There came a violent hammering on the door; John looked across to Peter and for a moment both men sat, tense and rigid. Had Caiaphas' men discovered their retreat and was this to be the end? Jesus was dead but the vengeance of his enemies was certainly to he visited upon his disciples if they could be found. The two had remained hidden in this room since the terrible climax of two days ago and there was no knowing what had been happening in the outside world during that time … The tension relaxed at the sound of a woman's voice outside the door: "it's Mary; let me in". A swift movement and Peter had crossed the room and unbarred the door. In another moment Mary of Magdala was with them, distraught, frightened, her veil awry and her hair in disarray. Peter led her quickly to a chair and stood, with fear-shadowed eyes, as she sat endeavouring to regain her breath. She had been running and she was exhausted. But in a moment, brokenly, she was able to speak. "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him."

A moment of stunned disbelief, and both men were out of the house and running hard towards the sepulchre. Gone now were all their fears of apprehension by the High Priest's officers. This was a totally unexpected turn of events and they must inform themselves of the situation at first hand. Mary was left to follow as best she could; they had to get to the sepulchre as quickly as possible. Assuming that their hiding-place had been the house of Mary the mother of Mark they would have a little over a mile to cover, along the undulating tracks which traversed the rocky ridges and ravines outside the western wall of the city. John was in better shape than his fellow disciple, he was probably a few years younger and he got there first. Nevertheless he did not go in. Perhaps his Jewish upbringing made him afraid of ceremonial uncleanness during this Passover week. He looked inside and saw that the body of Jesus was gone and the grave clothes were lying on the rock-cut shelf. Then Peter arrived, panting, and without ado, ceremonial uncleanness or not, went straight inside. He could only confirm what Mary had told them; the Lord was not there. But he did notice something the significance of which had escaped Mary when first she looked into the tomb. The grave clothes were certainly still there; whoever had taken the body had removed them and left them behind. And as he looked at them Peter was conscious of another inexplicable factor; as John, overcoming his reluctance, came inside and stood looking, he too became conscious of it, and recorded it later on in his Gospel. Those wrappings had not been unwound as would normally be the case. They were lying folded in their respective places just as though the body had been extricated without disturbing them, almost as if it had been dissolved out of them so that they fell neatly flat, but still folded, on the rock shelf.

Long and silently the two men looked, and then. without speaking, turned away. Mary was waiting outside as they emerged but they did not say anything to her. They looked around the garden but there was nothing unusual and no one else in sight. Perhaps if they had remembered the Lord's assurance that on the third day He would rise again they might have found the explanation of those folded grave clothes but they had taken so little heed of that assurance that they had forgotten all about the promised Resurrection. They only knew that Jesus was dead and all their hopes dashed, and all they had left was His grave where they could come and remember Him, and now even that was denied them because someone had taken the body away and they knew not where it was. For once, Peter had nothing to say and nothing to suggest. With an expression of defeat on his face he turned away from the sepulchre and in company with John made his way back to the house he had so recently left.

Mary remained - and saw the Lord. Had Peter and John stayed with her a little while they too would have seen him. But it was Mary and the other women who had braved the possible dangers of being accosted by the Temple guards appointed to watch the sealed tomb, and to them it was given to see and talk with the risen Lord first of all. First to Mary, and then to all four of them as they made their way to the disciples. All that is recorded in detail, but of the next appearance nothing is preserved save the bare fact. At the close of that eventful day, two excited men from Emmaus burst in upon the assembled disciples with their news that the stranger they had entertained to supper had turned out to be the Lord himself. In turn they were met with the jubilant news "the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon" (Luke 24.34). In the next few minutes Jesus himself was standing in the midst of the assembly. That appearance to Peter must have been at some time during the Sunday, after Mary and the women had brought the news and been disbelieved. Paul in 1 Cor. 15.5 refers to this same appearance as being the first after the Resurrection; he ignored the part played by the women. How Peter came to see the Lord and what passed between them no man knows; perhaps in view of Peter's tragic denials of only a few days earlier the episode was too sacred to talk about. Peter never referred to it afterwards. One cannot doubt though that he sought and obtained forgiveness for what he had done and that he became a better man for the experience. From then on he was a pillar of strength to the little community of believers which very soon became the nucleus of the Christian Church. At Pentecost, only seven weeks later, he espoused the cause of Christ in public without fear, and the authorities, with all their threats, found it impossible to shake or weaken his rock-hard resolution. At long last Peter began to understand those many things his Lord had told him about; His coming death and resurrection. For so long the Galilean fisherman had allowed his Judaistic beliefs and expectations regarding the Messiah to colour his reception and interpretation of Jesus' words. He did not really believe that Jesus was going to die and for that reason all the talk of rising again on the third day had passed over his head. But now he had experienced the bitterness of realizing that his Master had indeed suffered death at the hands of His enemies and God had not intervened to save him. He knew what it was to feel like a sheep that had lost its shepherd. He saw all his dreams and hopes and expectations dashed. He found himself hiding from the vengeance of enemies seeking him for his adherence to what he now felt to be a lost cause. "We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel" said his two sad compatriots to the stranger who had accosted them on the way to Emmaus. We had trusted, but we trust so no longer; that was their unspoken feeling and it had been that of Peter also. But now all that was changed; he had seen his Lord again, he knew now that He had survived the death on the cross, and His enemies no longer had any power over him. In the light of that tremendous revelation, and the knowledge of forgiveness for his own sad lapse, Peter was ready, fully ready, to embark upon his destiny to be a fisher of men.

