As he neared Gethsemane he became strangely silent,
He had often visited this place for prayer ‘n meditation,
But never with a heart so full of grief
As upon this night of his last agony
Now he is to be counted amongst the transgressors,
The guilt of fallen humanity he now but bear
He that knew no sin,
Upon him is to be laid the iniquity of us all
So dreadful the sight of sin before him
So great the weight of guilt which he was to bear
That he is tempted to fear that it I will shut him
From the presence of the father forever.
But what was to be gained by this sacrifice he thought,
The teachers of the law had rejected him,
One of his most faithful disciples would deny him
One of his most trusted disciples would betray him
All would forsake him.
Jesus wondered at why all of humanity would unite in the plots of Satan against him
The conflict was terrible
As he contemplated the price to be paid for human soul
In his agony, he clings to the cold ground
As if to prevent him self from being farther from the father,
The cold chilling due of the night
Falls upon his prostrate form
And from his pale lips comes the bitter cry
Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me
Yet even now he adds
Nevertheless not as I wilt but as thou will
Trice he uttered this prayer and
Thrice his humanity shrunk at the reality of this last crowning sacrifice
The powers of good and evil waited earnestly
To hear God’s answer to
Christ thrice repeated prayer.
The angels from the heavens
Longed to bring relief to the divine sufferer
But this might not be,
As the mysterious cup trembled in the hands of the master
Behold the heavens opened and the angels came
But not to take the cup away from the masters hand but to strengthen him to drink it
With the assurance of the fathers love.
And the cometh Judas, with an evil passionate kiss he betrayed my master.
For two days he was without food or drink, he had faced the agony of Gethsemane,
The denial of peter,
The anguish of betrayal, he had been forsaken by all his closest allies
He had bee taken fro Annas to Caiphas,
From Caiphas to Pilate
From Pilate to Herod
And from Herod back to Pilate
From insult to renewed insult, from shame to mockery
Jesus the son of the living God.
As he passed through the gates of Pilate's courts
The cross that had been prepare for Barabas the thief
Was placed upon his innocent, bruised and bleeding shoulders
Some time ago his disciples would closing so close to him
As he walked the streets of Galilee
For it was a thing of high honour to be associated with the master,
But now in shame and humiliation they follow from a distance,
From the same lips that came the cries of praise
Hosanna Hosanna in the highest
As he made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem
Came the wicked cry
crucify him crucify him as he made his way to Golgotha and was nailed on the crosss
At the baptism and transfiguration,
The voice of God had been heard from the heaven
Proclaiming him as his beloved son
But now on the cross when the voice was needed the most
The beloved father was silent.
“if thou be the Son of God why don’t you save you self the people cried out
Little did they know that it was because he refused to save himself
That the world is safe today.
The sun refused to shine upon this awful scene
Amidst the thick darkness God’s presence was hidden
In this dreadful hour
Jesus is not to be comforted by the father’s unfailing love
The harsh lightening that struck that night
Seemed to be lashed at him
He could take it no more he cried out
Elloi Elloi Lama Sabach Thani,
My God my God why hath thou forsaken me
And the spotless Son of God
Hung on the cross, his body designed with stripe
Those hand of his that often reached out in healing
Nailed to the wooden bars
Those legs of his that moved so tirelessly in ministries of love
Spiked to the tree.
That royal head of his
Pierced with crown’s of thorns that mouth of his that so often the word of God came out shaped in a cry of woe
And in trumpet like tones that seemed to resound in all of creation he cried out
it is finished (thunder and lightening)
And Jesus bowed his head upon his breast and died
Apparently forsaken of God
He had drank his last from the cup of human woe.
But why didn’t the men of the day know the Son of God
At his birth the stars had know him and had guided the wise men to the manger where he did lay
Even the wind and seas had know him and had maintained their peace at his command
Demons and diseases had know him and trembled in fear at his word
The ricks had known him and had shivered into fragments when he cried out it is finished.
All of nature had known him, yet the men of the day knew not the son of the living God.
And the disciples watched in utter despair as he was brought down from that stained old rugged cross
His hair matted with blood
His eyes shot, his hands folded on his breast and his lips seeming forever silent
They watch as he was laid in a borrowed tomb, he that owned the whole of the world.
A heavy stone was rolled against the entrance of the tomb and a guard of a hundred soldiers kept to protect the tomb
Permit me to say he was very dead
But that s not how the story ends
For three days later early Sunday morning,
Behold Mary had gone to seek the corps of Jesus but it was said unto her why seek ye the living among the dead
For behold there was a mighty earthquake,
The angel of the lord had descended from the heavens,
His countenance was as lighten and his raiment as whit as snow,
For fear of him the guards did shake and became as dead men
Brave soldiers that have never been afraid of human power taken captive with neither sword nor spear
For the face upon which they looked today was not the face of a mortal warrior, but the face of the Captain of the Lord’s own army
They watched as he rolled away the heavy stone as one would kick away a tiny little pebble
And out of the grave Jesus came out proclaiming over the sepulcher
Oh death, where is thy sting, Oh grave where is they victory
For it is written of me in the Volume of the books that thou shall not leave my soul in Hades, neither shall you leave the son of man to rot hi hell
Cos even in the grave he is Lord
He died but he is not dead…he is alive
To turn your gory days into glorious days
You pains into gains
Your scars into stars that shine as brightly as the sun,
For he is alive again…cheer up brethren, he is alive!!