95
March, 1938
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Peter would never have been seen again in the streets of Jerusalem if Jesus Christ had not ap peared to him after His resurrection. But in that city, the very place where the hopes of the disciples had been completely wiped out, Jesus appeared.
Fellowship of Resurrection Life
By DOUGLAS ADAM London, England
Keystone View Co.
pened. Before they believe in their hearts, they want their minds satisfied. But God will not submit to such a method. That is not the way that God approaches our human life. God does not say, Under stand— and then see. Understanding does not come first; it may, in fact, never come in this world. A great many of God’s manifestations remain absolutely incompre hensible. There were not only witnesses concerning the resurrection, but there were also certain supreme facts resulting which can be ex plained only by the fact of the resurrection. Jesus appeared after His death to people who were not expecting to see Him, and who had given up all hope of ever seeing Him again. Mary, to whom He appeared, was not only not expecting to see Him, but she was also utterly distressed because she thought His blessed dead body had been stolen away. But after that appearance of the Lord, she declared that she had spoken to Him, and that He had spoken to her. The experience had so changed her entire outlook that she had hurried to her friends with the stupendous message that she had seen the Lord. When she got them together, Jesus appeared to them; He stood in their midst. But Thomas was absent. His re joicing was postponed a whole week because of his unbelief. After eight days, he saw Jesus, and believed. Christ's Resurrection and the New Testament Message It is not only the testimonies of the dis ciples which witness to the resurrection of Jesus. It is the absolute change in their lives and in their outlook; it is the trans figuration of their silence into a living mes sage. If Jesus had not appeared to Peter after the crucifixion and the resurrection, Peter would never have dared to mention [Continued on page 105]
give to the world. Their supreme thought was not to save the world, but rather to save their own skins. They not only had no message, but they also were paralyzed by fear. They dared not open their mouths; they dared not look the world straight in the face. They had failed their Lord. Re member, there was no New Testament then. Who could have had the heart to write a line about the life of Jesus in an atmos phere like that? For them the whole affair was finished. The only thing to do now was to get away back to their old life as quietly as possible; to say. nothing about their dead Master, or their cause. They must get back, to Galilee, back to their fishing-nets, back to individual solitude, regret, and remorse. Such was the back ground of the resurrection of Jesus. G od 's Fact and Man's Faith Consider, secondly, the fact of the resur- rection of Jesus. It was a revelation. God does not explain things; He just does them. The divine method is not to make explana tions, but to make silent manifestations. The world around us is a manifestation. Springtime is a manifestation. God does not say, T ry to understand what I do. He says, See what I do. Open your eyes. Look at it. Behold it. The trouble is that so many will not look till they understand. They will not believe a thing until they have grasped mentally how it has hap-
“ W e have seen the Lord" (John 20:25). O UR subject deals with resurrection life. Let us consider, first of all, the background of the resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus died, Christianity had not yet been born. The disciples were pro foundly disappointed at the death of Christ upon the cross; they were utterly perplexed; they were completely discouraged. Besides, they had a deep sense of having behaved shamefully in relation to Christ’s arrest and crucifixion. They had all acted in a most cowardly fashion. Peter, the foremost dis ciple, had completely abandoned the Master. He not only played the coward, but he actu ally denied being a disciple. He said he had never been with Jesus, and he even swore to prove it, as he warmed himself at the enemy’s fire. As for Judas, he had gone to the extreme limit of betrayal. The psychological effect of that disap pointment in the apparent failure of Jesus, and the sense of shame in their own hearts, was such as to destroy completely every vestige of enthusiasm. They had nothing to say to the world; all they could do was to hang their heads in shame, and to slip away back into their original obscurity. If they seemed to cling together, it was not because they were fused by a heroic unity; it was that they were frozen together by a common fear. They held together for better protection against the world’s contempt and fury. They huddled together like sheep against the storm. The enthusiasm of these disciples was dead. They seemed to have no message to [From a ministry in the Orange Presby terian Church, N. J., the author of this article returned to the British Isles many years ago and has served in various Lon don and Scottish pulpits. Dr. Adam is no
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