Cross

Exhausted, weary, beaten and bowed down
The Lamb of God awaiting awful deed
Of execution, hoping for return
Of strength to endure suffering and pain
Which would now be his lot for humankind.
To dull the pain the soldiers offered him
A bitter cup, a poisoned chalice of
Wine mixed with gall, a bile most bitter which
Would help the Lamb of God to endure all
Which now awaited him. He tasted of
The cup, its sharpness so far distant from
The sweetness of the cup at Passover
Symbolic yet of cup accepted thus
In prayer within the grove which now seemed like
A distant memory which now could not
Be brought back to assist Him at this hour.
Refused he of the cup, despite its hope
Of death less painful, he must undergo
The full and lengthy punishment at hand.
For now the sacrifice for human sin
The final bloody offering would for
All time and all people propitiate
Yahweh’s displeasure at the sight of sin,
A barrier that served to separate
Us all from Yahweh’s everlasting arms
Of love, hope, joy and peace eternal found
Upon the shores of Paradise so sweet.
No more would sacrifice be needed to
Remove the wrath of Yahweh, for the Lamb
Would now be offered. Now laid on the ground
And helpless to escape the piercing nails
With rough and heavy hands the soldiers took
Each arm, stretching His joints so that they were
Almost to breaking point, yet not one cry
Of pain was uttered forth only a prayer
By which his executioners would be
Forgiven for their unrelenting act
Of barbarism: “Father forgive them
They do not know what they are doing, so
Forgive them freely, forgive, do not hold
This sin against them, for this is your will
That I be lifted up from this poor earth
To draw all human souls to Our pure love.”
Prayed He this utterance, even as nails
Their cruel journey into human flesh
And bone were sped to crunch and tear His wrists,
Blood spurting forth in rivers running down
His arms and to the ground, a sea of red
To cleanse and wipe away all human sin
An ocean of forgiveness, life laid down
To demonstrate the greatest love of all.
The searing agony more keenly felt
As He was lifted up, and now his feet
That trod the earth with messages of peace
And news of Yahweh’s kingdom eternal,
Which travelled to bring healing to sickness
And drive out demons, Satan’s minions,
Now too succumbed to nails to paralyse
And hold the Lamb of God unto the tree
Of shame, to take our burdens on himself
And leave us burdenless, Dear Lord, such love.
Yet He who now was suffering still prayed:
“Father forgive them, for they do not know
What they are doing. Freely forgive them.”
The criminals who trod the same hard path
Were crucified on either side of Him.
A trinity of agony and pain
Bloodletting, suffering and viciousness.
The flow of blood at Golgotha became
The climax of the flow which started from
The scourging post, the source of river red
By which the path between the two is stained
With blood, that road to Calvary’s hill once trod
By bleeding Lamb of God, with open wounds
Seeping forgiveness down upon that path
To lead us all to Paradise’s shore
Robed in His righteousness, and made His sons
And daughters by adoption and by grace.
Above His head, a sign that did display
His crime was fastened to the cross which read:
“This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king
Of the Jews” which was written in Latin
And Aramaic and Greek so that all
The world would see it, both Gentile and Jew,
A mission statement but without intent
Of being so, yet Jesus’ kingship was
There for all humankind to see despite
The protestations of the chief priests who
To Pilate made their complaint with these words:
“It is not seemly that the charge above
His head should speak of treason and of his
Unutterable blasphemy against
The Blessed One. We charge you, do not write
The sentence ‘This is the king of the Jews’
But rather that this man had claimed to be
The king of the Jews, for our faith will not
Allow such blasphemy to be displayed
Lest people see the charge and then believe
In this false prophet, please remove the sign.”
Upon hearing their complaint, Pilate said:
“Your laws and beliefs mean nothing to me,
I and my Roman officers are here
But to administer and keep the peace
And justice, such as we have done today.
What I have written, I have written. Now
Depart from me, for I will hear no more
Of your complaint and murmurings, begone.”
The sign remained, a testimony to
The truth of Jesus, king of kings to all
Who come to him, their homage for to pay.
O Lamb of God, now fastened to the tree
Bearing the searing pain of thorns and nails
And wicked stripes to hasten you to die
Blood splattered and alone this is your throne
Inglorious majesty on high, the shame
And ignominy borne by you to save
All human souls from consequences of
The stain of sin that blotted Eden fair
And caused thick darkness to blot out the light
Of Heaven’s radiance, a barrier
That comes between the sight of Yahweh God
And His creation, tarnished through and through.
How rapidly does sin contaminate
All thoughts and speech and actions to betray
And nullify all godly intent which
Serves only to give reign to weakness and
Surrender to the fight to which we would
In aspiration bright would want to serve
Only to find no courage for the task
As human deference and weakness takes
A stranglehold upon our feeble minds.
You hang there, arms outstretched and out of joint
Your breathing nothing more than choking gasps
As lungs are weakened, crushed by overload
Of effort to sustain a sense of life.
Bloodthirsty offering, so undeserved
And yet so freely taken. Look upon
The spotless Lamb, the final offering
Who takes, once and for all, away our sin
And who removes the barrier between
Humanity and Yahweh, to appease
His wrath and indignation of the Fall.
These are your final hours, long seem they
A fierce eternity of suffering,
Humiliation, mockery, insults
From those blind sheep swayed by perpetual lies
From lips that bear no honourable talk
Of your true kingship and your righteousness
But only serve to sway the masses by
Tradition blind, inflexible recourse
To rigid strictures narrowed by their minds
And stony hearts of retribution.
These are your last hours as the Son of Man
Who must endure the horrors of the mind
As well as searing suffering physical.
A victim, to the serpent’s awful glee
With mental daggers to cut through the mind,
Coward of cowards is he, for now he climbs
Upwards to whisper in the Saviour’s ear
Such lies as to torment and terrify
And sow the seeds of doubt and of despair
Regardless of the inability
Of Him to nullify and to rebuke
Such softly spoken insinuations
Which falsely speak of the unworthiness
Of Jesus, Lamb of God, to far remove
The consequence of human frailty
The triumph of the serpent’s foul designs.
All forms of anguish take their hold and grip
The Lamb of God, in hapless helpless state
Of mind and heart unable to escape
The horrors yet to come from every side
Of the vile serpent’s fiery armoury.
Here the full force of mental agony
Coupled with helplessness and paralysed,
Assaults with piercing sharpness as a blade,
Runs through the body, crude and merciless,
Making the need to breathe ever more worse
As rivers red run down the wooden frame
Or freely drip from metal fastenings
That hold the Saviour’s hands and feet with grip
As of a wrenching, paralysing hold.
No respite for the holy Lamb of God
Who must endure the punishment ordained
To free us all from Satan’s wickedness
And put us on the path that leads to God.
Their work now done, the soldiers roll the dice
To take amongst themselves possession of
His garments, naked was the Lamb of God
A source of shame and humiliation
As would befit a criminal, but yet
No crime had He committed, yet was forced
To be the butt of insult, shame and scorn.
The garments shared out equally, but not
The undergarment, woven without seam
Was gambled for, as soldiers idly passed
The time of day away, to them this was
Yet but another criminal for whom
Just punishment would be the due reward,
Yet ignorant of the significance
Were they of what His sacrifice would mean
For those who would believe and would accept
Salvation from His hands to lead them to
Eternal life on Paradise’s shore.
Now were the scriptures in the Psalms fulfilled,
Authenticating Yahweh’s purposes,
So even they obeyed His holy will
Idleness even has its place divine!