CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS
Tue fact of suffering had long engaged the thought of Old Testament writers.
Why should there be so much suffering in the world?
Why should good men suffer and wicked men flourish?
Such suffering was regarded either as a penalty for sin or as a means of discipline.
—The man who suffered had either committed some grievous sin and was being punished for it or he was being trained to walk along the path of goodness.
It was not merely the suffering of individual men which perplexed the Hebrew thinkers; it was also the suffering of the Jewish nation.
They had been constantly harassed, their lands invaded and their possessions taken away.
At one time they were in exile in Babylon far away from their native country and suffering untold miseries.
What was the purpose of all this suffering and persecution?
Why should it fall to the lot of the Jews to suffer thus?
Was there any meaning in such suffering?
The prophet "' Isaiah " who lived in exile in Babylon between 546 and 539 B.c. and who wrote chapters xl.—lv. of the book of Isaiah had a new revelation given to him.
He saw that the purpose of the suffering was redemptive.
Israel did not suffer as a penalty for its sins.
Israel did not suffer because God wanted to purify it through affliction.
But Israel suffered so\that it might save the world.
This great thought is set forth in several passages, which modern scholars have called " the poems of the Servant of the Lord.'* We quote here the most important passage.
"He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief : and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." *
1Tsaiah xlii. 1-4; xlix. 1-6; 1. 4-9; lii. 13; hhii. 12.
? Isaiah liii. 3-6.
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Isaiah's discovery of this new meaning of suffering was a momentous event in the history of mankind.
Never until then had such an understanding of the purpose of suffering been revealed to any seer.
Even those who had seriously meditated on the fact of suffering in the world had come to the conclusion that the suffering was meant by God either to be a punishment or a discipline.
Isaiah's illuminating discovery consisted in the fact that such suffering was now realized to be a means of salvation. He did not explain how exactly this salvation was achieved but he was sure that suffering was a means of salvation.
Though this idea was expressed in stirring words by Isaiah it did not immediately affect the thought of the Hebrews; the prophets who came after him did not take up this idea nor did they use it in their preaching and writing.
The Suffering of Fesus Five centuries after Isaiah, Jesus realized that He was the Suffering Servant of the Lord of whom Isaiah had spoken.
Jesus had studied carefully the book of Isaiah.* He quoted directly from the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and said:
"I say unto you, that this which is written must be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned with transgressors." *
Again, Jesus said that He came "to give his life a ransom for many."* This saying of Jesus reminds us of some of Isaiah's words.*
At the Last Supper Jesus said, '' The Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him." '
'This verse probably refers to the poems of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah; there is no other passage in the Old Testament to which they could possibly refer.
Isaiah had spoken of Israel as a Suffering Servant and had said that their suffering would prove to be the means of the salvation of the world.
Jesus identified Himself with the Suffering Servant.
He would suffer, the innocent for the guilty.
By His pain and suffering men would be redeemed; they would be brought close to God; they would realize His great love for them.®
The life of Jesus was one of great suffering. We may mention briefly the several ways in which Jesus suffered.
The renunciation of the family.
Jesus taught clearly and emphatically again and again that those who would truly follow
* Luke iv. 16 ff.; Matthew xi. 2 ff.
"Luke xxii. 37; Isaiah liii. 12.
° Mark x. 45.
* Isaiah lii. 3; lili. 11, 12.
"Mark xiv. 21.
* Fosdick, A Guide to Understanding the Bible, pp. 172-195.
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God should renounce their families and friends.
Jesus said:
"Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the Gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.' * He literally followed His own teaching.
He had a tender and loving heart and yet He placed the Kingdom of God above the ties of family.. The misunderstanding between Him and the members of His family was serious.
"And when his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself." 2°
We see here the extent of the misunderstanding even among His own relations and friends about His work.
To say that a man is beside himself is the hardest criticism which his people could make.
Even if they suspect that he has gone mad they would try to keep it a secret as long as possible.
If other people begin talking about it they would try and hush up the rumour.
Only when it is absolutely impossible do a man's friends and relations tell others that he is not quite well.
We note how deep the misunderstanding must have been when we sce that as Jesus was actively engaged in His ministry they went out openly to Him gad tried to stop His work.
His conduct seemed to them strange.
He no longer frequented His own house; He ceased to see His relations and friends.
He was surrounded-by new friends and disciples; He taught strange doctrines; He always worked for others without taking any care of Himself;
He wandered from place to place.
All these struck His people as marks of insanity.
He might have expected that at least His own intimate friends and relations would have understood Him.
This blow must have been terribly hard for Him to bear.
He really gave up His mother, His brothers and His friends for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
He was a true Sannyast.
The failure of His mission.
His work at Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum and other cities was a failure.
" Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Howbeit I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in ° Mark x. 29, 30.
© Mark iii. 21.
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the day of judgement, than for you." ** Here we see the sorrow of Jesus for the cities which had not profited by His preaching.
He was full of love for men and He longed that they should come close to God and live according to His will.
But the Kingdom of God meant nothing to them and work for God became irksome.
Jesus preached forcefully that men should repent.
He explained His thoughts with the help of parables which every one could understand and which no one could easily forget.
His sayings arrested immediate attention.
His own life was even more powerful than His preaching.
His devotion to God was complete; He worked for Him day and night; He did not think of His own comfort or convenience.
The cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Gapernaum had beheld His wonderful ministry.
They had heard His words; they had seen His life; they had come to know the spirit of devotion and selflessness in Him.
And yet they had not repented.
This was a source of great sorrow to Jesus.
That is why He condemned them so severely.
We can understand how it must have hurt Him to use such harsh language in condemnation of others.
His was a naturally loving disposition.
It was easier for Him to speak kindly and gently than critically and violently.
He believed in the virtues of patience, gentleness, kindness and mercy, and always practised them.
The conduct of the people who had seen His ministry and had not repented exhausted even
His patience and He could not but condemn them strongly.
The failure of His mission in these and other places must have given Him real suffering.
3. The bitterness and hatred of the religious authorities.
All that was connected with religion was dear to Him.
The temple and the law attracted Him greatly.
But He knew that the Pharisees and the Scribes were hypocritical.
They were careful about the letter of the law and not its spirit; they made long prayers and devoured widows' houses; they made a fuss about small things and neglected weighty matters.
All this distressed Jesus.
He did not like that religion should be made a cloak for wickedness.
It troubled Him that the leaders of religion who ought to have set an example to others were themselves so corrupt.
He condemned severely their hypocrisy, self-complacency, deceitfulness and fanaticism.
"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.
. Woe unto you, ™ Matthew xi. 20-22.
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scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgement, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
Ye blind guides, which strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel." *"
This is only a part of what He said against them.
There was a great deal more He spoke by way of condemning them.
'These words also must have pained Him deeply.
He could not have uttered them lightly.
He did not like using such violent language and yet such language seemed quite necessary.
Such bitter words of condemnation provoked the wrath of the Pharisees and scribes.
They could not bear Him.
They did not like the freedom with which He interpreted the Scriptures ; they did not like the familiar way in which He spoke of God; and certainly they did not like His popularity.
Men flocked to Him to hear Him and to witness His wonderful ministry.
They walked for miles to see Him and hear Him.
Even if He was in a desert place they went out in thousands in search of Him.
They listened so eagerly to His teaching that they did not notice the passage of time. They forgot that it was getting dark, that they were in a desert place, that they had to return home and that otherwise they would have to remain hungry and famished through the night.
Jesus had to think of these things for them.
His immense popularity aroused the opposition of the Pharisees and the scribes.
They thought that their religion was in danger and tried to make Him unpopular by trapping Him in His words.
But His popularity only increased.
They finally decided to kill Him.
The bitterness and hatred of the acknowledged religious leaders, with whom He would naturally like to have co-operated, must have certainly added to the suffering of Jesus.
Anticipations of the Cross.
Jesus knew where all this would lead Him.
Even early in His ministry He had said that there would come a time when He, the bridegroom, would be taken away and His disciples, the friends of the bridegroom,
2 Matthew xxiii. 13-17, 23,24.
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would mourn His loss.
And Jesus said unto them:
" Can the sons of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day." **
On three different occasions during His ministry He spoke clearly about the suffering and death which were ahead of Him.
He might have spoken on other occasions equally clearly, but there is no record of them.
First occasion:
'" And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."' **
Second occasion :
"For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered up into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he shall rise again." *° Third occasion:
" And they were in the way, going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was going before them: and they were amazed; and they that followed were afraid.
And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them the things that were to happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles: and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon him, and shall scourge him, and shall kill him; and after three days he shall rise again." **
Once He said:
"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." 77
At the Last Supper He repeatedly spoke about His betrayal.1® Thus Jesus spoke several times about His suffering and death.
We may gather from this how deeply rooted the idea of His suffering 'must have been in His own mind.
One does not speak so frequently about a matter unless it occupies a great deal of one's thought.
So through the years of His ministry the shadow of the Cross was on Him.
5. Hts anticipated suffering and death and the Transfiguration.
'The account of the Transfiguration given in all the three Synoptic Gospels describes a significant prayer.
Apparently * Mark ii. 19, 20."
4 Mark viii. 31.
* Mark ix. 31.
* Mark x. 32-34.
Matthew xx. 28.
* Matthew xxvi. 17-35; Luke xxii. 7-38; Mark xiv. 12-26.
* Luke ix. 28-36; cf. Matthew xvii. 1-8; Mark ix. 2-8.
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'the thought of His coming death was seldom out of His mind.
The purpose of the suffering before Him also constantly engaged His mind.
In an hour of intense prayer He had an ecstatic experience.
His figure was bathed in glory and His face shone with light.
The spirits of the two great prophets of old, Moses and Elijah, appeared to Him and He communed with them about His coming death.
All this shows the extraordinary depth and intensity of His anticipation of His death. He knew that He was the Suffering Servant, that His suffering, severe and prolonged as it was, would only end in death and that His death was for the salvation of men.
_ We should note here that the suffering of Jesus was accompanied by real joy. He was prepared to do whatever the Father required of Him.
The thought of His suffering and death created in Him a genuine joy which showed itself in the light which shone on His face.
On this point we have to say more later in this chapter.
In the accounts of the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, we have an hour of great agony described."
The cruel death which He had anticipated all along was now near.
He knew that He was the Suffering Servant.
He knew that His suffering would be the means of the world's salvation.
And yet as the death drew near He was afraid and His soul was deeply troubled.
He prayed to God earnestly that if it were possible He might be spared this crisis.
