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THE KING’S BUSINESS
them and they would not have been saved (Matt. 10:32, 33; Rom. 10:9, 10), but now they do the best they can for Jesus, they embalm His body. This was not in any way necessary for God had promised hun dreds o f years before that He would not suffer that body to see corruption (Ps. 16:10). Thursday, September J, John 20 : i, 2 . There are some apparent contradictions in the Gospel narratives o f the resurrec tion. These disappear upon careful study. All o f them would disappear if we knew all the facts in the case. The apparent contradictions are really a confirmation of the truth o f the story, for they show they are separate and independent accounts. Cer tainly if four men had been writing an account o f an alleged resurrection which never occurred, in collusion with one another, they would have made their nar ratives agree, at least on the surface, though the apparent agreement might disappear upon careful study. The case is exactly the opposite. The contradictions are on the surface; they only disappear by careful study. Certainly then the accounts could not have bene fabricated in collusion with one another. And certainly they could not have been fabricated independent o f one another. I f they had been fabricated inde pendently o f one another they would not agree anywhere. There are just such appar ent discrepancies as would appear in the testimony o f four honest witnesses in court, each telling his story' from his own point o f view. The stories then could not have been fabricated independently; they could not have been fabricated in collusion: there fore they could not have been fabricated at all, but are an accurate record o f the actual facts as they actually occurred. We are told, that it was “yet dark” when Mary hurried toward the tomb. It was dark in more senses than one: she fancied her Lord lay there, and all her hopes were dashed. But the sun was soon to arise and bring to her the brightness and joy o f an endless day. Mary, as we see from a com
parison Of the four accounts, started with the other women, but hurried on before them and reached the tomb before they did. On reaching the tomb she found the stone rolled away, and immediately jumped at the conclusion that the tomb had been rifled. It seems never to have occurred to her that the Lord had risen and that God had rolled away the stone, not for Jesus to get out, but for her to enter the empty tomb and hear about her risen Lord. The fact that the stone was rolled away ought to have filled her heart with joy, but, as it was, it filled her heart with dismay because o f her misinterpretation o f the fact. Thus we often in our ignorance and unbelief put a dark construction upon facts that are really fraught with the gladdest meaning. Mary was looking for a dead Lord, and she will shortly find a risen one. Friday, September 8 . I John 20 : 3 - 10 . : , • Eagerly did Peter and John run to the tomb which Mary had reported robbed. John reached the tomb first because he was the younger o f the two and the faster runner. W e are not told here that he was the younger o f the two, but we find that out from a comparison o f historical fafcts about them, and it is another o f the incidental proofs o f the accuracy o f the record, that this little detail is mentioned without any explanation whatever. But though John was the younger and reached the tomb first, he is not the first to enter the tomb. In gentle reverence, in perfect agreement with his character as learned from the whole narrative elsewhere, he does not enter the tomb, but stoops down to look in. Peter is the older man, and comes lum bering more sloydy along after John, but he was a man o f more impetuous disposi tion and he does not stop to stoop down and look in, he rushes right info the tomb. John, as he looked in, had seen the linen clothes lying. Peter as he enters notes not only the linen clothes lying, but the napkin that had been about Jesus head, carefully wrapped in a place by itself. This is an apparently insignificant and meaningless
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