Kitabı oku: «Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St Luke», sayfa 27

Returning to Jerusalem, they go direct to the well-known trysting-place, where they find the Apostles ("the eleven" as the band was now called, though, as St. John informs us, Thomas was not present) and others gathered for their evening meal, and speaking of another and later appearance of Jesus to Simon, which must have occurred during their absence from the city; and they add to the growing wonder by telling of their evening adventure, and how Jesus was known of them in breaking of bread. But while they discussed the subject – for the majority were yet in doubt as to the reality of the appearances – Jesus Himself stood before them, passing through the fastened door; for the same fear that shut the door would securely lock it. Though giving to them the old-time salutation, "Peace be to you," it did not calm the unrest and agitation of their soul; the chill of a great fear fell upon them, as the spectral Shadow, as they thought it; stood before them. "Why are ye troubled?" asks Jesus, "and wherefore do reasonings arise in your hearts?" for they fairly trembled with fear, as the word would imply. "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold Me having." He then extended His hands, drew back His robe from His feet, and, as St. John says, uncovered His side, that they might see the wounds of the nails and the spear, and that by these visible, tangible proofs they might be convinced of the reality of His Resurrection body. It was enough; their hearts in an instant swung round from an extreme of fear to an extreme of joy, a sort of wild joy, in which Reason for the moment became confused, and Faith bewildered. But while the heavenly trance is yet upon them Jesus recalls them to earthly things, asking if they have any meat; and when they give Him a piece of a broiled fish, some of the remnants of their own repast, He takes and eats before them all; not that now He needed the sustenance of earthly food, in His resurrection life, but that by this simple act He might put another seal upon His true humanity. It was a kind of sacrament, showing forth His oneness with His own; that on the farther side of the grave, in His exaltation, as on this, in His humiliation, He was still the "Son of man," interested in all things, even the commonplaces, of humanity.

The interview was not for long, for the risen Christ dwelt apart from His disciples, coming to them at uncertain times and only for brief spaces. He lingers, however, now, to explain to the eleven, as before to the two, the great mystery of the Redemption. He opens their minds, that the truth may pass within. Gathering up the lamps of prophecy suspended through the Scriptures, He turns their varying lights upon Himself, the Me of whom they testify. He shows them how it is written in their law that the Christ must suffer, the Christ must die, the Christ must rise again the third day, and "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." And then He gave to these preachers of repentance and remission the promise of which the Book of the Acts is a fulfilment and enlargement, the "promise of the Father," which is the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was the prophecy of the Pentecost, the first rustle of the mighty rushing wind, that Divine breath which comes to all who will receive it.

Our Evangelist passes in silence other appearances of the Resurrection Life, those forty days in which, by His frequent manifestations, He was training His disciples to trust in His unseen Presence. He only in a few closing words tells of the Ascension; how, near Bethany, He was parted from them, and taken up into heaven, throwing down benedictions from His uplifted hands even as He went; and how the disciples returned to Jerusalem, not sorrowing, as men bereaved, but with great joy, having learned now to endure and rejoice as seeing Him who is invisible, the unseen but ever-present Christ. That St. Luke omits the other Resurrection appearances is probably because he intended to insert them in his prelude to the Acts of the Apostles, which he does, as he joins his second treatise to the first. Nor is it altogether an incidental coincidence that as he writes his later story he begins at Jerusalem, lingering in the upper room which was the wind-rocked cradle of the Church, and inserting as key-words of the new story these four words from the old: Repentance, Remission, Promise, Power. The two books are thus one, a seamless robe, woven for the living Christ, the one giving us the Christ of the Humiliation, the other the Christ of the Exaltation, who speaks now from the upper heavens, and whose power is the power of the Holy Ghost.

And was it altogether undesigned that our Evangelist, omitting other appearances of the forty days, yet throws such a wealth of interest and of colouring into that first Easter day, filling it up from its early dawn to its late evening? We think not. He is writing to and for the Gentiles, whose Sabbaths are not on the last but on the first day of the week, and he stays to picture for us that first Lord's day, the day chosen by the Lord of the Sabbath for this high consecration. And as the Holy Church throughout all the world keeps her Sabbaths now, her anthems and songs are a sweet incense burned by the door of the empty sepulchre; for, "The light which threw the glory of the Sabbath into the shade was the glory of the Risen Lord."

THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE

First Series.

Colossians.

By the Rev. A. Maclaren, D.D., D.Lit.

St. Mark.

By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.

Genesis.

By Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.

1 Samuel.

By Prof. W. G. Blaikie, D.D.

2 Samuel.

By the same Author.

Hebrews.

By Principal T. C. Edwards, D.D.

Second Series.

Galatians.

By Prof. G. G. Findlay, B.A., D.D.

The Pastoral Epistles.

By the Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.

Isaiah I. – XXXIX.

By Prin. G. A. Smith, D.D. Vol. I.

The Book of Revelation.

By Prof. W. Milligan, D.D.

1 Corinthians.

By Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.

The Epistles of St. John.

By the Most Rev. the Archbishop of Armagh.

Third Series.

Judges and Ruth.

By the Rev. R. A. Watson, M.A., D.D.

Jeremiah.

By the Rev. C. J. Ball, M.A.

Isaiah XL. – LXVI.

By Prin. G. A. Smith, D.D. Vol. II.

St. Matthew.

By the Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D.D.

Exodus.

By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.

St. Luke.

By the Rev. H. Burton, M.A.

Fourth Series.

Ecclesiastes.

By the Rev. Samuel Cox, D.D.

St. James and St. Jude.

By the Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.

Proverbs.

By the Rev. R. F. Horton, D.D.

Leviticus.

By the Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D.D.

The Gospel of St. John.

By Prof. M. Dods, D.D. Vol. I.

The Acts of the Apostles.

By Prof. Stokes, D.D. Vol. I.

Fifth Series.

The Psalms.

By the Rev. A. Maclaren, D.D. Vol. I.

1 and 2 Thessalonians.

By Prof. James Denney, D.D.

The Book of Job.

By the Rev. R. A. Watson, M.A., D.D.

Ephesians.

By Prof. G. G. Findlay, B.A., D.D.

The Gospel of St. John.

By Prof. M. Dods, D.D. Vol. II.

The Acts of the Apostles.

By Prof. Stokes, D.D. Vol. II.

Sixth Series.

1 Kings.

By the Very Rev. F. W. Farrar, F.R.S.

Philippians.

By Principal Rainy, D.D.

Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

By Prof. W. F. Adeney, M.A.

Joshua.

By Prof. W. G. Blaikie, D.D.

The Psalms.

By the Rev. A. Maclaren, D.D. Vol. II.

The Epistles of St. Peter.

By Prof. Rawson Lumby, D.D.

Seventh Series.

2 Kings.

By the Very Rev. F. W. Farrar, F.R.S.

Romans.

By the Right Rev. H. C. G. Moule, D.D.

The Books of Chronicles.

By Prof. W. H. Bennett, D.D., D.Lit.

2 Corinthians.

By Prof. James Denney, D.D.

Numbers.

By the Rev. R. A. Watson, M.A., D.D.

The Psalms.

By the Rev. A. Maclaren, D.D. Vol. III.

Eighth Series.

Daniel.

By the Very Rev. F. W. Farrar, F.R.S.

The Book of Jeremiah.

By Prof. W. H. Bennett, D.D., D.Lit.

Deuteronomy.

By Prof. Andrew Harper, B.D.

The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.

By Prof. W. F. Adeney, M.A.

Ezekiel.

By Prof. John Skinner, M.A.

The Books of the Twelve Prophets.

By Prin. G. A. Smith, D.D. Two Vols.