"And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt." ** He submitted Himself entirely to the Father's will; He was prepared to make any sacrifice which the Father wanted of Him.
This readiness which He had throughout His life showed itself in a wonderful manner during the crisis.
His life was not His own but the Father's.
There was no suffering He was not prepared to undergo if God demanded it of Him; there was no manner of death He would not accept if it was God's will for Him; there were no insults
He would not endure, no pains He would not bear if it was part of God's plan for Him.
The earnestness of His prayer was seen on His tense face.
The prayer was repeated three times.
Sweat fell down from Him like drops of blood, showing His intense spiritual struggle. nt zs 6.
The denial of Peter and the desertion by His disciples.
In the beginning of His ministry Jesus called together a few © Mark xiv. 32-42; cf. Matthew xxvi. 36-46; Luke xxii. 40-46.
* Mark xiv. 36.
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disciples.
He fixed His hopes on them and fully expected that they would understand Him and carry on His work.
He chose them with great care after earnest prayer, and He spent much time in traihing them.
They lived with Him; they listened to His preaching; they saw His life. They were impressed with its unequalled devotion, selflessness and power, and yet they never seemed to enter fully into the purpose of His work.
They thought that His mission was primarily a political one, with the object of freeing the Jewish people from the tyranny and oppression of Roman rule.
They aspired after places of importance in the new worldly kingdom which they expected Him to bring in.
Even if He taught spiritual things they understood them in a material way.
All the personal contact with His rare character seemed to make little difference to them.
When their Master was arrested they were seen at their worst.
They deserted Him during the critical hour. And Peter, who had a ripe spiritual knowledge and who had said that he would even die for the Master, denied any knowledge of Him."
This disloyalty of the disciples at the critical time must have burnt itself into the soul of Jesus.
The bulk of people, He knew, were untrustworthy.
Religion did not mean very much to them.
A good many of them probably flocked to Him only from curiosity.
In any case they never came into close contact with Him; they did not move long with Him; they only saw a glimpse of Him now and then.
If they were fickle and failed Him, it was not a matter for great surprise.
Not so the disciples.
They had had unusual opportunities for knowing Him.
They had moved with Him closely and intimately and for a long time.
He had laid bare His soul to them.
He had patiently explained everything to them.
He had tried to awaken in them a vision of the Kingdom of God. He had tried to infect them with His own enthusiasm for social work.
He had put before them the lofty purpose of His mission in the world.
And yet, after all this long and careful training, they failed to support Him during the hour of His crisis.
The unusual opportunities they had enjoyed for coming into close contact with Him had meant nothing to them. They were as unreliable as the common people who had gathered in their thousands to see Him, often from mere curiosity.
7. The shame of the Cross.
The form of death penalty which was chosen for Jesus was that of Crucifixion.
This punishment was given to the worst offenders and criminals.
Jesus was Mark xiv. 66-72.
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the noblest among men.
He had lived a life of complete selfdenial.
He had been fully devoted to God; work for the Kingdom of God had been His passion and into this toil He had thrown Himself heart and soul.
He had sought to bring men into intimate communion with God.
He had gone about doing good, helping the sick and the suffering, asking the poor to cast their cares on God, teaching the rich to return their ill-gotten gains and pleading for real religion and true love among men.
The end of such a life of selfless service and devotion was the death on the Cross.
No more disgraceful punishment could have been chosen.
In suffering this penalty He had the company of those who had violently rebelled against Roman rule and who had shed innocent blood.
The disgrace of this awful form of death which was inflicted on Him as if He were a low-minded, ignoble, mean rebel or murderer must have added considerably to the suffering of Jesus.
Had He hoped till the last that even 'if He was going to die it would be by a different manner of death than this?
We do not know.
But this we can say that when it was finally decided that He should be crucified, His heart must have sunk in despair.
The Loss of the Presence of God.
"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 7° The sense of the Presence of God was the deepest need in the life of Jesus.
'' Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." ** " Yea and if I judge, my judgement is true; for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me."
** And he that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to him." "*
He always lived in the company of His Father; He worked as the Father wanted Him to work.
The Father's joys were His joys.
He identified Himself with the Father's love for mankind and He sorrowed over the sins of the world as the Father also did.
And now at this awful hour as He hung on the Cross He felt the sense of the Presence of God leaving Him.
We do not understand this mystery.
God never forsakes His children.
He never leaves those who seek Him without making His Presence felt to them. He would never have left Jesus, particularly during Mark xv. 34.
* John xvi. 32.
* John viii. 16, 29.
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that hour of His direst need.
But so it was that Jesus felt that the reality of God's Presence was no longer there to comfort and support Him.
; The words " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? " are the beginning of the twenty-second Psalm.
The twenty-second Psalm describes the feelings of a saint as he experiences a sense of separation from God.
'" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
All they that see me laugh me to scorn:
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, Commit thyself unto the Lord; let him deliver him:
Let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him." ** Jesus must have been familiar with this Psalm from His childhood.
It now flashed through His mind as He hung upon the Cross.
Added to all the suffering through which He was passing there was a new spiritual pain, deep, intense and real, that His Father had forsaken Him. g.
The physical agony.
'Then there was the unbearable physical agony.
He was scourged until blood flowed from His veins.
A crown of thorns was pressed on His head.
He was spat upon and slapped by the soldiers.
