King Jesus (Penguin Modern Classics) (68 page)

But the Kenites knew the Lament in its elder version : “Eve, Eve, why have you forsaken me ?” ; the last four stanzas holding the Mother of All Living to her ancient covenant, charging her not to let Azazel triumph for ever, nor to deny Adam his meed of immortality.

At the ninth hour Jesus uttered a frightful cry as a last spasm shook him. His features twisted awry, his eyes stood staring, his mouth fell open, his heaving breast was still.

“He died remarkably quickly,” said the captain. “I am glad of that ; he was a brave man, though a dog of a Jew. I have known them hang for five days or more, but for that, of course, they have to thank the man who flogs them. If he lays on hard enough, he saves them pain in the long run.”

Slowly the sky cleared, and the sun shone brightly again though the tremors continued at intervals. Towards evening Pilate’s Oriental Secretary rode out to remind the captain that in Mosaic Law accursed bodies might not remain hanging beyond sunset, and that on the Eve of Passover it would be as well not to offend native susceptibilities. Jesus and the two other victims should be dispatched at once. The captain gave the order : “Lame the two who are still alive and then run them through. You need not lame the other ; he is already a cripple. But give him a jab to make sure that he is dead.”

They broke the right legs of the Zealots with blows from a stonemason’s hammer, and then dispatched them with javelin-thrusts under the ribs. A soldier also aimed a half-hearted upward thrust at Jesus, driving the javelin-point under his ribs from the right-hand side. This would have torn open the lung, had it not been pressed inward by a watery effusion, in the part called the pleural cavity, caused by the scourging ; when the soldier disengaged his javelin, out came a discharge of water mixed with a little blood.

Then the bodies were taken down, piled on a cart with the crosses and tackle, and taken back to the mortuary in the Tower of Phasael.

Jesus was dead. In the official Jewish view he had died at the moment of being hauled up to the cross ; for he thereby ceased to be a member of the congregation of Israel and became “a naked worm, a man no
longer”. In the general view of the crowd he had died after uttering his cry at the ninth hour—the precise time when the Levite butchers began their slaughtering for the Passover. In the official Roman view he had died under the javelin-thrust : because of the blood, which does not flow from a wound when life is already extinct. He was then certified as dead by the captain and accepted as dead by Antipas, who later came to the mortuary to identify the body. But in the view of the twelve Kenite notables who had assisted at his coronation and who stood in the forefront of the crowd during the crucifixion, he had died when his royal virtue left him and he said : “The end has come”—that is to say, the Sacred King who had been born at the descent of the Dove died then.

Mary the mother of Jesus was the last to leave Golgotha. On her way home she found the Kenites waiting for her by the roadside. With a reverent salute they said : “Permit us to inter the body of our King.”

“Ask this of the daughter of Jose Cleopas.”

“She has given us her permission, but we need yours also.”

“How can you touch what is accursed, noble children of Rahab? “

“Ours is the elder Law ; with us crucifixion sanctifies.”

“Where will you inter him ?”

“In the sepulchre of the First Adam.”

“Will you go to the Romans and demand the body? “

“We have no right to do so. The request must come from you as his mother—for his queen fears to reveal herself—and nobody must know on whose account you make it.”

“I will do gladly what you would have me do, because of the friendship that your fathers showed me long ago when I was in danger of death.”

She went to the house of Joseph of Arimathea and at midnight, when the Passover meal was over, made herself known to him. She asked him to beg her son’s body from Pilate.

He commiserated with her, but said : “Alas, woman, while he was alive I did all that lay in my power to save him. Now that he is dead, I can do no more ; for though he was an innocent man, yet his body is accursed and I cannot bury him. Were I to go before Pilate with this request he would refuse it scornfully ; but perhaps a mother’s tears might move him to pity.”

“Would Pilate grant an audience to a poor woman like myself? He will listen only to persons of rank or wealth. But I have found men of another nation who are ready to carry my son away to a place where his interment is permitted, and if it is true that you were not among those who consented to his death, prove your piety by this service. I am a widow, and he was my only child.”

