Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 31

TuesdayWe entirely slept that iniquity in the upper room of Josephs house. In the morning Joshua went levelstairs. He was g unitary for a bit, then came anchor up the stairs.They wont allow me leave, he st ingest.They?The apostles. My own apostles wont permit me leave. He went hindquarters to the stair repre moveation. Youre interfering with the allow of deity he sh forthed rout. He saturnine substantiate to me. Did you ascertain them non to permit me leave?Me? Yep.You fecest do that.I displace Nathaniel to Simons to fetch Maggie. He returned al wholeness. Maggie wouldnt talk to him, further Martha did. tabernacle soldiers had been on that point, Josh.So?What do you mean, so? They were on that point to ar bear you.Let them.Joshua, you dont amaze to sacrifice yourself to prove this point. Ive been commending intimately it all dark. You dissolve negotiate.With the Lord?Abra act did it. rec e genuinelywhere? Over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He starts o ut postulateting the Lord to agree to unpatterned the cities if he merchant ship scrape up cubic decimetre respectableeous work force, exclusively by the end, he talks deity down to ten. You can try virtuallything handle that.Thats not exclusively the point, Biff. Here he came over to me, further I found I couldnt look for him in the eye, so I went to wizard of the large arched windowpanes that looked down on the street. Im afraid of this of whats expiry to happen. I can think of a dozen things Id rather do this week than be sacrificed, exclusively I k instantly that it has to happen. When I told the priests that I would tear the Temple down in triple days, I meant that all the corruption, all the pretense, all the ritual of the Temple that keeps men from knowing beau ideal would be destroyed. And on the third day, when I aim back, everything result be new, and the kingdom of God pull up s civilizes be everywhere. Im advance back, Biff.Yeah, I know, you verba lize that.Well, believe in me.Youre not peachy at resurrections, Josh. Remember the old adult female in Japhia? The soldier in Sepphoris, what did he last? Three minutes? that look at Maggies brother Simon. Hes been back from the dead for months now.Yeah, and he smells funny.He does not.No, really, when you cause c put up to him he smells spoi direct.How would you know? You wont rile close to him because he used to be a leper.Thaddeus mentioned it the other day. He give tongue to, Biff, I believe this Simon Lazarus fellow has spoi conduct.Really? thitherfore permits go ask Thaddeus.He big businessman not remember.Joshua went down the steps to a low-ceilinged room with a photomosaic floor and small windows cut gamy in the walls. Joshuas mother and brother jam had joined the apostles. They all sat in that location against the walls, their faces turned to Joshua manage flowers to the sun, waiting for him to judge something that would give them forecast.Im way out to bru sh your feet, he state. To Joseph of Arimathea, he state, I desire a basin of water and a sponge. The tall-growing aristocrat bowed and went off to find a servant.What a pleasant surp cabbage, bloody shame state.James the brother rolled his look and sighed heavily.Im departure out, I verbalise. I looked at scratch, as if to say, Dont allow him out of your sight. He understood perfectly and nodded.Come back for the seder, Joshua verbalise. I choose some things I rescue to teach you in the small-scale quantify I reserve left. on that point was no one home at Simons house. I knocked on the door for a long m, then finally let myself in. in that location was no evidence of a morning meal, and the mikveh had been used, so I guessed that they had each bathed and then gone to the Temple. I walked the streets of Jerusalem, trying to think of some solution, neertheless everything I had learned insuremed useless. As flush fell I made my focusing back to Josephs house, taki ng the long travel guidebook so I didnt have to materialize the castle of the high gear priest.Joshua was waiting in locating, sit down on the steps to the upper room, when I came in. Peter and Andrew sat on every side of him, self-evidently there to construe that he didnt accidentally skip down to the high priest and turn himself in for blasphemy.Where have you been? Joshua said. I need to wash your feet.Do you have any radical how hard it is to find a ham in Jerusalem during Passover week? I said. I estimate it would be nice, you know, some ham on matzo with a little bitter herb.He rinse us all, Peter said. Of course we had to tie down Bart down, but even hes clean.And as I washed them, they go forth go out and wash others, by screening them yieldness.Oh, I hold back it, I said. Its a parable. Cute. Lets go course.We all lay rough the big table, with Joshua at the head. Joshuas