Jesus In India — Page 46
36 JESUS IN INDIA mischievous people, and were quite ready to report him to Caesar, Pilate used a subterfuge to release Jesus, the Messiah. First, he ordered the crucifixion of Jesus, the Messiah, to take place in the expiring hours of a Friday, close to the night of Sabbath. Pilate was only too well aware that according to the Jewish law Jesus, the Messiah, could only be kept on the cross until that evening, as the Sabbath would then begin and it would be unlawful to keep the bodies on the cross. And this is precisely what transpired and Jesus, the Messiah, was taken down from the cross before the evening. It is unthinkable that the two thieves should be alive after two hours and Jesus, the Messiah, should be dead; this was rather part of the design not to allow the bones of Jesus, the Messiah, to be broken. To a person with some common sense, it is indeed a reasonable point to ponder that the two thieves were taken down alive from their crosses. Indeed, it was normal practice that people were taken down alive from the cross and died only when their bones were broken or they breathed their last because of hunger and thirst after staying on the cross for a few days. But Jesus, the Messiah, had to suffer none of these travails. Neither was he kept on the cross hungry and thirsty for so many days, nor were his bones broken. And by pronouncing that Jesus, the Messiah, had died the Jews were made oblivious of his state but the bones of the thieves were broken and their lives thus ended. It would be understandable if even one of the two thieves had died and there had been no need to break his bones. Furthermore, Joseph, a close friend of Pilate's, who was a chief in those parts, and a secret disciple of Jesus, the Messiah, hap- pened to arrive at this very moment. I presume that he too was summoned by Pilate. Jesus, the Messiah, was declared dead and