While weak and exhausted from these punishments He had to carry a heavy Cross until He stumbled and fell down under its crushing weight and another man had to be found to carry it.
Nails were driven into His hands and feet to fix Him on the Cross, on which He hung in great pain. His tongue was dry with thirst.
This story — of the unrelieved physical pain and suffering of Jesus on the Cross has never lost its appeal to the Christian Church.
The saints have again and again meditated with deep sorrow on the details of this agony.
Archbishop F. Temple, who was not easily moved by emotion, could never speak about the love of God without tears and his Good Friday sermons were always stirring."
Not merely the saints but all those who follow Christ and to whom their faith means anything have been moved by this sight of the purest and noblest among men passing through such indescribable pain and suffering. aa St. John's Account We have so far drawn all our information about the passion and death of Jesus from the Synoptic Gospels. We now go on to set down what St. John's Gospel says on this subject.
When reading St. John's Gospel we must remember that it was written * Psalm xxii. 1, 7, 8.
* William Temple, Readings in St. Fohn's Gospel, First Series, p. 15.
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long after the lifetime of Jesus and that it is likely to contain some of the later beliefs and ideas of Christians.
In the course of their experience Christians had come to understand Jesus better.
Their knowledge of Him had deepened; their faith in Him had become stronger; their understanding of His work had become clearer.
This advance in Christian knowledge and faith is often found in the Fourth Gospel.
Here also we see something of the intense struggle which took place in the Garden of Gethsemane.
'Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour." ** Here also we see Him deliberately laying down His life.
'' Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from my Father." *
Here also we see that from His death new life will come forth.
"And Jesus answereth them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." * Here also He says that His death on the Cross will be the means of the world's redemption.
"' And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must. the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life." ** They will have fellowship with God, who will become real to them.
His life will flow into their souls; His power will support them and His love will encompass them.
They will live in God and God will live in them.
There will be the closest and the most intimate connexion between them and God.
Sin will no longer separate the children from their Father.
A reconciliation will take place and the children will return to the bosom of the Father.
Instead of living away from Him, busy with their own follies and sins, they will live close to Him.
His wisdom will illumine them and His Presence will be clear to them.
All this will come about through the death of Jesus.
In the Gospel of St. John the passion and death of Jesus are *% John xii. 27.
" John x. 17, 18.
_» John xii. 23-25.
*% John iii. 14, 15.
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spoken of as the manifestation of His glory.
" But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive : for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified." ** '' These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him." ** " And Jesus answereth them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." *
'"' When therefore he was gone out, Jesus saith, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him; and God shall glorify him in himself, and straightway shall he glorify him." **°
"These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee:
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one." *
Here we have a new glimpse of the meaning of the suffering of Jesus.
The word "glory" was often used of God by the ancient Jewish prophets and thinkers.
" And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel." ** "' And ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have
_ seen this day that God doth speak with man, and he liveth." ® "And the glory of the Lord mounted up from the cherub, and: stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory." * These ancient prophets saw God as light and splendour; He was radiant with beauty and He appeared before them with the brightness of the sun.
They came to think of Him as the God of glory.
In the Fourth Gospel the passion and death of Jesus are ® John vii. 39.
* John xii. 16.
"John xii. 23.
* John xiii. 31, 32.
* John xvii. 1,5, 22.
*" Exodus xxiv. 16, 17.
Deuteronomy v. 24.
" Ezekiel x. 4.
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: regarded as occasions for the revelation of His glory.
As Archbishop William Temple says : " It is from the Cross that the light of God's love shines forth upon the world in its fullest splendour ; that therefore is in a supreme degree the 'effulgence of his glory' (Hebrews i. 3). Even if the Cross had had no results, it would still be His glory; for His death is the sealing of His victory.
That His body should die was no defeat; defeat for Him must have taken the form of cursing His enemies or sinking into self-concern.
But through all the anguish love was serenely unshaken.
To die thus was, in and for His own person, 'to conquer hate.
But it was more than that, it was the means of winning that great multitude of whom the first-fruits were now ready to be gathered in.
From the Cross He puts forth His might— 'The Man of Sorrows!
And the Cross of Christ Is more to us than all His miracles.' " *° When St. John describes the meaning of the death of Jesus as the revelation of His glory we note in his words a spirit of joy, confidence and dignity.
The death of Jesus is radiant with hope for mankind.
A feeling of exaltation is aroused in us as we contemplate the death of Jesus and all that has and will come out of it. We are no longer weak, mean, sordid creatures, close to the dust of the earth. The possibilities in us are immense.
We are redeemed into a new life and are lifted to higher levels of feeling and achievement.
We begin to experience that union with God which is our birthright, and which we have lost through our sin. The things of the world have taken us away from God but the death of Jesus brings us back to Him.
Our spiritual status increases.
We are immortal beings and are destined for undying fellowship with the Eternal Spirit.
We do not live our brief lives and die, to be forgotten for ever.
Our bodies may perish but our spirits live in unending communion with the Supreme Spirit.
This is possible through the death of Jesus, which is the manifestation of His glory and ours.
With Him we are glorified, for we are moved to higher spheres.
In Him we live a new life and through Him we do great things and He is glorified thereby.
In St. John's Gospel we also see the joy of Jesus.
" These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be fulfilled." ** " But now I come to thee; * William Temple, Readings in, St. Fohn's Gospel, First Series, p. 195.
