Confused, bewildered, and condemned
Was how the man did feel,
Tossed, torn, badgered and buffeted
A fish hooked on a reel
Pulled here and there with various
Demands upon his time
Just like a puppet on a string,
Chastised for no mean crime.
Each string pulls on an unhealed hurt
Lodged deep inside his past.
To shake the shame off, he lets loose
A violent verbal blast.
“I wasn’t wrong!” he argues.
“I was right to act that way!”
“Stop telling me what I must do.
You can’t make me obey!”
.
And yet he can’t escape the fear
Still tugging on his mind.
It keeps him bound as he seeks out
A safe place to unwind.
Then shouts a higher voice,
“Oh, you who know not what you do,
Behold my thorn-stained brow.
I came from heaven to die for you.
“I let myself be blindfolded and
Treated shamefully.
The blood flowed as they plucked my beard
Men hit and spat at me.”
“Confusion mocked my pain
As men who changed truth for a lie
Heaped insults on my head
And ordered me to prophecy.
“And as I hung upon that cross,
Engulfed in misery,
I felt abandoned and alone.
God had forsaken me.
“But though it didn’t make much sense,
That’s how it had to be.
Your heartache I took on myself,
That you might be set free.
“It isn’t yours to carry,
For I’ve risen from the dead.
Recall that you’re my body
And that I, Christ, am your head.
“So, cast your sorrows onto me,
Along with every strife,
And I’ll give you the joy
That springs up to eternal life.”
Signs, Wonders, Miracles 