Mary persisted, and he reluctantly undertook to do as she asked.

When Joseph visited the Residency the next morning, Pilate was highly amused at his request. “Why in the world do you want this
gruesome relic, if you are not allowed to touch it, or give it decent burial? Or had I better not ask ?”

Joseph winced, but had his answer ready. “Your Excellency must be aware that the Syrian witch-cult has of late taken firm root in Jerusalem. If your soldiers are permitted to sell the body to an unauthorized person, the nose, fingers and other extremities will be put to magical uses, but especially the fingers ; for the fingers of a crucified man are held to be of great virtue. Grant me the body, and I will dispose of it.”

Pilate laughed loudly : “Oh, Joseph, Joseph! Confess, you are something of a wizard yourself and covet the extremities of this lame wonder-worker. How much are you prepared to offer? You can have the body for five hundred drachmae ; that, I believe, is the usual price. You must pay the money to the provost-captain who supervised the execution : the bodies are his perquisite. Here, let me write you an order. No, I will charge you nothing ; I am in a generous mood this morning.”

Joseph of Arimathea thanked Pilate and went off with the order to the Tower of Phasael, where he found the three bodies still lying on the stone floor where they had been flung. The provost-captain would accept no money, and when Joseph explained that he could not have the body removed that day because work was forbidden on the Sabbath, undertook for a hundred drachmae to have it wrapped in a linen pall and laid on the slab in a new tomb which Joseph had bought for his own eventual use near the Grotto of Jeremiah. He also undertook for another hundred drachmae to set a sergeant’s guard over the tomb and keep the body there until the following morning, when Joseph would be able to dispose of it.

When Nicodemon heard what had been arranged, he sent Joseph a costly parcel of myrrh and aloes with the message : “For the interment of a certain innocent man.”

T
HE
guards, though chosen for their age and experience, did not relish the task assigned them by the provost-captain, of watching over a crucified magician’s body when witches and tomb-robbers might be about. Night drew on, and their uneasiness increased hour by hour as one of them, a native of Larissa, told them a number of horrific tales of Thessalian magic. He concluded the budget with : “And these are not lies or hearsay, comrades, for my young stepmother was a witch herself, as I have told you, a true daughter of Pan, and I myself stirred her cauldron when I was a child.” They dared not sleep and kept close to the camp fire, a few paces away from the tomb, plying the wine-cup.

Presently they were aware of vague figures prowling in the distance. They shouted a challenge, but no reply came.

“They are here, my lads,” muttered the sergeant, fumbling for his phallic amulet of Indian coral.

“How much longer until the dawn ?” they asked one another.

“At Larissa they seldom appear in their own shapes,” said the Thessalian, “but by use of unguents assume the disguise of weasel or cat, and can slip through any chink. To sever the extremities they use neither knives nor razors ; only their teeth will serve, and they file them for the purpose. Watch carefully for small creeping things. Fling a lighted brand at anything that moves.”

“Hist !” the sergeant interrupted. “Did you hear that ?”

“What was it? What ?”

“A groaning noise from inside the tomb.”

They held their breath in an agony of suspense, but heard nothing.

At first cock-crow the earth began to quake again. There were distant crashes and they felt as though they were on a raft tossed by a heavy swell.

“Look out there, look out !” someone yelled. The large boulder with which they had stopped the mouth of the tomb dislodged and came rolling down an incline, straight towards them. They flung themselves to safety, shouting for terror, and it crashed through the camp fire, scattering the brands and overturning their wine-jar. This was too much even for these veterans. They fled, and did not stop running until they reached the Joppa Gate.

The figures which they had seen in the distance were Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary his queen, Mary the Hairdresser, John, Peter and three Kenite chieftains, who had not trusted the Romans to guard the tomb and were taking turns to watch from a safe distance. When the camp fire was suddenly extinguished and the soldiers rushed past them, bawling unintelligibly, all but Mary the Hairdresser caught the contagion of fear.

They looked wildly at one another. “What happened? Did anyone see?