" John xv. 11.
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and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves." *?
Jesus uttered these words on the eve of the Crucifixion and shed a new light on His inner life.
We have seen in this chapter how deeply and intensely Jesus suffered.
When thinking of His suffering we must not forget His joy or our account of Him will be incomplete.
One who believes in God truly has real joy. God is joy and it flows into His soul.
He is not moved hither and thither like other men.
Changing'circumstances of the world do not affect him. Whatever it be, success or failure, victory or defeat, health or sickness, he knows that God is with him. The infinite resources of God are available to him.
The unlimited power of God is his.
In moments of doubt and difficulty he can draw upon the clear knowledge and wisdom of God.
When troubled the peace of God sustains him.
The love of friends and relations may change, but the love of God never changes.
So a Bhakta is always filled with joy.
Jesus was always filled with joy.
He_ was established firmly in God.
The power and love and knowledge ot God were always available to Him, and so His joy was never disturbed.
From a passage in St. John's Gospel we understand further the nature of the joy of Jesus.
'' Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him, and he said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world.
And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you." **
In these verses Jesus describes the joy of His disciples, but we may say that this account of the disciples' joy gives us some idea of the Master's joy as well.
The pang and travail of a woman during childbirth is followed by the joy that a boy has been born.
This is a universal experience.
Suffering yields place to joy.
The suffering of Jesus is likewise followed by joy, for a new life is born for the world at the foot of the Cross.
We are redeemed from the terrible burden of our sin and guilt.
A new power © John xvii. 13.
* John xvi. 19-22.
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becomes ours, the power to love God fully, the power to live constantly in His wonderful Presence and the power to bring others within the reach of that Presence.
We see a clear vision of God's love.
Great is the joy of Jesus at these spiritual triumphs of men.
For their sake He is willing to suffer to the utmost.
That is why the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus as "the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame." ** Some of the Christian saints sought to follow Jesus literally in this respect.
Along with their suffering there was real joy.
St. Francis of Assisi gave up all for Christ and lived in constant recollection of His passion.
Francis saw and felt the print of the wounds of Christ on his own body. And yet what a joyful soul his was!
He was always radiant in his faith.
His life was a continuous song.
Here in India we have the example of Sadhu Sundar Singh who knew the joy of the Cross.
The more he suffered the deeper became his joy.
At Rasar he was thrown into a well which was full of dead bodies, as a penalty for having preached the Gospel in forbidden territory.
There his joy was immense.
"The physical suffering was great, but in spirit I was happy.
I began to pray to God, and His joy flowed into my heart to such an extent that I forgot the gruesome place I was in.
A wonderful peace filled my heart, so lovely that I cannot describe it."
"' Never have I experienced greater blessedness in the peace of Jesus, received through prayer, than during those very days.
Christ's peace turned that deep well into the Gate of Heaven."
'" How was it possible to have the peace of God in the pitch-dark night, in the midst of corpses and dead men's bones?
Joy like this, peace like this, comes from nothing in this world.
God alone can give it. While I was sitting there in the well I reflected that I never felt this kind of happiness while I lived in the house of my parents in comfort and luxury.
_ Whence, then, came this overflowing joy in that terrible den?
I saw then, more clearly than ever, that Jesus is alive, and that it was He who was filling my heart with peace and joy." *
Hindu Teaching about the Value of Suffering In modern India there is a clear recognition of the value of suffering as the most effective means of winning men.
Mahatma Gandhi has coined the word Satyagrahi to describe any one who " Hebrews xii. 2.
Friedrich Heiler, The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh, pp. 114, 115.
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seeks to establish a noble cause by his personal suffering.
Satyagrahi literally means one who uses the force of truth, that is, soul-force.
This is how Mahatma Gandhi describes the work of a Satyagrahi.
"In a reform the Satyagrahi seeks to convert his opponent by sheer force of character and suffering.
The purer he is and the more he suffers, the quicker the progress.
He must therefore resign himself to being excommunicated, debarred from thé family privileges and deprived of his share in the family property.
He must not only bear such hardships cheerfully, but he must actively love his persecutors.
The latter honestly believe that the reformer is doing something sinful and therefore resort to the only means they know to be effective to wean him from his supposed error.
The Satyagrahi, on the other hand, does not seek to carry out his reform by a system of punishments, but by penance, self-purification and suffering. - Any resentment of the persecution, therefore, would be an interruption of the course of discipline he has imposed upon himself.
It may be a prolonged course, it may even seem to be never ending." *° '""Man's abiding happiness," says Rabindranath Tagore, "is not in getting anything but in giving himself up to what is greater than himself, to ideas which are larger than his individual life, the idea of his country, of humanity, of God.
They make it easier for him to part with all that he has, not excepting his life.
His existence is miserable and sordid, till he finds some great idea which can truly claim his all, which can release him from all attachment to his belongings.
Buddha and Jesus, and all our great prophets, represent such great ideas.
They hold before us opportunities for surrendering our all.
When they bring forth their divine alms-bowl we feel we cannot help giving, and we find that in giving is our truest joy and liberation, for it is uniting ourselves to that extent with the infinite." 47
Radhakrishnan says:
"The Cross is not an offence or stumbling-block to' the Hindu, but is the great symbol of the redemptive reality of God.
It shows how love is rooted in selfsacrifice.
