Gaping Sigh of Treason

Gaping sigh of treason
Judas inside me
thirty pieces of envy
a handshake exchanged
guilt

Dancing around the flames of our sins
as our unholy bonfire
with raging claws we plundered
each individual hair
until we finished our Lord’s entire
beard between us

We opened the sinew
while the cat o’ nine tails
grinned and dispersed
upon his torso and back
we waited with anticipation
for the stripes to collect
39 times,
the circus of villans
spit violent words
and a saliva of injury

As the wounds gathered
and were broken into
his back, actual sins
tore a meek and Holy
heart,
the scalpel of sin
gushed rivers of mercy

A body strewn with holes
pinned the human map
of salvation
the blessed generations
would travel someday
His wounds were an elaborate
journey of faith
a priceless pearl scripture
spoke of
David prophesied the passion
a thousand years before
Romans rend His garments
dividing them as a common
thief
John and Mary Magdalene
were soldiers not measuring
humanly peril
to be at the foot of the Cross

Believers anointed with His
Holy dripping
Mary the mother of the Lord
bore the anguish of every woman
living the prophecy of the flaming
sword piercing her heart
the same sword that kept the curious
out of Eden
she bore to her breast
taking hold of the Finished Work
the shout of the bruised skull of Jesus

“It is Finished!”

Amidst the squeezing of the thorns
He asked the Father to forgive us
wearing all the monstrous stripes
that were against us
bodies silent with Peter’s tears
stumbling blindly through the gravel
of Jerusalem
little did he know the offense of betrayal
had been wiped clean
the billions of stains from a blade
the instrument of decapitation ended

The consummation of God for man
took place
Him for me
His stripes took mine
time went backward as Hezekiah’s sundial
moved the shadow away from itself
I moved back with each confession
toward the foundation of the world
when the angels had a unity they
later lost
there was no division
pride was not yet an expression
of the angelic host
only praise lifted up to the ears of God
and music birthed itself in the ear drum
of the Lord

And everything from rocks to trees cried out!
when Jesus bowed His head
they sensed something terrible
drought and famine and flood
earthquakes were concerned
with His passing
with the Word in a tomb
mountains and water mourned
desiring to move against the
agents of His death
the Pharisees except
for two
rolled up their scrolls
to wait for the Messiah
to come
they are still waiting in Jerusalem
for the Great King to excavate
their situation

Paul the great Jew
let layers of his flesh
peel back to reveal
God’s Glory
and that was his habit
being arrested and beaten
passing on his wounds
from church to church
the Holy Spirit would
not denounce the Messiah
letting all the stripes
bleed together
where it was impossible to know
where he ended and where His Lord
began

Love enmeshes wounds with celebration
and joy
victory with sorrow all into
a single cup
and following Jesus is drinking
His cup of solemn anguish
tested at Gesthemane
where the tiny vessels in His
mind exposed torment
dripping the rich blood of
a royal

Paul delighted in taking up his
own crucifixion stake as
a pattern of living
crucifying himself
on the inside
his upright beam next
to the Lord’s
to let reckless abandon
of sin be crucified
beside his master
to be resurrected
with Him and saint
after martyred saint
dipped blinding white
garments into His precious
blood
inheritors for all time
the stripes of the faithful
embroidered on the breastplate
of the Lord.

copyright2010misfit1965