Categories: uncategorized
Date: 14 April 2006 17:36:20
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”
Luke 23: 34
The son of man
God in human form
Born to us and for us
All powerful God nailed down by human hands.
The road from Bethlehem to calvary,
A rough and dangerous way filled with temptation and pain,
which he travelled willingly, that we might come to him.
“Love your neighbour” He said, “as you love yourself”
“Love the Lord” He said, “for he loves you”
He came from God, with a message of hope and salvation for all people.
They said he was trouble,
A liar, blasphemer and heretic.
The Lord was on their side,
They knew what he wanted of them,
How they should live.
This man, this carpenter, was speaking against God's laws,
Rocking the boat with his talk of forgiveness and humility.
Associating with prostitutes and tax-collectors,
He was degrading the church's good name, and must be removed.
Father, forgive them.
He questioned their authority and their motives,
their ideas and actions.
He made people ask questions,
think differently,
think for themselves.
And people followed him,
They listened to him, believed in him.
This was more than a nusiance.
He was a danger, a threat.
They plotted his capture, torture, and death.
He came with a message of love from God,
And they spat in his face and hung him on the tree to die
Father, forgive them.
In that week when hosanna turned to crucify,
Voices which had been raised in welcome and rejoicing
Were silent, and silenced, by the cries of the priests and leaders.
Friends and followers, scared and ashamed to admit they were so,
Did not stand against the crowd,
but joined in the chorus with their silence.
Closest friends, disciples, you and me.
Denied, betrayed, disowned him.
Abandoned him as he suffered in the garden
Turned their backs on his agony and left him in isolation.
Father, forgive them.
We were not there in the crowd, or on the hill that day.
Not our sins Lord, not our persecution, not me.
We sing hosannas gladly, waving palm leaves and rejoicing.
In the safety of the present, when the cross of calvary is so very far away.
Only to revert to inaction,
joining in the condemnation and betrayal when it doesn't suit us to follow.
We remember the cries of the crowd which sent him to the cross,
But forget, don't want to hear, our own voices within the noise,
Adding another “Crucify!”
Father, forgive them.
And yet he went, from the garden to the cross.
“Take this cup away from me?
But only if it is your will.”
He carried the burdens too heavy for us to bear,
He took on the weight of our sins,
and lifted them to the cross, and higher.
Dying for those who drove the nails home.
As they whipped and shouted, mocked and jeered,
He bore the pain for the sake of their sins,
And bled for them, that they might have eternal life.
As they lifted him high and shouted “save yourself”
He prayed for their forgiveness.
They knew not who he was.
And at that moment, in the misdt of seering pain,
Every trace of every sin was wiped away by his blood.
And with his dying breath, he cried,
Forgive!