#148. The Forty Days.#--As it is unfortunately customary on the part of certain modern critics to deny the physical resurrection of our Lord, and to maintain that all that we know about him after his resurrection is that he was alive, it seems needful to give a whole lesson to these forty days. The critics above referred to claim that the disciples of Jesus _expected_ his physical resurrection, and, being ignorant and unlearned, they were easily deceived by the reports of the women. In reply to this unwarranted claim the following truths must be insisted on. #149.# _First truth._ The disciples never expected Jesus _to die_, least of all on the cross. Indeed, the general expectation was that the Messiah must abide forever (John 12:34). So when he spoke of his death, they did not even understand what he meant. (See Mark 9:32; Luke 9:45; Luke 18:34.) At one time when Jesus spoke of all this, Peter even ventured to rebuke him (Matt. 16:22). #150.# _Second truth._ From the above it is most apparent that they never _even thought_ of a resurrection (see Mark 9:10). When they saw him die, and knew from the physical signs of the blood and water that he was dead, they at once gave up all hope in him as the expected Messiah. This is apparent from the remark of the two to the Master as they were going to Emmaus (Luke 24:21). Their remark implies that now they had given up any such hope. But more than this. Had they thought of any resurrection, would they not have remained near the garden where his body was laid? Surely John and the Master's mother would not have abandoned that garden for Jerusalem. Nor would they have prepared spices for his final entombment had they had any reasonable hope of his resurrection. What took the women to the tomb on that Easter morning was not any remotest hope that they might find him alive, but only the completion of plans for his final burial. All this is apparent from the unvarnished narrative of all of the evangelists. Rightly read, the narrative reveals the one fact that they had not the least hope that they would ever see him alive in this world. #151.# _Third truth._ When the tomb was found empty on that Easter morning, even that did not awaken any thought that the Lord had risen. This is proved by the whole story of Mary on that day (John 20). All her thought was, where is _the body_? Even when Jesus appeared to Mary, she did not recognize him at first, so far was it from her thought that he could be living. And when the women reported to the disciples that they had seen him alive, their words seemed to the Apostles as "idle talk" (Luke 24:11). So when Peter and John ran to the tomb and found not his body, they simply believed that it had been taken away by some one, and not at all that he had risen from the dead, for as yet they knew not the truth that he must rise (John 20:9).