What else could I have done? 6

Part 6 - Jospeh

It was a travesty: I shall have to say something at the next Council meeting, and I know that Nicodemus will back me up. There was no way in the world that Jesus had a fair trial, and dragging us out of our beds at that time of morning… unheard of!

Some of the things he said really rang home to me, you know. All his talk of the Kingdom of God, it seemed to be…well, right, you know. I checked some of it out with the prophets’ writings, and there was definitely something there. Nicodemus told me that he’d had a chat with Jesus one night – well, he didn’t want the others to know; even then they were a little suspicious of him. Jesus had said something about being ‘born again’, which Nic hadn’t really grasped. But the more I think about it, the more I think ‘wouldn’t it be great to be able to start over again, wipe the slate clean’, you know.

Anyway, I felt that the least I could do after the way we’d treated him was to give him a decent burial – after all, he’d not had a decent death. I’d met Pilate once before at a civic function, so it was easy to go to him and ask for the body. He seemed quite surprised that Jesus was dead already, but his centurion assured him that he was – he’d stuck a spear in his side to make sure, he said.

So I wrapped him up, and placed him in a tomb I’d bought not long ago. I had planned to use it myself, but I figured this was as good a use as any for it… but what else could I have done?

 (c) John Simms 2010