Part 12 (2/2)

”Then went out that other disciple which was known unto the high priest and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter.” That doorkeeper was not Rhoda--she who with a different spirit joyfully answered Peter's knocking at another door--but was a pert maiden who, sympathizing with the enemies of Jesus, ”saith unto Peter, Art thou also one of this man's disciples?” She understood that John was such. Her contempt was aimed at them both. But it was not her question so much as Peter's answer--”I am not”--that startled John. Was it for this denial that he had gained admission for his friend? It would have been better far if Peter had been kept ”standing at the door without” though ”it was cold,” than to be brought into the court of temptation and sin, where he ”sat with the servants” in his curiosity ”to see the end,” warming himself at the fire they had kindled.

Meanwhile we think of John hastening back to the judgment hall, from which he anxiously watched the movements of Peter ”walking in the counsel of the unG.o.dly, and standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of the scornful.”

Poor Peter! He fears to look into any man's face, or to have any one look into his. He has obeyed the Master's bidding, ”Put up thy sword into the sheath,” but Malchus has not forgotten it; nor has his kinsman who saw Peter in the garden with Jesus,--though he may have forgotten the healing of Malchus' ear by his prisoner.

Three Evangelists tell how Peter ”sat” with the enemies of Jesus. John tells how at different times he ”stood” among them. Thus does he report as an eye-witness, and show his own watchfulness of Peter's restlessness;--of the conflicting emotions of shame and fear, the scornful frown, the enforced and deceiving smile, the defiant look, the vain effort to appear indifferent, and the storm of anger. Amazed at the first denial, shocked at the second, horrified at the third, what were John's feelings when one was ”with an oath,” and with another ”he began to curse and to swear.” But concerning this climax of Peter's sin, John is silent. It finds no place in his story.

At last ”the Lord turned and looked upon Peter,” either from the hall, or as He was being led from it. At the same moment, Peter turned and looked upon Him. We imagine John turning and looking upon them both, marking the grief of the one, and the sense of guilt and shame of the other. But he knew the loving, though erring disciple so well that he need not be told that when ”Peter went out” ”he wept bitterly.” We almost see John himself weeping bitterly over his friend's fall; then comforting him when they met again, with a.s.surances of the Lord's love and forgiveness. John's next record of their being together shows them united in feeling, purpose and action for their Lord.

There was another toward whom John's watchful eyes turned during the long and painful watches of that night. The picture of him is not complete without this Apostle's records.

”Art thou the King of the Jews?” asked Pilate of Jesus. Such John had thought Him to be. For three years he had waited to see Him a.s.sume His throne. He has preserved the Lord's answer,--”My kingdom is not of this world.” This declaration contained a truth to which even the favored disciple had been partly blind. Was he not ready to ask with Pilate, though with different spirit and purpose, ”Art thou a King then?” The Lord's answer must have meant more to the listening Apostle than to the captious and heedless Governor. It was a declaration of the true kings.h.i.+p of the Messiah-King,--”To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.”

”What is truth?” asked Pilate in a careless manner, not caring for an answer. ”What is truth?” was the great question whose answer the Apostle continued to seek, concerning the King and the kingdom of Him whom He had heard say, ”I am the Truth.”

In that night he saw the Messiah-King crowned, but with thorns. He saw the purple robe upon Him, but it was the cast-off garment of a Roman Governor. A reed, given Him for a sceptre, was s.n.a.t.c.hed from His hand to smite Him on His head. Instead of pouring holy oil of kingly consecration, as upon David's head, His enemies ”spit upon Him.” It was in mockery that they bowed the knee before Him saying, ”Hail King of the Jews.”

There are two scenes with which John alone has made us familiar. One is described in these words:--”Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith, Behold the man!” Did not that word ”Behold,” recall to John another scene--that on the Jordan when he looked upon this same Jesus as the Lamb of G.o.d, whom His enemies were about to offer unwittingly, when He offered Himself not unwillingly a sacrifice upon the cross? The Baptist's exclamation had been in adoration and joyfulness: Pilate's was in pity and sadness. It was an appeal to humanity, but in vain. There was no pity in that maddened throng. Pilate turned in bitterness toward those whom he hated, but whose evil deeds he did not dare to oppose. So in irony ”Pilate ...

brought forth Jesus ... and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!”

