover time--a prisoner whom the people chose. Amid the commotion in the courtyard, Pilate stared at the Latin words on the pavement before him. If only the people would ask that Jesus be released!
"I shall let one prisoner go free," cried the governor. "Shall it be Bar-Abbas or the king of the Jews?"
A priest called out, "Give us Bar-Abbas!" Then the crowd took up the cry, "We want Bar-Abbas!"
Bar-Abbas! A murderer? Peter could hardly believe it! The cries grew louder. "Give us Bar-Abbas!"
"What shall I do with Jesus, called "the Christ"?" Pilate asked, cornered. The people saw that he feared them, and their hateful screams made Peter shiver.
"Crucify him! Crucify him!" The crowd surged toward Jesus, and the Roman guards drew their swords to protect their prisoner. Pilate saw that only blood would satisfy the people. Amid the tumult he sat silent, his eyes once again on the Latin words before him. At last he stood up. He was beaten. The crowd was almost out of control. Several times he raised his hand and started to speak, but each time he could scarcely hear his own voice. The leader of the palace guard glanced anxiously at Pilate and waved to a group of soldiers waiting inside the fort. They made a tight circle around Jesus.
Pilate dropped his hand limply and turned to the priest. "Do with him whatever you want." The bloodthirsty mob surged toward the guards, but could not break through the line of soldiers, which stood like a steel wall until the door of the fort had slammed shut behind Jesus.
Peter made no attempt to follow. He took little notice of the men around him, who gave him curious stares. Peter walked to the place where Jesus had stood. He looked down and read the words which were written on the pavement in front of the judgment seat:
JUSTICE AND MERCY.
Pilate too had betrayed the Christ!
[Ill.u.s.tration]
18. THE ROCK OF FAITH
The Pa.s.sover Feast was ended, and the pilgrims from Galilee were leaving Jerusalem. The friends of Jesus, and especially the eleven disciples, were dazed by the death of their Master. In the blackest discouragement, wondering what they should do, they gathered at the house where Jesus had eaten his last meal. They repeated over and over again the story of the things that had happened. Some talked about returning to Galilee.
Two followers who lived in Emmaus, a town several miles west of Jerusalem, decided to go back to their homes.
The two men took the road that led over the hill of Calvary where Jesus had died. The cross still stood. Moving in the breeze was the sign which Pilate had ordered tacked to the very top: THE KING OF THE JEWS. At the hour of Jesus" death this hill had trembled as a storm thundered through the sky. But now Calvary was quiet. In the bright morning the two men could hardly believe that here they had heard the death cry of their Master: "My G.o.d, why hast thou forsaken me?"
When the men came near the cross, they stood silent for many minutes.
Finally Cleopas, the older of the two remarked, "They haven"t taken the sign down yet."
"Do you think others will be crucified on his cross, Cleopas?" asked the other.
"Perhaps." After a long silence, Cleopas added: "Do you remember the centurion who was in charge of the soldiers? Just after Jesus died, I heard him say, "This man truly was a son of G.o.d!""
"Do you think any of the others believed?" mused the other man.
"Most of them scoffed!" answered Cleopas bitterly. "One priest said over and over, "You saved others--now save yourself!" and laughed." Tears of anger sprang into Cleopas" eyes.
"That is where his mother stood when he told John to take care of her,"
remarked his companion. At that moment the wind tore loose the parchment nailed at the top of the cross. It drifted to the ground a few yards away. The younger man looked at Cleopas: "Shall I get it?"
After a moment Cleopas replied: "No. Let it lie there. Why keep things that make us remember these days?" He turned his back on the cross and started down the hill toward Emmaus. His companion said nothing; he knew the bitterness that made Cleopas speak this way.
The road down to Emmaus was rough but heavily traveled. From all Judea, camel caravans carried olive oil and wool to Joppa, the main seaport of southern Palestine. Up from the sea rode Roman soldiers to guard Jerusalem, Jericho, and the forts across the Jordan.
Toward sunset the two travelers came in sight of the Valley of Aijalon, sloping down to the sea. Here King Saul had fought many b.l.o.o.d.y battles with the ancient Philistines. The low-hanging sun made a great golden blaze on the Mediterranean Sea, twenty miles away.