John, who had been lying concealed behind a thorn-bush close to the Romans, came back trembling to report : “The boulder came rushing out and scattered the sticks of the camp fire.”

Mary the Hairdresser said : “This is the time of most danger. Who will come with me to mend the fire and keep watch beside it until dawn ?”

The Kenites excused themselves. “There is no need. The moon gives sufficient light. It is best not to meddle with such things by moonlight.”

“Are you afraid because the boulder rolled away ?”

“Do stones move of themselves ?”

She walked resolutely to the camp fire, heaped the sticks together, and knelt down to blow up the flames. Then she rose and went towards the tomb. The flickering light from the fire illuminated the interior dimly. At the foot of the slab upon which she had expected to see the body stood a squat white figure. She shrieked : O! O! Look where it stands! Look!

“What is there ?” Peter shouted back.

“A headless spirit at the foot of the slab. The corpse is gone.”

Peter started up and ran towards her. But he was stiff from his scourging, and John, who went with him, reached the tomb first. He peered in and, by the light of a flaming brand which he had snatched from the fire, saw that the spirit was only a pile of grave-clothes.

He said to Peter as he hobbled up : “The Romans have tricked us! Someone has broken into the tomb and left only the grave-clothes.”

Peter entered without hesitation. What surprised him was that the robbers had neatly folded the linen pall and draped it over the end of the slab, with the head-napkin laid close beside it.

The rest of the company then came up, and each in turn ventured into the tomb. No one knew what to do, but since the guards had left their arms and cloaks and cooking utensils behind, they decided to await their return.

The guards reappeared at the first light of dawn, and a loud altercation immediately began between the sergeant and Peter, each accusing the other of grave-robbing. Peter produced Pilate’s order for the possession of the body and threatened to make trouble with the provost-captain.

The sergeant laughed derisively : “Why, Simon Barabbas, what a glutton you are for blows !”

The Kenites intervened and peace was presently restored. After a great deal of argument it was established that nobody present could have spirited away the body, that its disappearance was due to supernatural causes, and that nothing could be done.

It was now broad daylight and everyone returned to the City except Mary the queen, who remained weeping by the tomb.

A man tightly wrapped in a cloak and wearing no shoes emerged from the Grotto garden. He stopped beside her and asked her why she was weeping.

“The body of one whom I loved has been stolen. Are you the caretaker of the Grotto? Can you tell me where to look for it ?”

“Mary !” he said.

She stared incredulously. It was Jesus.

“Lord, have you then conquered Death ?” She would have clasped his knees, but he stepped back.

“Do not touch one who has hung upon a cross. Leave me now, beloved. Go back to the City and tell my disciples that I am alive.”

In a daze she hurried to where they had agreed to meet—the room that Nicodemon had provided for their use throughout the Feast—and burst in upon them. “He is alive! Jesus is alive! Peter, I have seen him ; he is wearing your cloak. I recognized the patch in the shoulder.” For Peter had left his cloak behind him when Mary the Hairdresser had screamed for help and forgotten to recover it.

John said reprovingly : “Woman, you are out of your senses. We have been already deceived once in the matter of a spirit that proved to be only a pile of grave-clothes.”

“I assure you that I have seen him.”

They would not believe her and angrily told her to be gone.

She went away, and not long afterwards Jesus himself silently entered the room. They nearly died of fear. He stood half-smiling with one hand on the latch, looking like a child who comes downstairs at midnight into a room when his parents are entertaining guests, and does not know what welcome to expect.

Peter stared at him, opening and shutting his mouth, unable to speak ; Thaddaeus fainted away.

Thomas was the first to recover his voice : “If you are Jesus, allow me to touch you, to make sure that you are no demon.”

“Look at my hands. Look at my feet. But do not touch what is accursed.”

“If you are accursed, let me be accursed with you. I am called your twin.” He gently touched the injured palms.

Jesus told them : “Children, I have come to say farewell. In a little while you shall see me for the last time, and again in a little while you shall see me more clearly than heretofore.”

Philip asked : “Where are you going, Lord ?”