14. In the Footsteps of Jesus
Chapter 14
In the Footsteps of Jesus
In May 1921 Sundar set out for Tibet again via northern Kashmir. It was a particularly cold spring, and as he made his way over Rotang Pass, which led to the extreme northern region of Kashmir, heavy snow continued to fall. As a result Sundar found himself clambering along through snowdrifts that were sometimes waist deep. He was bone cold, and as he shivered his way along, he began to notice something he had never seen before on any of his previous trips across the Himalayas. The skin on his legs was beginning to turn a blackish blue color. And then it began to peel off painfully. But Sundar could do nothing about it. Given the extreme weather conditions, he knew that if he stopped even for an hour to rest and take care of his ailing legs, he might well die from exposure, so he kept on moving.
Finally Sundar made it safely to northern Kashmir. There, as he spoke in a number of small villages, his legs had time to heal from the ordeal of crossing Rotang Pass. As he went from village to village, Sundar slowly edged his way closer to the border with Tibet. At the border an enthusiastic young Tibetan Christian joined him, and together he and Sundar crossed into Tibet and began preaching among the villages. As on his previous trip to Tibet, Sundar found the people to be more open and receptive to him and the gospel. And the lamas no longer seemed intent on ordering his execution or meting out some cruel punishment.
Like on the previous trips, getting from village to village in Tibet still proved to be perilous for Sundar. Tibet was rugged, largely barren, and sparsely populated. As a result it was not uncommon for Sundar to travel one hundred miles or more between villages without seeing another dwelling or human being. Although these vast stretches of land were uninhabited by humans, there were plenty of wild animals to watch out for. The two most fearsome of these animals were wolves and wild yaks. Sundar had not had any trouble with either animal on his previous trips to Tibet, but things were about to change.
Sundar had decided to walk on ahead of his traveling companion so that he could be alone to pray and meditate along the way. He had just descended into a broad, barren valley when he heard a strange grunting noise in the distance. Sundar spun around to see what it was, and to his left along the valley he spotted a wild yak racing at full speed toward him. He quickly scanned the surrounding area for someplace to flee to for protection from the charging animal. A stout tree would be the best, but not a tree was in sight. The only place of safety Sundar could see was a large boulder about halfway across the valley. With no time to waste, he gathered up the hem of his robe in one hand and sprinted toward the boulder. As he ran, Sundar looked back over his shoulder and saw that the wild yak was gaining on him. He willed his legs to go faster and faster. At first the boulder did not seem to be getting any closer, but eventually, and with only moments to spare, Sundar reached it. He scrambled up onto the boulder, grazing his shin as he did so, and stood atop it.
Seeing that Sundar had somehow escaped to safety seemed to make the wild yak more angry. Breathing heavily, the beast pawed at the ground with its front hooves, then ran one way and the other around the rock. After half an hour of this, Sundar was beginning to wonder whether the yak would ever tire and let him alone. Another half hour passed, and the yak was still storming around the boulder, as angry as ever, as it waited for Sundar to come down.
Sundar was seriously beginning to consider his options when his traveling companion and a group of traders he had met along the route descended into the valley. When they saw the wild yak and Sundar on top of the boulder, they rushed forward, picking up rocks and hurling them at the yak. At first the rocks only seemed to anger the wild yak further, but the steady barrage slowly weakened the animal’s resolve. And when one of the rocks hit the creature above the eye and it began to bleed, the wild yak finally gave up the fight and turned and ran off. Relieved, Sundar climbed down from the boulder and thanked the men for rescuing him.
Just when they thought it was safe to travel on, another, more dangerous menace swept down into the valley and surrounded them. This time it was not a wild animal but thieves. Thieves and bandits were a constant threat when traveling in Tibet, but usually Sundar carried so little with him that they just let him alone. But this time he was standing amidst a group of traders who carried with them all manner of goods and items to gladden a thief’s heart.
The thieves surrounded Sundar, his traveling companion, and the traders and, after taking all their possessions, marched them off to a large cave located in the hills on the far side of the valley. Everyone was tense, and Sundar knew that chances were good they would all be killed when they got to the cave.