"We are not far from Emmaus now," remarked Cleopas. A warning cry sounded behind them: "Caravan!" The two men moved to the side of the road, and found, when they turned, that another traveler had joined them. He had been very close behind, but the two men had been so deep in conversation that they had not noticed him. After the camels had pa.s.sed, kicking up the dust with their wide, padded feet, the stranger walked on with them.
"What is all this you are talking about?" he asked in a friendly way.
Cleopas glanced at his companion. Was it dangerous to answer frankly?
Certainly they were safe here! "You must not have stayed in Jerusalem very long if you have not heard about what happened," he replied.
"What is that?" asked the man.
"It is about Jesus of Nazareth," answered Cleopas. "He was a Galilean.
The common people all thought he was a Prophet. G.o.d truly had given him a message for us! He warned us to repent and give our lives to G.o.d if we wish to have eternal life." Cleopas paused and his companion took up the story.
"You see, the high priests hated Jesus because he called them hypocrites to their faces. He was right: they are cruel to the poor! They make many sacrifices, but just the same they do not really love G.o.d. Three days ago the priests took him prisoner and handed him over to Pilate to be crucified. We hoped that he would begin a great new day for our people--but now he is dead." The men had reached the foot of the hill.
Green gra.s.s grew where a tiny brook trickled beside the road.
"We did have a surprise though," added Cleopas. "Some women in our group went out to the tomb where we laid him but they could not find his body!
They saw a vision of angels who told them he was alive. Some of us went and looked for ourselves. His body was gone--but no one saw Jesus."
The stranger looked keenly at the two travelers. "You have read the Prophets, haven"t you?" he asked. "They say that the Messiah must suffer before he can be victorious."
Cleopas looked at the man curiously. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"All the things happened just as the Prophets said," repeated the stranger. "The books of Moses say: "The Lord thy G.o.d will raise up a Prophet among you, from among your very brethren, like me. You must listen to his word!" Is not your Rabbi that One? And Isaiah too. He said: "Behold, my Servant, whom I have chosen! I will put my Spirit upon him and he shall declare judgment to gentiles. He shall not strive or cry out; no one shall hear his voice in the streets!" Your master is this Servant of G.o.d! Did he not die on a cross? Isaiah said that he would be treated like a criminal!"
"But if he was the Messiah, why did the priests hate him?" cried Cleopas.
"They always kill the messengers of G.o.d. Isaiah said, "They hear, but do not understand; they see, but their minds are blind--their hearts are cold." These priests will not let G.o.d give them eternal life!"
All the rest of the way to Emmaus the two friends talked earnestly with this stranger who understood the Scriptures so well. They had never realized that the Prophets taught that the Messiah would die. They had always thought he would triumph over everybody! They remembered now that Jesus had said some of these very things.
At last they came to the village. It was dusk. Cleopas stopped in front of a small house. "Come in with us and spend the night, for the day is almost over," he said. With a smile, the stranger accepted.
It had been a long journey, and the three men were very hungry. After washing, Cleopas brought bread and fish to the table. They lay down on the hard couches. The guest picked up a small loaf and raised his eyes to bless it. He broke the bread and handed it to the men. They took it from him--and suddenly they knew who he was. There was only one who had ever given them bread like that! It must be the Master himself! They dropped to their knees. Joy, reverence, and fear filled them. When they looked up, Jesus was gone. "No wonder our hearts burned within us while he talked to us on the road!" exclaimed Cleopas.
"We must tell the others!" answered his companion. "Let us hurry back to Jerusalem."
By the time the moon rose, Cleopas and his companion were halfway to Jerusalem. It made the shadowed ravines between the mountains seem blacker than ever, but they were grateful for the faint light on the road. They knew that robbers could very easily hide among the rocks that lay along the highway. Yet fear was almost forgotten in their great eagerness to get to Jerusalem and tell the news: the Master was alive!
The two travelers pressed forward at a pace swifter than they would have thought possible on this steep road. For lack of breath, they talked very little. Twenty miles was a full day"s journey--but it was just midnight when the two men hastened past the guards at the Joppa Gate of Jerusalem and half ran to the house where they had left their friends that morning.
The building was completely dark. Not a trace of light showed through the closed shutters. Cleopas knocked sharply on the wooden door. In the silence they heard only their own heavy breathing and realized that they were very tired. Cleopas knocked again. There was a m.u.f.fled footstep inside; then the bolt sc.r.a.ped and the door opened a crack.