.......The Passover moon was still
not put out by the Sabbath sun;
as I heard Magdalene and the others
downstairs whispering about.
Mary still lay on her tears,
fitfully sleeping with sigh and groan. "
Six hours since she bid me, "Peace, John,
A peace stopped by days of despair.
Seated on a foal amidst clamor and joy,
the Master had entered Jerusalem.
He shared a meal with us to start
a night of wonder and shock.
Having gone to pray and rest in the Garden,
we watched in fear and Peter
in anger as the betraying kiss caused Christ
to be led bended while unbent.
What horror filled us at the next dawn,
seeing Him beaten and torn.
They had stripped Him, shamed Him
and topped Him with a crown of thorns.
Bent by the beam, He stumbled,
and wrapped with blood and sweat;
He was Bogged through the streets to the
top of the rise, while we wept.
The right wrist took the first nail,
spreading bones, parting sinews.
Then lifted upright, His soles were
pinned with knees bent.
Mockery was raised overhead
by the fourth nail proclaiming
in all three languages reading,
"King of the Jews, this Nazarene"!
Hanging head and endless pain
set the muscles in rigor
Immobile that He could barely turn
from the gall-soaked sponge.
With first hour's strength He managed
to console his fellow hanged,
To Mary and me with solemn face said,
"Mother, behold your son."
The heat and wounds took their cost
of strength such that He
could not ease on numbed nailed feet
to free his chest to breathe.
Almost a smile appeared as He
breathed His last; and with
taut muscles fading, He hanged
with shoulders drawn in death.
The time to anoint His body is
now as the women left
this morning. Only they had the spirit;
we men had lost all hope.
Now from the bed I heard a frenzy
of voices whose message
was beyond reality and belief.
The tomb was open and void!
With the others, I hastened to find
the ten-foot stone aside. Seeing
within the once-hastened wrapping
neatly folded; we ran here and there.
Magdalene returned with a cry,
"I saw the Master alive!
Thinking Him the gardener at the first, when
He talked, it was Rabboni."
Her words swelled me with confusion, until
the Master’s words returned,
"I have overcome." The curse of death is gone’
Day one of the year one has dawned!