When they arrived at the cave, the robbers argued among themselves about what to do with their captives. As Sundar prayed for deliverance, a deep feeling that he should preach to the robbers overcame him. Despite the possibility that preaching about the Christian God could enrage the thieves, Sundar began to speak. “You think you have taken everything from us,” he said, “but I have something more to give to you.”
That certainly got their attention, and Sundar used their momentary interest to tell them about Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and death and the gift of salvation He now offered them as a result. The robbers listened intently to what Sundar said. When Sundar finished speaking, the leader of the bandits beckoned him to come deeper into the cave. Sundar eyed the long sword the man carried at his side and prayed that he was not about to be murdered.
The two men walked many yards deeper into the cave, until they came to a small room that had been carved from the rock. Inside Sundar saw a chilling sight. Many human skeletons lay piled on the sandy floor. The thief spoke in a desperate voice as he pointed at the skeletons. “All these men I have killed for their possessions. Will God forgive me?” he asked.
“Yes,” Sundar said. “He offers salvation freely to all sinners, even murderers.”
“Then that is what I want,” the thief replied. “All of this bloodshed has been a terrible burden for me to bear.”
Sundar prayed with the man, and then they walked back to the rest of the group. The headman commanded the other thieves to return all the property they had stolen from the group and asked forgiveness from them for stealing it in the first place. Then he built a fire and made a big pot of tea for them all to share.
It was a wonderful moment for Sundar and his Christian companion, but it was nearly ruined when one of the thieves offered Sundar a cup into which he was about to pour tea. Sundar fought the urge to recoil. He had never seen such a filthy cup. He knew there was no way he could bring himself to drink from it, and he politely asked, “Would you mind washing this cup before I drink from it?” He hoped his request would not insult his “hosts.”
The thief closest to him smiled. “I will do that for you,” he said.
The man took the cup and lifted it to his mouth. Then he stuck out his particularly long tongue and licked the inside of the cup clean. Then, with a satisfied look on his face, he poured tea into it and handed it back to Sundar.
Sundar sat in stunned silence. He knew that he could not now bring himself to drink the tea. Instead he tipped it out. The robbers seemed surprised and insulted by this turn of events, and as the tension in the cave rose, Sundar’s Tibetan traveling companion spoke up. “You must forgive him. It is the custom of Indians before a meal to rinse their hands and the vessels they will eat and drink from.”
The robbers began to laugh uproariously. Finally one of them spoke up. “What a foolish thing these Indians do. It is quite useless. If it is necessary to wash your dishes before a meal, you should also wash out the inside of your stomach every day.” With that the men went back to laughing.
An hour later Sundar, his traveling companion, and the merchants were back on their way again, everything intact.
Following his return from Tibet, Sundar spent the winter of 1921 on an evangelistic tour of the Punjab plain and the northern provinces. As he walked from village to village, Sundar found himself thinking about his visit to Europe and America. Although he had found the journey very stressful, he felt that he should go back to the West on another missionary visit. When he returned to Simla after his evangelistic tour, Sundar began making plans to visit Switzerland.
Just before he was about to leave for Switzerland, Sundar received a letter from a man named Sir William Willcocks. Sir William explained that he lived in Egypt and was the builder of the Assuan Dam on the Nile River. He had read about Sundar, and what he read encouraged him so much in his faith that he wanted Sundar to visit him. Sir William offered to help Sundar get a visa to enter Palestine and escort him through the land of the Bible.
Sundar was excited by the prospect. Since becoming a Christian, he had always harbored a secret hope of one day visiting the Holy Land. And now here was an invitation from a man who offered to help make his dream a reality.
On January 28, 1922, Sundar set out for Port Said, Egypt, by steamer across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea and finally through the Suez Canal. Sir William met Sundar at Port Said, and the two men rode by car into Palestine. Everything about Palestine enthralled Sundar. He had read and meditated hundreds of times upon every event recorded in the New Testament, and now he was able to see those places for himself. He spent hours praying at the Mount of Olives and in the Garden of Gethsemane. He passed through Jerusalem and went on to Bethany, Jericho, and the Dead Sea. He bathed in the Jordan River at the spot where, tradition said, John baptized Jesus, and he visited the workshop in Nazareth where Joseph supposedly practiced carpentry. Time after time as he made his way through Palestine, pausing to pray and meditate, Sundar told Sir William, “Christ is always with me wherever I go. He is walking with me at my right hand.”