The story of Hinduism has many instances of Rishis and Buddhas, who have .
. suffered more than they deserved for the sake of the world.
This avoidable suffering is not the result of past sins." ** Speaking of India, T. L. Vaswani says:
'" Centuries ago she "D. S. Sarma, The Gandhi Sitras, p. 43.
*, Quoted in G. K. Chettur's Altars of Silence, p. 93.
Quoted in E. W. Thompson, The Word of the Cross to Hindus, p. 191.
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abandoned the pursuit of knowledge, truth for creeds and ceremonies.
She confounded religion with externalism and caste.
She disregarded the human claims of the poor.
She forgot that knowledge was fellowship with life.
She lost touch with the Atman.
For of the Atman it hath been written, 'He hath established Himself eternally in sacrifice.'
And in another passage the Lord hath declared:
'Sacrifice am I.'
India's hope is in the day when her educated sons and daughters will realize that knowledge is Fellowship with the God of the Poor and will return to the ancient worship of Yajna Purusha—the Spirit of Sacrifice." *° It is clear from these utterances of the leading modern thinkers of India that the value of suffering and sacrifice is fully recognized.
Is this a new thought in India or is it an ancient Indian ideal?
They are agreed in saying that Jesus helped men supremely by His suffering and death, but they are also inclined to think that this method is not new to India.
Buddha is mentioned as one who suffered and won men by virtue of his suffering.
Buddhism is a vast religion with great ideals and traditions and it is impossible in this book, which confines itself to the Hindu background, to consider how far or in what sense
Buddha helped men by his suffering.
Radhakrishnan speaks of the Rishis who have followed this method to establish truth and righteousness but he does not give the names of any of them.
Mahatma Gandhi often writes about the ideal of the S at yagrahi and he mentions the names of Harischandra, Prahladha, Nandanar and Mira Bai as its supreme examples in India."
Harischandra was the king of Ayodhya and promised to give the sage Visvamitra a hundred thousand pieces of gold for performing a costly sacrifice.
Visvamitra, being a wicked Reshz, put forth all his supernatural powers to make Harischandra break his word.
By a ruse Visvamitra obtained from Harischandra his entire kingdom. Asa king Harischandra would have had no difficulty in fulfilling his promise, but now he was a poor man and had no money to draw from.
But Visvamitra taunted him constantly to give him the promised sum of money or if that was impossible to say that he had never made the promise.
Rather than break his word Harischandra sold his wife and son as slaves and himself became a slave and raised the needed money.
He was placed in charge of the burning ground of Benares and had " Quoted in G. K. Chettur's Altars of Silence, p. 26.
"1D. S. Sarma, The Gandhi Sutras, p. 115.
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to execute persons who had received the sentence of death.
For every dead body that was burnt Harischandra collected some cloth and money and gave them to his master; he also received a handful of rice which he kept for himself and cooked in the burning ground as his food.
Further misfortunes happened to his family.
His son was bitten by a cobra and the mother brought him to the burning ground for his cremation.
At that time the prince of Benares was murdered and the officers of the city arrested her as the murderer, for her child looked very much like the murdered prince.
As the executioner, Harischandra was ordered to cut off the head of his wife, when the gods intervened and saved her. Thus for the sake of the truth Harischandra suffered terribly and the story of his sufferings is constantly remembered in India with all its harrowing details.
Prahladha was the son of Hiranyakasipu who was the king of the demons.
As a child Prahladha showed great devotion to Vishnu.
He talked of nothing but Vishnu and spent much of his time in teaching the boys around to worship him.
Hiranyakasipu, being a proud king, declared that nowhere in the world was there any god but himself and that every one must worship him alone.
He was very angry when he found that his own son Prahladha was devoted to the worship of Vishnu. He ordered his son to give up the worship and when he refused to do so he had him persecuted.
He was put on a stone slab, huge blocks were piled up on top of him and the entire mass was thrown; out into the ocean.
But Prahladha miraculously escaped destruction and when the king asked him " Who brought you out of the sea," the child said, " Vishnu."
'' Where is Vishnu ? " thundered Hiranyakasipu.
Prahladha said, " He is everywhere."
'Is he in this pillar?" said Hiranyakasipu pointing to a pillar and challenged Vishnu to make himself visible.
The story goes on to relate that from the pillar an incarnation of Vishnu, who was half like a man and half like a lion, came forth and tore
Hiranyakasipu to pieces.
Nandanar was a Pariah saint who lived about six hundred years ago.
Even as a child his recreation was to make images of clay and to worship them.
Gradually his piety grew and he was often found absorbed in ecstasy.
The people of his village mistook him for a mad man, put him in fetters and persecuted him in various ways.
A passionate desire to visit the famous shrine of Chidambaram awoke in him.
When he approached his Brahman master and asked for leave to visit Chidambaram his master rebuked him:
" What have you, a Pariah, to do with
THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS
worship at Chidambaram?
You must only attend to your duties on the farm."
Nandanar, however, could not give up his wish to go on a pilgrimage to Chidambaram.
He repeated again his request later when the master relented and let him go.
He visited Chidambaram and after being made by the Brahmans to pass through an ordeal of fire worshipped there to his heart's content.
Mahatma Gandhi says:
"I always cling to every true example of Satyagraha that comes under my notice, as a child clings to its mother's breast, and so when I heard and read the story of Nandanar and his lofty Satyagraha and his great success, my head bowed before his spirit and all the day long I have felt elevated to be able to be in a place hallowed by the holy feet of Nanda.
