“I remember hearing the terrible sound of wailing and lamenting women, such as one cannot escape during those days of mourning after a burial. I opened my eyes and saw John leaning over me and was relieved by his presence, but when I tried to ask him for what reason the women wept I could not move my jaws. I recognized the room in which I lay as that of my nephew, Mark, and I knew I was in the house of my sister and then I must have slept again.”

“How had you managed to get there from the high priest’s courtyard where you fell?”

Peter smiled sheepishly. “John later told me that he had been unable to lift me from the ground, much less carry me, so he ran here to Joseph for help and with Shem’s strong arms they managed to place me in Joseph’s carriage and take me to Mary’s home—the place where we had taken our supper with the Lord not many hours before.”

“What else do you remember?”

“A dream. While I slept I could see myself fishing from my old boat and Jesus came to me, walking on the water, and when I saw it was the Lord I leaped into the sea to go to him and felt myself sinking beneath the waves before he took my hands and held me up and then I awoke, soaked with sweat, screaming his name, and John wiped my brow and spoke to me until I slept again.”

“At that time you still did not know that Jesus had been tried, crucified, and buried?”

“I knew of nothing that transpired until that first morning after the Sabbath, when I awoke and told John that I hungered and soon my sister brought me a bowl of hot soup. Only after it was empty did John tell me that our Lord was dead—crucified at the hands of Pilate and the high priest We shed many tears together before I fell back on the cot and began to pray for the strength we would need to survive without our beloved master. I would have welcomed death, that very moment, for I had no wish to face life without Jesus by my side.”

Now I was back, once more, to that morning after the Jewish Sabbath, that fateful day of discovery: Easter Sunday. “What happened next, Peter?”