Twice the two men, Pilate and Jesus, are alone together. Did ever man have such an opportunity, personally, and historically? With rare touch and winsomeness Jesus woos. And Pilate feels it to the marrow under all his rough speech. His repeated attempts with the leaders make that clear. But cowardice gripped him hard. It"s a way cowardice has.
The name of Caesar conjures up fears,--loss of position, of wealth, of reputation, maybe of life itself. He surrenders. Conscience is slain on the judgment seat. Cowardice laughs and wins. A sharp fling brings a cry of allegiance to Caesar from their reluctant throats, as their hatred wins the day. He strikes them back an ugly blow as He surrenders. That reluctant Caesar cry told out the intensity of their hate. They hated Caesar much, but they hated Jesus immeasurably more. They gulp down Caesar to be able to vent their spleen upon Jesus.
And so they crucified Him. At last they succeed. They have gotten what they were bent on. The hate burning within, these months and years, finds its full vent. Its hateful worst is done, and horribly well done.
And they stand about the cross with unconcealed gloating in pose and face and speech and eyes. Their part of the story is done.
Masterful Dying.
But Jesus" part--ah! that was just begun. John lays emphasis on the mastery of Jesus here. It is marked, and reveals to John"s faithful love-opened eyes the dominating purpose of Jesus in yielding to death.
Strong, thoughtful, self-controlled, antic.i.p.ating every move, He was using all the strength of His great strong will in yielding. He was doing it masterfully, intelligently.
This is marked throughout. At the arrest He walks frankly out to meet those seeking Him, and restrains them in that strangely powerful way till He was quite ready. He makes the personal plea to Pilate for _Pilate"s_ sake, impressing him so greatly, but interposing nothing to change the purpose of His accusers. When Pilate"s final decision is given John notes that Jesus "went out _bearing the cross for Himself,_"
though provision had been made for this.[123] His influence upon Pilate is seen in the accuracy of the kingly inscription that hangs over the cross. In the midst of the excruciating bodily pain He thinks of His mother, and with marvellous self-control speaks the quiet word to her and to John that insures her future under his filial care.
And then John significantly adds, "_Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished._"[124] With masterly forethought, and self-control and deliberation He had done the thing He had set Himself to do. Never was yielding so masterful. Never was a great plan carried out so fully through the set purpose of one"s enemies. His every action bears out the word He had spoken, "No man taketh My life away from Me, I lay it down of Myself."[125]
So now His great work is done, and thoroughly done. His lips speak the tremendous word, "It is finished." And He bowed His head and _gave up_ His spirit. It was His own act. The self-restraint was strong upon Him till all was done that was needed for the great purpose in hand. Then His head is bowed, His great heart broke under the terrific strain on His spirit as He allowed His life to go out.
From that moment no indignity touches His body. The Jews with their wearisome insistence on empty technicalities would have added further indignity to crucifixion. But that body is sacredly guarded from their profane hand by unseen restraint. John with solemn simplicity points to the unmistakable physical evidence, in the separation of blood and water, that Jesus had actually died; no swooning, but death. And reverently he finds the confirmation of Scripture.
Only tender love touches that body now. Two gentlemen of highest official and social standing and of large wealth, brothers in their faith in Jesus, and also in their timidity, now take steps at once to have the precious body of their dear friend tenderly cared for without regard to expense. So He is laid away in a new tomb in a garden among the flowers of the spring time. The last touch is one of tender love. So His greatest wooing was done, and begun; the great act done, its tremendous wooing influence only just begun.
Jesus died deliberately. This is quite clear. It was done of love aforethought. It was His own act fitted into the circ.u.mstances surrounding Him. This makes His death mean just what He meant it to mean. Run back through His teachings rather carefully and that meaning stands clearly out.
He was the Father"s messenger; simply this; but all of this. The ideals of right so insistently and incessantly held up and pressed were the Father"s ideals. His mere presence told the Father"s great love for men.
They two were so knit that when the one suffered the other suffered, too.
It was the love for men in His own heart that drew Him down here and drove Him along even to the Calvary Hill. He died _for_ men, in their place, on their behalf. This was His one thought. Through this their bondage to sin and to Satan would be broken and they would be set free.[126] And they would be drawn, their hearts would be utterly melted and broken by His love for them.[127] The influence would reach out until all the race would feel its power and respond; and it would reach into each one"s life who came till the life he lived was of the abundant, eternal sort.
The devil was a real personality to Jesus. This whole terrific struggle ending at the cross was a direct spirit-battle with that great spirit prince. So Jesus understood it. All the bitter enmity to Himself traces straight back to that source. That enmity found its worst expression in Jesus" death. The pitched spirit-battle was there. But that prince was judged, condemned, utterly defeated and cast out in that battle, and his hold upon men broken.[128]
And so this was the greatest wooing of all. It was greatest in its intensity of meaning _to the Father_ looking eagerly down. It revealed His unbending, unflinching ideals of right, and the great strength and tenderness of His love for men. He would even give His Son. It was greatest in its intensity of meaning _to the Son_. It meant the utmost of suffering ever endured, the utmost of love underneath ever revealed; and it would mean the race-wide sweep of His gracious power.
