So great was the exultation, so unrestrainedly did their loving cries rend the skies, that Jesus wept, but His disciples proudly said:
“Is not this the Son of God with us?”
And they themselves cried out with enthusiasm: “Hosanna! Hosanna! He that cometh in the name of the Lord!”
That evening it was long before they went to bed, recalling the enthusiastic and joyful reception. Peter was like a madman, as though possessed by the demon of merriment and pride. He shouted, drowning all voices with his leonine roar; he laughed, hurling his laughter at their heads, like great round stones; he kept kissing John and James, and even gave a kiss to Judas. He noisily confessed that he had had great fears for Jesus, but that he feared nothing now, that he had seen the love of the people for Him.
Swiftly moving his vivid, watchful eye, Judas glanced in surprise from side to side. He meditated, and then again listened, and looked. Then he took Thomas aside, and pinning him, as it were, to the wall with his keen gaze, he asked in doubt and fear, but with a certain confused hopefulness:
“Thomas! But what if He is right? What if He be founded upon a rock, and we upon sand? What then?”
“Of whom are you speaking?”
“How, then, would it be with Judas Iscariot? Then I should be obliged to strangle Him in order to do right. Who is deceiving Judas? You or he himself? Who is deceiving Judas? Who?”
“I don’t understand you, Judas. You speak very unintelligently. ‘Who is deceiving Jesus?’ ‘Who is right?’”
And Judas nodded his head and repeated like an echo: