The very day we scheduled this article for publication, a letter arrived from Teri Robins, the author’s daughter. Robins, of course, had no idea the piece had just been placed on our fast track, and so the timing of her letter gave us a sense we’d made the right choice. Here’s what she wrote:
“My mother Elsie Jones sent you an article that you decided to print. She mailed back the forms to you on Monday, February 1. The next day, February 2, she died. I wanted you to know.
“I cannot begin to describe how thrilled she was to have [had] that article accepted for publication. When she was younger, she did quite a lot of writing for the church papers. She told me [that] the Junior Guide published everything she ever sent them. This article will be a fitting tribute to the wonderful woman she was, one who loved God and longed for His return.”
We think the article is powerful in its simplicity, distilling the wisdom of nine decades at the Master’s feet.—Editors.
ho hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” (Isa. 53:1).*
Who among Jesus’ friends, and which of His disciples or those to whom He had brought healing and peace, truly believed in His celestial future? How many truly believed that death could not hold Him?
We read the following in Luke’s Gospel: “Then [Jesus] took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be . . . mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again” (Luke 18:31-33).
On the way to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus drew the disciples to the roadside and again reminded them that in Jerusalem “the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again” (Matt. 20:18, 19).
How Well Did They Listen?
Did they listen attentively and take it to heart? Did they fortify their minds with the certainty of His promised resurrection?
No. Instead, they became saturated with their own dreams and quarrels about who should be the greatest when Jesus would sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem. Seething resentment circulated among the disciples after the mother of James and John requested special honor for her two sons.
After the Passover supper in Jerusalem that fateful Thursday night of the Passion Week, Jesus said to the disciples: “All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee” (Matt. 26:31, 32).
When Jesus hung upon the cross, abandoned by all who knew Him, the prophecy of Isaiah met its fulfillment. “I have trodden the wine press alone,” Isaiah had written of Him, “and of the people there was none with me” (Isa. 63:3).
Where was Jairus, whose little daughter Christ had brought back to him from death? Where were the 10 lepers with their renewed health and manhood? Where were the 5,000 and the 4,000 who ate the miracle food Jesus provided, and who drank from His words the water of life? Where were the Temple guards who, when sent out as an arresting squad, returned without their target, saying in wonderment: “Never man spake like this man”? (John 7:46).
Where were all these people?
And why did Christ have to put His mother in the charge of John when He had an assortment of brothers and sisters? Wasn’t it because not one of them was present to sympathize and support Him, or to sustain His mother through those hours of agony?
According to Mark 15:40, 41, “there were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome . . . and many other women which came up with Him unto Jerusalem.” These women (who loved Him) heard His dying cry, and wept in deep sorrow. They rushed home to prepare spices for His embalming, when they should have been baking date cakes and honey wafers for celebration on resurrection morning!
No one during the blackness of the ninth hour kissed those nailed-scarred, bleeding feet, pulsating in agony. No one cried, “Shalom, shalom, Master, we’ll soon meet You in Galilee, as You promised.” Nicodemus, to whom Christ had given that night sermon on grace, brought 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes to preserve the Lord’s body. He and Joseph of Arimathea wrapped Him in the spice-filled linens and laid Him in the new tomb, thinking it was for death’s long sleep.
In all that crowd of onlookers and participants, only one person brought a benediction into Christ’s closing hours. Just one humble soul! A thief who knew his own unworthiness was the only one to speak faith in the surety of Christ’s future glory, faith in Christ’s eternal triumph. “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
How About Us?
How is it with you and me? Who among us would have done more nobly than Peter in that savage hour? How deep is our love for Jesus? How often do we tell Him of our gratitude for all He’s done for us? How diligently do we study His Word? How eager are we to share our cherished hope of His return with those around us?
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*Bible texts in this article are from the King James Version.
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The late Elsie Perry Jones was 95-year-old retired registered nurse living in Oregon when she wrote this piece. (See editors’ note at the beginning of the article.) This article was published April 8, 2010.