While traveling in Egypt and Palestine, Sundar was asked to preach in the cathedral of Jerusalem and at a large Coptic church in Cairo. While in Egypt, he also visited a church that tradition said marked the place Jesus and his parents had fled to after their flight into Egypt.
When his tour of Egypt and Palestine was over, Sundar was grateful for the privilege of having had the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. He knew that no matter what happened to him, he would always treasure the experience.
On February 27, 1922, Sundar arrived in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the following day he began a strenuous speaking schedule. Since the Swiss people spoke one of three languages, French, German, and Italian, Sundar had to speak through an interpreter. When he had visited England, Ireland, Scotland, the United States, and Australia, he had preached in English, the language that those who came to hear him spoke and understood. But now he had to speak in English and wait while his words were translated into the local language of the group he was speaking to.
Sundar’s first speaking engagement was in a town called Bienne. Much to his amazement, over three thousand people arrived to hear him preach. A number of the people who could not fit into the overcrowded hall climbed trees so that they could catch a glimpse of Sundar when he left the building.
The meetings in Switzerland continued night after night in various towns and villages. In Tavannes, Switzerland’s clock-making capital, all the workers were dismissed at 3:00 pm so that they could hear Sundar speak that evening. In Neuchatel the newspaper estimated that ten thousand people came to hear Sundar speak.
While in Switzerland, Sundar received invitations to speak in Germany. He crossed the border and began a preaching tour of that country. Over the years Sundar had studied Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, and he was particularly glad to visit and see firsthand many of the historic sites associated with Luther. The day after a visit to Wittenberg, where Martin Luther had nailed to the church door his ninety-five theses that sparked the Reformation, Sundar wrote to a friend in a letter, “Yesterday I went to Wittenberg, the Cradle of the Reformation. I saw the house in which Martin Luther used to live, and the Church where he used to preach. On the door of the Church he wrote ninety-five articles about the Reformation, and he is buried in the same old Church. This evening I am speaking in the Church.”
Sundar also visited Halle, where professor August Franke had started his famous orphanage and where the Moravian mission leader Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf had attended school, as had George Müller, who had also started a famous orphanage in Bristol, England. From Halle, Sundar went to Leipzig, Hamburg, Berlin, and Kiel. Everywhere he went, immense crowds greeted him, eager to hear the simple message he had come to preach.
From Germany Sundar’s tour took him to Sweden, where he caused a sensation. In a letter Sundar wrote, “I am speaking in some of the beautiful villages of this country, and people come from seventy miles to the meetings.” In fact, special trains were scheduled to carry all the people who wanted to hear Sundar speak to the meetings. Many Swedes said they had never experienced anything quite like the sensation Sundar caused in their country.
Similar numbers of people gathered to hear Sundar preach in Norway before he traveled on to Denmark. While in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sundar was asked to visit the royal palace, where the dowager empress of Russia lived. The empress wanted an audience with Sundar, and when he inquired as to why, he learned that the dowager empress was the daughter of the king of Denmark and the mother of Czar Nicholas II, who had been murdered along with his wife and children four years before, in 1918. The dowager empress wanted to talk to Sundar about the loss she had experienced, and when the two of them had finished conversing, she asked Sundar to pray and bless her.
From Copenhagen, Sundar traveled on to Herning, Denmark, where fifteen thousand people waited to hear him speak. Total silence fell over the crowd as he delivered his message, and many of those in the audience had tears running down their cheeks by the time Sundar had finished preaching.
From Denmark it was on to Holland, where Sundar talked to university students in Utrecht, dignitaries at The Hague, and housewives in Rotterdam. Not surprisingly, Sundar was totally exhausted by the time he had finished his tour of Holland. He would have loved to return to India right then, but he had promised that he would travel to England and speak at a huge gathering of Christians at a place called Keswick, and he would not go back on his promise. As tired as he was, Sundar crossed the English Channel and prepared to face yet another crowd.