John was the only one who heard the three cries of ”Behold”--one at the beginning, the others at the close of the Lord's ministry. How much he had beheld and heard and learned between, concerning ”the Lamb,” ”the Man,” and ”the King.”

The only earthly throne on which John saw Him sit was one of mockery.

He did not ask to sit with Him. It was a sad yet blessed privilege to be with Him during that night of agony--the only friendly witness to probably all of His sufferings. While John's eyes were turned often and earnestly toward Peter and Pilate, they were yet more on the Lord. When he went in with Jesus into the palace, and while he tarried with Him, he could _do_ nothing--only _look_. No angel was there as in Gethsemane to strengthen the Man of sorrows, but did He not often look for sympathy toward that one who had leaned lovingly upon Him a few hours before? Was not John's mere waking presence among His foes in the palace, a solace which slumber had denied Him in the garden? John's eyes were not heavy now. There was no need of the Lord's bidding, ”Tarry ye here and watch with Me.” Love made him tarry and watch more than ”one hour”--even through all the watches of the night. Then he was the Lord's only human friend--the one silent comforter.

_CHAPTER XXVI_

_John the Lone Disciple at the Cross_

”When they came unto the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him.”--_Luke_ xxiii. 33.

”At Calvary poets have sung their sweetest strains, and artists have seen their sublimest visions.”--_Stalker._

”Now to sorrow must I tune my song, And set my harp to notes of saddest woe, Which on our dearest Lord did seize ere long, Dangers, and snares, and wrongs, and worse than so, Which He for us did freely undergo: Most perfect Hero, tried in heaviest plight Of labors huge and hard, too hard for human wight.”

--_Milton.--The Pa.s.sion._

Even careful students of the life of John are not together in their attempts to follow him on the day of crucifixion. Some think they find evidence, chiefly in his silence concerning certain events, that after hearing the final sentence of Pilate condemning Christ to be crucified, he left the palace and joined the other disciples and faithful women and the mother of Jesus, and reported what he had seen and heard during the night; and at some hour during the day visited Calvary, and returning to the city brought the women who stood with him at the cross: and witnessed only what he minutely or only describes. Other students think he followed Jesus from the palace to the cross, remaining near Him and witnessing all that transpired. This is certainly in keeping with what we should expect from his peculiar relation to Christ. It is in harmony with what we do know of his movements that day. So we are inclined to follow him as a constant though silent companion of Jesus, feeling that in keeping near him we are near to his Lord and ours. This we now do in the ”Dolorous Way,” along which Jesus is hurried from the judgment-seat of Pilate to the place of execution.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHRIST BEARING HIS CROSS _H. Hofmann_ Page 185]

It is John who uses the one phrase in the Gospels which furnishes a tragic subject for artists, and poets and preachers, on which imagination dwells, and excites our sympathies as does no other save the crucifixion itself. His phrase is this,--”Jesus ... bearing the cross for Himself.” We notice this all the more because of the silence of the other Evangelists, all of whom tell of one named Simon who was compelled to bear the cross. As John read their story, there was another picture in his mind, too fresh and vivid not to be painted also. He recalled the short distance that Christ carried the cross alone, weakened by the agonies of the garden and the scourging of the palace, until, exhausted, He fell beneath the burden. We are not told that the crown of thorns had been removed, though the purple robe of mockery had been. So this added to His continued pain. As John looked upon those instruments of suffering he heard the banter and derision of shame that always accompanied them.

There followed Jesus ”a great mult.i.tude of the people,” whose morbid curiosity would be gratified by the coming tragedy. But there were others--”women who bewailed and lamented Him.”

It is surmised that at the moment when Jesus could bear His cross no longer, and was relieved by Simon, He turned to the weeping ”Daughters of Jerusalem” following Him, and in tenderest sympathy told of the coming days of sorrow for them and their city, of which He had told John and his companions on Olivet.

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