Nicodemus
We cannot do more than he wishes and commands; and he renounces his defence.
Mary Magdalene
But you do not see that he does that to try your faith, your strength, your love!...
Nicodemus
He foretold all this many times....
Mary Magdalene
That was because he knew the cowardice of those who pretended to love him!... Ah, men are great and heroic and proud!... The only men who have not fled, those who tremble least, the best of you discuss and argue as though they had to do with a measure of wheat; and the women are silent and weep!... Well, what do you say, my sisters?... Is not this the moment to show your love?... And those whom he has healed, where are they, what are they doing?... You there, who want to flee, blind Bartimæus, the other one from Jericho, the other from Siloam: those eyes, which he has opened, you turn from me, because I have the courage to speak to you of him!... You, Simon the Leper, you, the other from Samaria, have you forgotten that, before he came, you were more hideous than death?... I see nothing around me but miracles in hiding!... The man whose hand was withered, the man who was healed of a dropsy on the Sabbath and the man of Gerasa possessed by a devil, who dares not lift up his head!... And, among the palsied, he of Bethesda who is running to the door, using his legs only to forsake the God who healed him!... Even those whom he raised from the dead are afraid!... Why, look at Lazarus: he is more pale than any of you!... And yet you saw death, you; you lay touching it for four long days.... Is it more terrible than men thought?... You do not answer?...
(A long pause.)
Joseph of Arimathæa