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-snatchers."
"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 impassive.
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.