Passion Redoublé (13)

Sonnet/Station No. 13 - Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross.
The body taken down is cold, condemned,
But first a lance is thrust--so true and fierce--
Into Christ’s side, as one old prophet penned:
“They will look upon him whom they have pierced…”.
But Zechariah knew the song he’d sung,
While writing, too, five hundred years before:
“They’ll mourn him as one mourns an only son…”
Indeed, that Son we mourn now, and adore.
And when one Joseph of Arimathea--
With his freshly-cut rock-hewn tomb--
Asks Pilate for the body of Jesus,
Pilate nods, granting Joseph the boon.
Joseph next wraps the corpse in fresh linen,
Then to the tomb, as if this were the end.