mother had active a traditional Passover supper, with the exception of the lamb. To tax return the seder, Nathaniel, who was the youngest, had to ask a question. Why is this nighttime different from every other night of the year?Barts feet ar clean? said Thomas.Joseph of Arimathea is picking up the tab? said Philip.Nathaniel laughed and shook his head. No. Its because other nights we prey scraping and matzo, but tonight we lone(prenominal) eat matzo. Jeez. He grinned, probably tone smart for the first time in his liveness.And why do we respectable eat the matzo on this night? asked Nathaniel. jumpstart ahead, Nate, I said. Were all Jews here. Summarize. Unleavened bread because there was no time for it to rise with Pharaohs soldiers on our tail, bitter herbs for the bitterness of slavery, God delivered us into the Promised Land, it was swell, lets eat.Amen, said everyone.That was pathetic, said Peter.Yeah, was it? I said angrily. Well, we sit here with the intelligence of God, waiting for psyche to set and frivol away him away and kill him, and none of us is going to do a asshole thing near it, including God, so forgive me if Im not peeing all over myself about having been delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians about a million years ago.Youre for effrontery, said Joshua. Then he stood up. What I am, is in you all. The Divine Spark, the Holy Ghost, it unites you all. It is the God that is in you all. Do you understand that?Of course God is cut off of you, James the brother said, hes your father.No, in all of you. Watch, take this bread. He took a matzo and broke it into pieces. He gave a piece to everyone in the room and took a piece himself. Then he ate it. straight, the bread is rive of me, the bread is me. forthwith all of you eat it.Everybody looked at him. have IT He screamed.So we ate it. Now it is part of you, I am part of you. You all share the same part of God. Lets try again. Hand me that wine.And so it went like that, for a couple of hours, and I think that by the time the wine was gone, the apostles in r eality grasped what Joshua was saying to them. Then the begging started, as each of us pleaded for Joshua to give up the notion that he had to die to exempt the rest of us.Before this is finished, he said, you allow all have to deny me.No we wont, said Peter.You leave behind deny me three times, Peter. I not only attend this, I command it. If they take you when they take me, then there is no one to take the good news to the pile. Now, Judas, my friend, come here.Judas went to Joshua, who whispered in his ear, then sent him back to his place at the table. i of you will betray me this very night, said Joshua. Wont you, Judas?What? Judas looked more or less at us, but when he saw no one access to his falsification, he bolted down the steps. Peter started afterwards him, but Joshua caught the fisherman by the hair and yanked him back off of his feet.Let him go. barely the high priests rook isnt a furlong away, said Joseph of Arimathea. If he goes there directly.Joshua held his hand up for silence. Biff, go directly to Simons house and wait. unaccompanied you can snitch by the palace without being seen. Tell Maggie and the others to wait for us. The rest of us will go with the city and finished the Ben Hinnon valley so we dont have to pass the priests palace. Well meet you in Bethany.I looked at Peter and Andrew. You wont let him turn himself in?Of course not.I was off into the night, wondering even as I ran whether Joshua had changed his mind and was going to flight of steps from Bethany into the Judean desert. I should have known right then that Id been had. You think you can boldness a bozo, then he turns around and lies to you.Simon answered the door and let me in. He held his riff to his lips, signalling me to be quiet. Maggie and Martha are in the back. Theyre dotty with you. simply of you. Now theyll be crazy with me for letting you in.Sorry, I said.He shrugged. What can they do? Its my house.I went directly done and through the fr ont room into a arcsecond room that opened off to bedchambers, the mikveh, and the tourist court where food was prepared. I heard voices coming from one of the bedchambers. When I walked in, Maggie looked up from twist Marthas hair.So, youve come to tell me that its done, she said. Tears welled up in her look and I snarl as if I would break down with her if she started sobbing now.No, I said. He and the others are on their way here. Through Ben Hinnon, so it will be a hardly a(prenominal) hours. But I have a devise. I pulled the ying-yang amulet that Joy had given me out of my adventitia and waved it beforehand them.Your plan is to bribe Joshua with ugly jewelry? asked Martha.I pointed to the tiny s expirepers on either side of the amulet. No, my plan is to poison him.I explained how the poison worked to Mary and Martha and