I.N.R.I Part 35

When all was over, Joseph of Arimathea, a blunt, outspoken disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate, the Governor, to ask him that the Prophet's body might be buried that same evening.

"Have His legs been broken?" Pilate inquired of him.

"Sir, that is not necessary. He is dead."

"I do not believe you."

"It is quite true, sir. The captain pierced his side."

"I have been warned about you," said Pilate roughly. "I shall send a guard to watch the grave."

"As your lordship pleases."

"The man said that He would rise from the dead on the third day. It is likely that His friends will help Him!"

Joseph drew himself up in front of the Governor and said: "Sir, what ground have you for such a suspicion? Have we Jews proved ourselves so absolutely lawless in our fatherland? Surely not so much so that this best of all men, this Divine Man, should have been condemned to death without a shadow of reason, and His followers, too, treated with contempt as if they were cheats and body-s.n.a.t.c.hers."

"You have to thank your priests for that," said Pilate, with cold indifference.

"We know the breed," replied Joseph, "and so do you. But you are afraid of it. Our Master would have made an end of it. But you are a broken reed. Many of our great men have been ruined by Roman arrogance, but it was Roman _cowardice_ that cost our Master His life."

The Governor started, but remained impa.s.sive.

He signed with his hand: "Let me hear no more of this affair. Do what you like with Him. Sentries can be placed at the grave. I've had more than enough of you and your Jews to-day."

Thus the Arimathean was dismissed, ungraciously, it is true, but with permission to bury the beloved corpse.

Meanwhile the torment of the two desert robbers had ended. And Dismas was at last set free from Barabbas, to whom a demoniacal fate had chained him his whole life long. Jesus had come between them, and had divided the penitent man from the impenitent. It is true that their bodies were thrown into the same grave, but the soul of Dismas had found the appointed trysting-place.

As soon as the Arimathean returned from his interview with the Governor, late as the hour was, Jesus was unfastened from the cross and lowered to the ground with cloths. Then the body was anointed with precious oil, wrapped in white linen, and carried to Joseph's garden.

They laid it in the grave in the stillness of the night.

A holy peace breathed o'er the earth, and the stars shone in the heavens like lamps at the repose of the Lord.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

In the night which followed this saddest of all sad days, Mary, His mother, could not sleep. And yet she saw a vision such as could not have been seen by anyone awake.

Crouching down, leaning against the stone, her eyes resting on the cross that rose tall and straight into the sky, she seemed to see a tree covered with red and white blossoms. It was as if that branch of the Tree of Paradise which the angel had once handed over the hedge had bloomed. It stood in the midst of a beautiful rose-garden filled with pleasant odours, running water, and songs of birds, with a wonderful light over all. Innumerable companies of men and women pa.s.sed into that Eden from out a deep abyss. They ascended slowly and solemnly out of the gloomy depths to the shining heights. In front of all came a couple, our first father, Adam, walking with Eve. Just behind them Abel, arm-in-arm with Cain. Then crowded up the patriarchs, the judges, the kings, the prophets, and the psalmists, among them Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, Solomon and David, Zachariah and Josiah, Eleazar and Jehoiakim, and quite at the back--an old man, walking alone, supporting himself on a stick from which lilies sprouted--Joseph, her husband. He was in no hurry; he stopped and looked round at Mary.

So all pa.s.sed into Paradise.

That was what Mary saw, and then day dawned.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

In accordance with the orders, the Nazarene's grave was strictly guarded. A heavy stone had been placed in the opening of the niche in the rocks within which the body was laid, and, at the Governor's bidding, the captain had sealed it at every end and corner. Two fully-armed soldiers were stationed at the entrance with instructions to keep off every suspicious person from the grave. And then, on the third day after the entombment, an incredible rumour ran through Jerusalem. _The Nazarene had risen_!

On the morning of that day, so it was said, two women went to the grave, the mother of the dead man, and Magdalen, His devoted follower.