. Nanda broke down every barrier and won his way to freedom not by brag, not by bluster, but by the purest of self-suffering.
He did not swear against his persecutors, he would not even condescend to ask his persecutors for what was his due.
But he shamed them into doing justice by his lofty prayer, by the purity of his character, and, if one may put it in human language, he compelled God Himself to descend and made Him open the eyes of the persecutors." **
Mira Bai was a princess in Rajaputana and was married to the heir apparent of Mewar.
He died and she was left a widow.
She was a worshipper of Krishna from childhood and constantly offended her husband's family by refusing to worship as they did and by her generous gifts to wandering Sadhus.
She was persecuted so much at home that she fled from it and became a disciple of Raidas, a religious teacher who had come from the ranks of the leather workers.
This event probably took place about 1470.
Her songs of devotion are well known in India.
Two points strike us about these Satyagrahis.
It is quite likely that there were certain persons of these names who suffered a great deal for the cause which they held dear.
The piety of later generations has added several miracles to their stories.
We do not know whether these miracles took place. So it is difficult _ to decide what exactly these Satyagrahis did.
But one thing is clear that when the miracles are cut out, the suffering which these persons underwent is not as deep or as great as the suffering of Jesus.
In the account of the passion of Jesus, there is no miracle about which we need have any doubt.
We have clear historical evidence by contemporary writers that Jesus was crucified.
"1D, S. Sarma, The Gandhi Sitras, pp. 115, 116.
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Not only was the suffering of Jesus far deeper than the suffering of the Indian heroes mentioned here but the purpose of His suffering was different.
Harischandra, for instance, suffered that he might keep his word at all costs.
His devotion to Truth was great.
All through the ages men in India have listened to the story of Harischandra and have been inspired by it to hold to the Truth at any price.
But Harischandra himself was not primarily thinking of others; he was thinking of himself.
He wanted to fulfil his promise, whatever suffering it — might involve.
Nandanar longed to see a vision of God and was prepared to suffer for that purpose.
Prahladha was eager to have the freedom to worship his God and was ready to suffer to the utmost in order to obtain it. Mira Bai likewise wanted unfettered opportunities for her devotion to God and was prepared to pay an enormous price for getting them.
Prahladha, Nandanar and Mira Bai were great Bhaktas.
Religion was a tremendous reality to them.
The worship of God as they understood Him was an imperative necessity in their lives.
For this they were prepared to make whatever sacrifice was involved.
To that extent they are worthy of our respect.
Their example has been telling. Multitudes of men and women in India through the centuries have got a new vision of God through them.
They have been led to follow Him with a deeper devotion because of their lives.
But primarily they did not suffer for the sake of others.
They were thinking of themselves first and foremost.
It was with a view to get the freedom for themselves, to worship God as they thought they should, that they suffered so much.
Jesus, on the other hand, was not thinking of Himself at all.
He was all along thinking of others.
He laid down His life in order that others may have life.
His suffering was in order that men may be saved from their sins and brought back into fellowship with God.
"For verily the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." * This is a most significant difference.
The Resurrection of Jesus The death of Jesus on the Cross appeared to His disciples to be the end of all their hopes and dreams.
They had fervently expected that Jésus would be the promised Messiah and that in Him the noblest dreams of the prophets and seers of the Jewish race would be realized.
The growing unpopularity of Jesus Mark x. 45.
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and His own mysterious references to the spiritual character of His mission had begun to perplex the disciples more and more.
The enthusiasm with which they had joined His band of followers received many rude shocks.
Then finally came the painful and ignominious death on the Cross.
The disciples experienced a sense of utter frustration and were wholly in despair.
But in a few days an absolutely new courage entered their hearts.
Their hopes took on a fresh lease of life and they began proclaiming Christ as the promised Messiah.
Thousands of followers accepted their message and the Christian Church grew rapidly.
The important question which every one who has studied the beginnings of the Christian Church has asked is this: How did the disciples, whose hopes and dreams were extinguished by the death of Jesus on the Cross, suddenly prove to be powerful
Apostles of the Gospel spreading conviction everywhere and winning multitudes of followers?
The answer to this question is given in the Gospels.
Jesus rose again from the dead.
He appeared to the disciples and convinced them effectively that He was alive.
They had no longer any doubt about the real nature of Christ.
Their highest hopes about Him revived.
They now knew beyond all doubt that He was indeed the long-expected Messiah and began preaching this message far and wide and received the willing response of their hearers in their thousands.
Swami Abhedananda writes thus about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:
"The Hindu belief is that the soul is immortal and indestructible; and by death they mean only a change of body.
The whole of Hindu philosophy and religion is based upon the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; but many of _the missionaries affirm that the Hindus do not believe in immortality.
On the contrary this doctrine is so well known and so largely accepted by the Hindus that it is unnecessary for any one to go to India and to prove it by traditional resurrection of a single person.
The Hindus have better arguments than that." °° As the Swami says, the immortality of the soul is clearly and emphatically taught in the religious literature of India from the cafliest times; = In the Brihad-Aryanyaka-U panishad occurs a story of Janaka asking Yajnavalkya, " Yajnavalkya, what light does a person here have?"
