Just at sunset one beautiful evening, a little fishing-boat was sailing across a large lake. At the end of the boat Jesus, the great Teacher, was sitting watching the gold and red and purple of the sky reflected in the rippling waves. Soon the moon came up and its soft, silvery beams shone on the waves all around the boat. Then, as Jesus was very, very tired with his hard day’s work, he lay down on the seat and one of his fisher-friends brought him a leathern cushion for a pillow that he might rest easier. No sooner was Jesus fast asleep than the lake, which had looked so lovely before with its rippling waves, changed quickly and became rough and choppy, and the wind began to blow very hard. The moon went under a cloud. The wind blew fiercer and fiercer. The waves rose higher and higher. Several of the friends of Jesus had been fishermen and sailors on that lake all their lives, but they never knew such a terrible storm. The wind blew a hurricane, the waves dashed up so high that they came over the boat, and it began to fill with water. Hurrying to Jesus, who was sleeping soundly through all the wind and storm and darkness, they awoke him, crying, “Master! Master! awake, we are drowning! Save us!” Jesus awoke and heard the wild roaring of the wind and the torrents of rain and the dashing of the sea. Then he arose and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” and the wild wind heard his voice, and ceased as a dog stops barking when he hears his master’s command, “Be still,” or as a crying child stops his sobs when his mother speaks. So the noisy sea trembled; the waves sank to rest; the moon came out again; and the lake lay still and silent. There was a great calm. Then his friends knew that Jesus was the Storm-King, and they said, “What a King is this—for he commandeth even the winds and the sea and they obey him.”
13. THE KING WITH THE BASIN AND THE TOWEL
(John 13: 1-17)
One evening Jesus and his friends were gathered together at a supper in an upper room in a house which belonged to a friend of Jesus, and which had been loaned for this special supper. Jesus and his friends had walked a long distance that day over a rough and dusty road and their feet, in the loose sandals, were sore and dusty. Near the door stood a stone pitcher filled with cool, fresh water, and also a basin and a towel, but there was no servant at the door to wash their feet when they removed their sandals and passed to their places about the table. Each of the twelve friends of Jesus was thinking which would occupy the highest seat in Jesus’ kingdom, and each wanted to have the highest place of honor at the table. No one had offered to take the basin and the towel, but rather they were even quarreling over which should recline next to Jesus at the head of the table. Jesus spoke not a word. He arose from the table, went quietly over to the water-jar, laid aside his outer cloak, tied a towel around his waist, like a servant, took up the basin, filled it with water, and began to wash his friends’ feet, one after the other, and to wipe them with the towel. Jesus was the King of heaven and earth! Jesus was Lord and Master, as well as Friend. One of them should have offered to do this. But no one thought of serving others in any such slave’s way but Jesus. So, when he had finished washing the feet of all, he put on his outer cloak again, took his place at the table, and said, “He that would be greatest of all must become the servant of all.”
14. WHEN JESUS WAS FORSAKEN
(Matthew 27: 27-66)
For three long years Jesus went about doing good, living for others—feeding the hungry, healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, causing the lame to walk, raising the dead, comforting the weary-hearted, and teaching messages of love to all. At last untrue men, who did not love goodness and truth, jealous because the multitudes followed Jesus, said, “Away with him—crucify him!” And Pilate, the Roman governor, gave the sentence, “Let him be crucified!” That meant death on the cross, the cruel cross on which only the worst criminals, and those mostly slaves, were put to death for the basest crimes. So one Friday morning about nine o’clock, Jesus, carrying the heavy beam upon his shoulder, was led up the steep road to a green hill outside the city wall. There they nailed him cruelly to the cross. Jesus quietly prayed to his Father to forgive his enemies. He also prayed for one of the two thieves dying near him on another cross, that God would forgive him and bring him to heaven. He saw his mother, Mary, weeping bitterly near his cross, and said to his friend John, “Take care of my mother, and be a son to her.” Just at midday a sudden and strange darkness came over all the land. There was thunder and lightning and a great earthquake! The people around the cross listened and heard through the storm and out of the darkness this piercing cry from Jesus, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It seemed to Jesus that not only had all his disciples and nation forsaken him, but that God, his heavenly Father, whom he had always tried to please in everything all his life long, had hidden away his face from him and had forgotten and forsaken him. After three hours the light broke out again and Jesus said, “It is finished!” Then, “Father, into thy hands I yield my spirit.” And Jesus was dead. To make the more sure that he was dead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a sharp spear, and from the wound water and blood came forth. And the water mingled with the blood showed that Jesus died of a broken heart for the sins of men!
That evening some friends came and tenderly took his body down from the cross and buried him in a new tomb in a garden, and rolled a great stone across the door of the tomb.
And when the stars shone out that night it was the close of the world’s blackest day, because the King of Love, who came to bring to men “peace and good will, good will and peace,” had been rejected and was dead and buried.