It was greatest in its intensity of meaning _to Satan_, the hater of G.o.d and man. It told his utter defeat, and loss of power over man. So it broke our bonds and made us free to yield to the wooing. And it was greatest in its intensity of meaning _to us men_. For it showed to our confused eyes the one ideal of right standing out clear and full. It set us free from the fetters of our bondage, gave us the tremendous incentive of love to reach up to the ideal of right, and more, immensely more, gave us _power to reach it_.
It was the greatest wooing _in the out-reach_ of its influence, for all men of all the earth would be touched.[129] And it was greatest _in the in-reach_ to all the life of each one who came under its blessed influence. The whole ministry taught this. It would mean newness of life in body, in mind, in social nature, in spirit, and in the eternal quality of life lived here, and to be lived without any ending.
And all the world has responded to this greatest wooing as they have come to know of it. That three-languaged inscription on the cross was a world appeal and a world prophecy. In Hebrew the religious language of the world whose literature told of the one true G.o.d, in Latin the language of the masters of the world, in Greek the language of the culture of the world, that message went out to all the world. This Jesus is our Kinsman-King, our Brother-Ruler, our Love-Autocrat. He revealed His love for us in His death for us.
And men answer to Jesus" great plea. With flooded eyes and broken hearts, and bending wills, and changed lives, men of all the race bow gratefully at the feet of Jesus, our Saviour and Lord and coming King.
VI
An Appointed Tryst Unexpectedly Kept
_A Day of Startling Joyous Surprises_
"Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand outstretched caressingly?
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He whom thou seekest!
_Thou drawest love from thee, who drawest Me._""
--"_The Hound of Heaven._
"After I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee."--_Mark xiv. 28._
VI
An Appointed Tryst Unexpectedly Kept
(John xx.)
The Appointment.
Jesus had made an appointment. It was with these dear friends who had responded so lovingly to His wooing. It was a significant appointment, most significant. He had appointed to meet them three days after His death. He had made a further appointment to meet them in Galilee. What a stupendous appointment to make!
It was a sacred appointment, sacred as the love that made it, sacred to Jesus as the friendship of these men with whom it was made, sacred as His word that never was broken. Our Scottish friends use a most significant word for appointment, the word _tryst_. They used to use it some for ordinary appointments, but chiefly it is used for friendship and for love-appointments. The appointment is a tryst.
Tryst is the same word as _trust_. In the old Gothic language it was one of the words used for a covenant or treaty. In medieval Latin it was a pledge given that an agreement would be kept. It is a fine turn of a word that uses the very spirit of confidence in one"s heart in another as the name for the appointment made with him. The trust in the heart gives the name to the appointment. It"s an appointment with one who _can_ be trusted to keep his word, and who _is_ trusted.
So an appointed tryst becomes more than a mere appointment. It is a pledge of faith. Now this is the real force of the word here. Jesus had appointed a tryst with these men, and in making it He was plighting His troth, pledging His word to them. He had asked them to risk all for Him.
In this tryst He is pledging all to them.
He never forgot that sacred appointment. He had thought much before He made it. He knew it would involve much to keep it. The power of G.o.d was at stake in the making and the keeping of it. He knew that. He thought of it. He made the appointment and He kept it. Jesus keeps His appointments. His word never fails. Not even the gates of death, nor the power of the evil one, can prevail against it.
This was a staggering appointment. It took so much for granted. It reckons G.o.d"s power is as big as it is. But then that"s a way Jesus had, and has. And it is a way he will come to have who companions much with Jesus.
Jesus had spoken of this indirectly but distinctly when first He told His disciples of His suffering and death, six months before. And each time afterwards when He told them of His death the words were always added, "and the third day rise again."[130] I The two things are nearly always linked. But they hadn"t seemed to sense what He meant. The thing seems quite beyond them.
He spoke of it again on that never-to-be-forgotten night of the betrayal, the night of the feet-washing, and that last long talk, and that wondrous Kidron-prayer. He spoke of it more than once that night.
It was a very emphatic word He spoke as they were walking along the darkly shadowed Jerusalem streets out towards the east gate. He said, "a little while and ye shall behold Me no more; and again a little while and ye shall see Me."[131] And the disciples pick this up and puzzle over it.
And the Master explains rather carefully and at some length. There was a time of sore trouble coming for Him and for them. And while they were sorrowing the outer crowd would be making merry. But it would be just as with the expectant mother, He said. All the while even when the pains cut she is thinking of the great delight that is to be hers. Her after-joy clean wipes out of her thought the sharp cutting of the pain.