SAUL & THE RESURRECTION CHAPTER TWENTY TWO- Page 3

PETER AND JOHN lost no time in running as fast as they could to the tomb where Jesus had been buried. They had to see for themselves before they would believe. Being a few years younger, and not as large a man as Peter, John outran him. The entrance into the sepulcher would not admit a man standing his full height, and John stooped down to look inside. Even in the dim light, he could see the grave clothes neatly folded and lying on the ledge where the body had been prepared in the antechamber.

John dared not enter the main room beyond. He waited for Peter and could hear him coming, his leather sandals pounding on the paving stones of the road.

Panting for breath, even before he reached John's side, Peter shouted, "What do you see, John? What did you find?" Before John could utter a word, Peter was making his way through the opening into the front chamber that is used before placing the body in the main room of the sepulcher, a room large enough as a rule to accommodate several members of a family. "The linens are here, John!" exclaimed Peter. "Just as the women said."

John moved inside, just behind Peter, as they entered the main room of the sepulcher, hewn from solid rock. The room was empty. Peter turned to answer John, but John had already vanished. In the distance, Peter could see him, running back to tell the other disciples Jesus had risen.

JOHN COULD HARDLY get his words out fast enough as he related what he had seen at the tomb.

"But where is my brother?" Andrew anxiously asked. "Didn't he go with you?"

"I outran him to the tomb, and I guess I did the same returning, but Peter should have been here before now."

"Did you see him leave the tomb?" asked Andrew.

"We were in the tomb together, Andrew, and I thought we left together. But now that you ask, I did glance back as I was running away, and I saw Peter."

"Was he going back to the tomb?"

"No, Andrew, just walking away from it."

"He was not running like you were?"

John shook his head and said, "No, in fact, he was walking very slowly with his head down, as though deep in thought, or . . . "

"What do you mean by or?" Andrew questioned.

"Well, he gave the appearance of someone dejected, "John replied.

And so it was. Leaving the sepulcher, Peter walked slowly to a secluded place in the garden, and dropping down wearily on a stone, he buried his head in his hands and wept. He wept as he had done before when leaving the courtyard at the home of Caiaphas. There, with oaths and curses, he told a servant girl he did not know Jesus. It was at that same moment a crowing of a rooster caused him to remember how Jesus had said a few hours previously, "Before the cock crows you will deny me three times." Peter remembered how Jesus emerged from the judgment with his face bathed in blood and spittle. He had turned his eyes on Peter, and that look seemed to say, "I counted on you!" Peter left that courtyard sobbing like a child.

Now he was sitting near the tomb, the picture of despair. The Big Fisherman was saying, "What a coward! What a fool! What a failure! At the supper, I boasted that I would defend him if all the others fled." Suddenly Peter was aware that someone was standing near him. Looking up through his tears, he gave a gasp of amazement. Was it his imagination? Or, was it really He, the One he had denied with oaths and curses?" How long Jesus stood there, and how much He said, Peter never told.

When Jesus left, Peter arose and hurried to join the disciples. On his way he met Cleopas of Emmaus, a changed man. He excitedly told Peter that he had been walking with a friend toward his home, discussing the events of Jesus death when the Lord appeared to them, walking with them along the road. "We were so engrossed in conversation, we did not recognize him. He rebuked us for our unbelief, for failing to believe the prophets."

"We have all failed him," Peter agreed.

"But he began to explain from the scriptures all the things that revealed him, from Moses to the prophets. Still we did not recognize him until I invited him to have food and refresh himself at my house. When he sat down at the table and broke the bread and blessed it, I shouted, 'Why, you are Jesus!' The moment I said that, he vanished. He is risen, Peter!"

"He is risen, indeed!"

Peter and Cleopas reached the house with the other disciples and entered together. As they burst through the door they were shouting, "Jesus is risen. He has risen. He appeared to Peter and he appeared to us on the road."

The disciples listened with astonishment. And even while Cleopas was speaking, Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst. "Peace be unto you," He said.

They cried out in amazement and fear, believing they were seeing a spirit.

"Why are you terrified?" Jesus asked. "I am not a spirit. Look at my hands and feet. Does a spirit have flesh and bones as you can see I have?"

He showed them his hands and feet, with the recent wounds from crucifixion, but they still found it impossible to believe it was really Jesus. He said, "Do you have anything to eat?"

They began to relax as they watched Jesus eat some fish and bread they gave him. And while he was eating, he said, "While I was with you, I told all that was written about me in the Law of Moses, and the writings of the prophets and the Psalms. All that they wrote has been fulfilled and come true. They told how the Messiah must suffer and rise from death on the third day, and the message about repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."