"He has the light of the sun, O king," he said, "for with the sun, indeed, as his light one sits, moves around,
°° Swami Abhedananda, Jesus Christ, p. 9.
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does his work, and returns."
" Quite so, Yajnavalkya.
But when the sun has set, Yajnavalkya, what light does a person here have?"
'' The moon, indeed, is his light,' said he, " for with the moon, indeed, as his light one sits, moves around, does his work, and returns."
"Quite so, Yajnavalkya.
But when the sun has set, and the moon has set, what light does a person here have?"
" Fire, indeed, is his light," said he, '' for with fire, indeed, as his light one sits, moves around, does his work, and returns."
"' Quite so, Yajnavalkya.
But when the sun has set, Yajnavalkya, and the moon has set, and the fire has gone out, what light does a person here have?"
"Speech, indeed, is his light," said he, "for with speech, indeed, as his light one sits, moves around, does his work, and returns.
Therefore, verily, O King, where one does not discern even his own hands, when a voice is raised, then one goes straight towards it."
'' Quite so, Yajnavalkya.
But when the sun has set, Yajnavalkya, and the moon has set, and the fire has gone out, and speech is hushed, what light does a person here have?"
"The soul (Atman), indeed, is his light," said he, "for with the soul, indeed, as his light one sits, moves around, does his work, and returns."
The Bhagavad Gita, written about the beginning of the Christian era, says:
" Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never ; Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!
Birthless and deathless and changeless the spirit remaineth for ever ; Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it
Secis... > This belief in the immortality of the soul is found also in the other sacred books of the Hindus.
Any belief of this nature must be tested in various ways.
The first and most important test no doubt is regarding its intrinsic value.
Does it strike the mind as being profoundly and genuinely true?
Then it will be accepted and made a part of the working creed of mankind.
Apart from the intrinsic value of the belief, there are other questions which need to be answered.
Who are the men who first gave expression to such a belief?
Is their character such * Brihad-Aryanyaka-Upanishad, iv. iii, 2-6. T lated The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Pp. 133.
DORIS pes Bhagavad Gita, ii. 20, translated by Sir Edwin Arnold, The Son Celestial, p. 9.
; :
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that we can accept as really valuable the conclusions to which they arrive?
Does this belief fit in-with the other beliefs of mankind?
Can it be said that there has been any concrete instance or instances in which this belief has been actually illustrated in practical life?
It will be seen that we are constantly testing the various beliefs which come before us in all these ways.
There are such diverse beliefs floating about and claiming the allegiance of men.
Some of them are valuable and others are worthless.
It is only by careful sifting and testing that a consistent body of beliefs can be gathered together.
With regard to the belief in the immortality of the soul, the question of any practical proof furnished by the resurrection of a person or persons is a very important one.
It cannot be said, as the Swami suggests, that the belief is so absolutely certain in India that no demonstration of it is necessary.
While the belief is generally accepted as true, thoughtful Hindus are always inquiring about its grounds. Any clear proof of the belief is, therefore, welcome.
It is the Christian doctrine that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ has furnished such a demonstration.
It has given us clear and indubitable evidence for the immortality of the soul.
In 1 Corinthians chapter xv. St. Paul builds his great argument on this fact.
He says, " But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order:
Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ's, at his coming." *° All through the ages, following St. Paul, the Christian Church has accepted the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the most convincing proof for the immortality of the soul.
The primary purpose of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is, however, not to establish the immortality of the human soul but to show His Messiahship and Divinity.
The death on the Cross by itself would have closed the career of a remarkable spiritual personality with merely a tragic end.
To the Jew, especially, the death on the Cross was very much more than a shameful and disgraceful form of punishment.
It was the visitation of God's wrath on the person crucified.
The Jew of Jesus's day would have no hesitation in believing that for some mysterious reason the anger of God had been visited upon Jesus.
Only some stupendous event like the Resurrection could have convinced the Jew that far from being a sinner especially worthy of 5: Corinthians xv. 20-23.
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God's anger, Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah. | The Resurrection of Jesus achieved this wonderful change in the outlook of the disciples.
St. Peter teaches that by His Resurrection Jesus has been shown to be the saviour of men.
" Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in him doth this man stand here before you whole.
He is the stone which was set at nought of you the builders, which was made the head of the corner.
And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." **
St. Paul believes that Jesus is declared to be the Son of God in virtue of His Resurrection from the dead.
'' Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which he promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord." °°
Some modern students of the Gospels, finding it difficult to believe in the Resurrection, have said that from certain words of His the disciples expected Jesus to rise and that this expectation really became an actual belief that He had risen.
In other words, the disciples believed that He had risen because they expected Him to rise.
It is impossible to explain the marvellous growth of the Christian Church with this theory.
The power and effectiveness with which the Apostles preach the Gospel is entirely different from the sense of despair and frustration which had characterized them immediately after the crucifixion of Jesus.
Nothing but the actual Resurrection and the undoubted appearances of Jesus to His disciples would have given them the new courage and conviction they had. The appearances of Jesus to the disciples were fully demonstrative of His being alive.
The Resurrection of Jesus gives a completely new perspective to the life and death of Jesus.
In the light of the Resurrection we must believe that Jesus was no mere man but the Avatar of God who had come down to the world to redeem us from our sins and to take us into fellowship with God.
™ Acts iv. 10-12.
*® Romans i. 1-4.