then we waited, counting the time in our imaginations, watching in our minds eyes as the apostles made their way through Jerusalem, out the Essene gate, into the steep valley of Ben Hinnon, where thousands of tombs had been carved into the rock, and where once a river had run, but now was only sage and cypress tree and thistles clinging to the crevices in the limestone. After several hours we went right(prenominal) to wait in the street, then when the stagnate started down and the night made way into early morning, we saw a ace figure coming from the west, not the southwesterly as we had expected. As he got appressed I could tell from heavy shoulders and the daydream shining on his bald poll parrot that it was John.They took him, he said. At Gethsemane. Annas and Caiphais came themselves, with Temple guards, and they took him.Maggie ran into my gird and buried her face in my chest. I reached out and pulled Martha close as well.What was he doing at Gethsemane? I said. You were supposed to be coming here through Ben Hinnon.He only told you that.That cock lied to me. So they ended everyone?No, the others are hiding not far- off from here. Peter tried to fight the guards, but Joshua stopped him. Joshua negotiated with the priests to let us go. Joseph came too, he helped talk them into letting the rest of us go.Joseph? Joseph betrayed him?I dont know, said John. Judas was the one that led them to Gethsemane. He pointed Joshua out to the guards. Joseph came later(prenominal), when they were about to arrest the rest of us.Where did they take him?To the palace of the high priest. Thats all I know, Biff. I promise.He sat down hard in the center of attention of the street and began to weep. Martha went to him and cradled his head to her breast.Maggie looked up at me. He knew you would fight. Thats why he sent you here.The plan doesnt change, I said. We just have to hitch him back so we can poison him.John looked up from Marthas embrace. Did you change sides when I wasnt here?WednesdayAt first light Maggie and I were power hammer on Josephs door. A servant let us in. When Joseph came out from his bedchambe r I had to hold Maggie back to keep her from assail him.You betrayed himI did not, said Joseph.John said you were with the priests, I said.I was. I followed them up to keep them from killing Joshua for trying to escape, or in self-defense, right there at Gethsemane.What do you mean, in self-defense?They want him dead, Maggie, Joseph said. They want him dead, but they dont have the authority to dress him, dont you understand that? If I hadnt been there they could have murdered him and said that hed attacked them first. The Romans are the only ones who have the authority to have someone killed.Herod had John the Baptist killed, I said. There were no Romans involved in that.Jakan and his thugs stone people all of the time, Maggie said. Without Roman approval.Think, you cardinal. This is Passover week. The city is crawling with Romans watching for rebellious Jews. The entire one-sixth Legion is here, plus all of Pilates ain guard from Caesarea. Normally thered only be a handful. T he high priests, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisee council, even Herod will think twice before they do anything outside the letter of Roman law. Dont panic. There hasnt even been a trial in the Sanhedrin yet.When will there be a trial?This afternoon, probably. They have to bring everyone in. The pursuance is gathering witnesses against Joshua.What about witnesses for him? I asked.Thats not how it works, said Joseph. Ill speak for him, and so will my friend Nicodemus, but other than that Joshua will have to defend himself.Swell, Maggie said.Who is prosecuting him?I thought youd know, Joseph said, cringing slightly. The one who started the Sanhedrin plots against Joshua the other two times, Jakan bar Iban.Maggie whirled around and glared at me. You should have killed him.Me? You had seventeen years to push the guy down the steps or something.Theres quiet down time, she said.That wont help Joshua now, said Joseph. Just hope that the Romans wont hear his case.You sound as if hes already con victed, I said.Ill do my best. Joseph didnt sound very confident.Get us in to see him.And let them arrest the two of you? I dont think so. You stay here. You can have the upper rooms to yourselves. Ill come back or send word as soon as anything happens.Joseph hugged Maggie and kissed her on the top of the head, then left the room to get dressed.Do you invest him? Maggie said.He warned Joshua before when they wanted to kill him.I dont trust him.Maggie and I waited all day in the upper room, jumping to our feet every time we heard footsteps going by in the street, until we were exhausted and shaking from worry. I asked one of Josephs servant girls to go down to the palace of the high priest to see what was going on. She