They were surprised to find that the guards were not there, and then they saw that the stone had been rolled away. The niche in the rock was empty, save for the white linen in which He had been wrapped.

These linen bandages were lying at the edge of the grave, their ends hanging down. The women began to weep, thinking someone had taken the corpse away; but presently they saw a white-robed boy standing by, and heard him say: "He whom you seek is not here. He lives, and goes with you to Galilee."

As if in some wild dream, the women staggered back from the grave.

There was a man in the garden whom at first they took to be the gardener. They wanted to question him; He came towards them. With youthful, beautiful, shining countenance, immaculate, without wounds except the nail-marks on the hands. He stood before them. They were terror-stricken. They heard Him say: "Peace be with you! It is I."

As the sun was so bright the women held their hands a moment before their eyes, and when they looked up again He was no longer to be seen.

The Nazarene's grave was empty! Everybody made a pilgrimage from the town to see. The people's mood had entirely changed since the crucifixion. Not another contemptuous word was heard, some even secretly beat their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The High Priests met together, and inquired of the guards what had occurred. They could tell nothing.

"At least confess that you fell asleep and that His disciples stole Him."

"Honoured sirs," answered one of the guards, "for two reasons we cannot admit we fell asleep; first, because it isn't true, and secondly, because we should be punished."

Upon which one of the Temple authorities observed: "But in spite of that, you can very well say so. For you have certainly fallen asleep more than once in your lives. And as for the punishment, we'll make it right with the Governor. Nothing shall happen to you."

The brave Romans thought it best to avoid a dispute with the authorities, and to say what the latter preferred to hear. So the tale went that the guards had fallen asleep, and meanwhile the body had been removed by the disciples in order to be able to say, "He is risen."

This was circulated on all hands, and no one thought any more of the resurrection of the Nazarene.

The disciples themselves could not believe it. Some of them declared that Pilate and his spies best knew what had become of the corpse.

Others, on the contrary, were stirred by an unparalleled exaltation of spirit, by some divine energy which filled their minds with appallingly clear visions of the latter days.

It happened about this time that two of the disciples walked out towards Emmaus. They were sad, and spoke of the incomprehensible misfortune that had befallen them. A stranger joined them, and asked why they were so melancholy.

"We belong to His followers," they replied.

When He said nothing, as if He had not understood, they asked whether He was quite a stranger in Jerusalem, and did not know what had happened these last days?

"What has occurred?" He asked.

Surely He must have heard of Jesus, the Prophet who had done such great deeds, and preached a new and wonderful Word of G.o.d: Of the Heavenly Father full of love, of the Kingdom of Heaven in one's own heart, and of eternal life. It was as if G.o.d Himself had a.s.sumed human shape in the person of this Prophet in order to set them an example of perfect life. And that Divine Man had just been executed in Jerusalem. Since that event they had felt utterly forsaken. That was why they were sad.

He had, indeed, promised that He would rise after death as a pledge for His tidings of the resurrection of man and eternal life. But the three days were now up. A story was going about that two women had seen Him that morning with the wounds made by the nails. But until they could themselves lay their hands on those wounds, they would not believe it; no. He must needs be like the rest of the dead.

Then the stranger said: "If the Risen Man does not appear to you as He appeared to the women, it is because your faith is too weak. If you do not believe in Him, you surely know from the prophecies how G.o.d's messenger must suffer and die, because only through that gate can eternal glory be reached."

With such conversation they reached Emmaus, where the two disciples were to visit a friend. The stranger, they imagined, was going farther, but they liked Him, and so invited Him to go to the house with them: "Sir, stay with us; the day draws in, it will soon be evening."

So He went with them. When they sat at supper, and the stranger took some bread, one whispered to the other: "Look how He breaks the bread!

It is not our Jesus?"

But when in joy unspeakable they went to embrace Him, they saw that they were alone.

This is what the two disciples related, and no one was more glad to believe it than Schobal, the dealer; he now asked three hundred gold pieces for the coat of the man who had risen from the dead.