The Easter of our Lives 

1952 New Washington Series

Tape 10A

Joel S. Goldsmith

It is the day of the Crucifixion, and the Master is seated by himself somewhat apart from the people in the courtyard.  Outside the gates the crowd has gathered.  These are the multitudes whom Jesus fed when they were an-hungered; these are the people whom he healed of their diseases, of their sins, and of their infirmities.  Some of them he even raised from the dead.  Now they have gathered to make sure that he is crucified. They have been lulled to forgetfulness of the good that they witnessed in his ministry, and evidently their ecclesiastical authorities have convinced them that Jesus meant to destroy their temple, their religion, even their God.  The fact that they saw the healings and experienced them is forgotten in the cry, “Crucify him!  Crucify him!”
 
The Roman authorities are much concerned, because they have nothing against the man Jesus; they have nothing against his teaching; and they have no liking for the work of the day.  This the Master understands.  He knows that on one side are the representatives of the Roman law, who have no desire to perform their unpleasant task, while on the other side are the ungrateful people whom he has blessed.
 
So he has a right to do a little thinking, and we have the right to look into his mind and to speculate as to what he is thinking.  Could it be as he sits there waiting for the inevitable that he is saying to himself, “What a great spiritual victory has been given me!  What a great revelation from on high, a revelation so great that I know that the words which I have spoken will never pass away.  Some day men will remember them and repeat them, and these words will lift those who hear out of the grave of sin, disease, and death.
 
“What a wonderful light God has given me!  What grace I have received from on high that I should know the meaning of all things, past, present, and future.  With this great light I have brought healing, consolation, and comfort, not only to those of my present age, but even before Abraham was, those who existed will receive this light.  Unto eternity will it brighten the lives of men.  It will overcome the world:  the world of war; the world of disease; the world of fear; and the world of sin.  Yes, God has been very good to me; God has blessed me.”
 
Alone in the courtyard, he remembers the love he has poured out on the world.  In that remembrance, he must marvel at his own aloneness and ask, “With all my success, wherein has been my failure, if there is a failure?  Wherein have I failed?  Where are those I taught?  Where are my disciples?  Where are the apostles?  Where are the twelve?  Where are the seventy?  Where are the two hundred?  Where is my mother?  Where are my brethren?  Where are those who have been raised from the dead?  Where are those who are to carry the message out into the world?  Have I so failed that God has given me this great light and I have not been able to give it even to one of these?