One more experience during that halcyon seven weeks must have stood out in Peter's mind in later life whenever he thought of those days. He and the rest of the disciples, in obedience to the Lord's injunction, had left Jerusalem and gone back to Galilee, probably within a two of weeks of the Resurrection, there to await further intimation of their Master's will for them. They still had no idea in what way they were to continue his work of preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. It was clear now that the Kingdom was not yet to be established and the appearance of Messiah in glory and power was at some indeterminate point in the future. And in the meantime they must live. So they overhauled their boats and nets that had been lying idle these past three years and set out for their first catch. "And that night they caught nothing."

They must have been puzzled. Most of them at least were expert in their trade and knew all the moods and characteristics of the Sea of Galilee, when and where to expect the shoals of fish which their net was designed to take. Dispirited, at daybreak they headed for shore. Approaching, they discerned a solitary stranger standing on the beach. To his shouted enquiry as to their catch they responded with the dismal news. He told them to cast their net again on the right side of the ship and they would have better fortune. Probably to humour him more than anything, they did so. and immediately the net filled with such a shoal of fish that they could not get it into the boat. In a flash John perceived the situation. "It is the Lord" he said. In a moment Peter was over the side and in the sea making his own way to shore. The boat was only three hundred feet away and the water was probably shallow enough for wading; in any case Peter would certainly be a strong swimmer. By the time the others had got the boat to shore with their catch Peter was already with Jesus and there was a fire burning with a meal of fish and bread waiting.

Many things must have been said at that meal which have not been recorded. What has been preserved is the thrice-repeated question of Jesus addressed to Peter: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Each time Peter replied in the affirmative and each time he was told in response to "feed my sheep". Peter was grieved at the reiteration, we are told, and that was certainly in part because he remembered his thrice repeated denial of his Lord at the trial. Yet perhaps he took a grain of comfort from the circumstance. Three times he had denied; now three times he had affirmed. The Lord had publicly restored to him his office of pastor and leader of the little company which so soon was to grow into a great and numerous Church. That forgiveness which Jesus undoubtedly did extend to Peter when He appeared to him in private a little earlier was now reiterated and confirmed in public, in the hearing of the other disciples. From now on, no man could hold Peter's lapse against him and all knew that he was still the Lord's choice for the leadership and guidance of the little band which was to plant the truth of the Gospel in the world.

There must have been other appearances. Only some eight or nine are recorded, all of them during the first couple of weeks or so, but Luke says (Acts 1.3) that He showed himself "by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" and that must imply a virtually continuous series of meetings. They had returned to Jerusalem from Galilee and were commanded to remain there until the Holy Spirit should come upon them on the Day of Pentecost. And at the end of the forty days Jesus led them out of the city to the heights of the Mount of Olives above the village of Bethany, out of sight of Jerusalem. There they asked him, hesitantly, if the time had come for the establishment of his kingdom over Israel, and gently He indicated that it had not. Again he reiterated their commission, the work to which their lives were to be devoted. "You will bear witness for me in Jerusalem, and throughout all Judaea and in Samaria, and even to the farthest corners of the earth". And Peter, listening quietly now, understood at last what it was that lay before him and what it was that he must do.

So they watched Jesus ascend into heaven and knew that now they would not see him again, until in some far distant day He would return as He promised in the reality and the glory of His Kingdom. But first they had to be His witnesses and proclaim His Gospel in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Only after they had done that would the consummation of all things come.

(to be continued)

AOH