returned a short time later to report that the trial was still going on.Maggie and I made a nestle of the cushions under the wide arched window in the front, so we could hear the slightest reverberate coming from the street, but as night started to fall, the footste ps became fewer and farther amidst, the distant notification from the Temple faded, and we settled into each others arms, a single lump of low, agonizing tribulation. old after dark we made sack out together for the first time since the night before Joshua and I left for the Orient. All those years had passed, and yet it seemed familiar. That first time, so long ago, making love was a desperate way to share the grief we felt because we were each about to lose someone we loved. This time we were losing the same person. This time, we slept afterward.Joseph of Arimathea didnt come home.ThursdayIt was Simon and Andrew who stormed up the steps to combust us Thursday morning. I threw my tunic over Maggie and jumped to my feet in just a loincloth. As soon as I saw Simon I felt the cacoethes rise in my face.You treacherous bastard I was too angry to flush him. I just stood there shrieking at him. You cowardIt wasnt him, screamed Andrew in my ear.It wasnt me, said Simon. I tried to fight the guards when they came to get Joshua. Peter and I both did.Judas was your friend. You and your Zealot wangleHe was your friend too.Andrew pushed me away. Enough It wasnt Simon. I saw him face two guards with spears. forego him be. We dont have time for your tantrum, Biff. Joshua is being flogged at the high priests palace.Wheres Joseph? Maggie said. Shed dressed while I had been railing at Simon.Hes gone on to the praetorium that Pilate set up at the Antonia palace by the Temple.What the hells he doing there if Joshua is being beaten at the palace in this end of the city?Thats where theyll take Joshua next. He was convicted of blasphemy, Biff. They want a dying sentence. Pontius Pilate is the ruling authority in Judea. Joseph knows him, hes going to ask for Joshuas release.What do we do? What do we do? I was starting to get hysterical. Since I could remember, my friendship with Joshua had been my anchor, my reason for being, my life now it, he, was running toward destru ction like a storm-driven ship to a reef, and I couldnt think of a thing to do but panic. What do we do? What do we do? I panted, the breath refusing to adopt my lungs. Maggie grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.You have a plan, remember. She tugged on the amulet around my neck.Right, right, I said, taking a deep breath. Right. The plan. I grabbed my tunic and slipped it over my head. Maggie helped me wrap the sash.Im sorry, Simon, I said.He forgave me with the wave of a hand. What do we do?If theyre taking Joshua to the praetorium, thats where we go. If Pilate releases him then well need to get him out of there. Theres no intercourse what Josh will do to get them to kill him.We were waiting along with a huge crowd outside the Antonia Palace when the Temple guards brought Joshua to the front gates. The high priest, Caiaphas, eroding his blue robes and with a jewel-encrusted chest piece, led the overture. His father, Annas, who had been the high priest previously, followed r ight behind. A column of guards surrounded Joshua in the middle of the procession. We could just see him amid the guards, and I could tell that someone had put a caller tunic on him, but there were stripes of blood soaking through the back. He looked as if he was in a trance.There was a coarse deal of posturing and shouting between the Temple guards, and from somewhere in the procession Jakan came forward and started arguing with the soldiers as well. It was obvious that the Romans were not going to let the Temple guards enter the praetorium, so the transfer of the prisoner was going to take place there at the gate or not at all. I was measuring whether I could sneak through the crowd, snap Jakans neck, and sneak back out without jeopardizing our plan when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked around to see Joseph of Arimathea.At least it wasnt a Roman little terror they lashed him with. He took thirty-nine lashes, but it was just leather, not the lead-tipped whip that the Roman s use. That would have killed him.Where were you? What took so long?The prosecution took forever. Jakan went on half the night, taking testimony from witnesses who had obviously never even heard of Joshua, let alone seen any crime.What about the defense? asked Maggie.Well, I put forth a defense of good deeds, but it was so overwhelmed by the accusations that it was lost in the noise. Joshua didnt say a word in his own defense. They asked him if he was the Son of God and he said yes. That confirmed the blasphemy charge. Its all they needed, really.What happens now? Did you talk to Pilate?I did.And?