The Passion of Christ
Jesus was repeatedly beaten in the
head while blindfolded
A spiky crown of thorns shoved down
his head
Brutally lashed repeatedly
Having had huge iron nails spiked through
both of his wrists and feet
Having been nailed to the cross
Having to heave and push up against
the cross in order to breath
Having succumbed to asphyxiation and
died
Spat at
Jeered at
Laughed at
Irreverently mocked at
Imagine the pain
Imagine being scourged with leather straps
embedded with sharp metal and broken glass fragments
with small metal balls sewn into the
end of each throng
Slash after slash
Whip after each whip
Skin and flesh flailing off
Exposure of flesh and bones
Scourging only stops when you are
near death
Imagine having punches thrown at your
face while blindfolded
Imagine being beat in the head by fists
and wooden staff
over and over
in mockery
Imagine having a crown made of thorns
shoved down your head
between your scalp and your skull
Imaging being interrogated and
falsely accused
Imagine carrying a cross beam of 100
pounds weight
After having suffered much blood loss
from the scourging of your back and head
Down the road where you always walked
Down the road where you were hailed
Hosanna in the highest
Just one week before
Imagine having lost so much blood
And was too weak to carry the cross
A stranger from the crowd had to
carry the cross for you
As you made your way to your place of
death
Your place of crucifixion
At the Place of the Skull
Imagine having spiky nails of 6 to 8
inches long
Driven into your wrists
Imagine the sound and the searing
pain
As each of these long nails are
driven into
Your left wrist
Your right wrist
Your stacked feet
Against the wooden cross
With your gaping back wounds
Scraping against the wooden
Splintery
Cross
Imagine the initial shock of pain coursing
through your body
With your wrists and feet nailed to
the cross
The weight of your body hanging by
the three nails
As you are being heaved up
As the cross is being hoisted to the
upright position
And stuck into the ground underneath
Imagine not being able to breathe
As your arms and chest are stretched
across the cross beam
That you have to push up and against the
cross
With the iron nail spiked through
your feet
Tearing at your flesh with each
heaving breath you take
Imagine your arms coming out of your
sockets
Dislocating your shoulder joints
As you push up against your nailed
feet
To
Take
in
A
Breath
To
Take
in
Each
Breath
Imagine the continual loss of blood
From your
Thorn crowned head
Exposed bloody back
Nails pierced wrists
Nail pierced feet
Even as you push up for each breath
Imagine the searing pain
The scraping of the exposed wounds
From the scourging of your back
Against the rough splintered cross
As you pushed up against your feet
To take the next breath
And the next breath
And the next breath
Until you breathed your
Last
Breath
Jesus knew all this while praying
At the Garden of Gethsemane
That’s why He prayed
If at all possible
Please remove this cup from me
He prayed the same prayer three times
And each time
He submitted to the Father’s Will
Not my will but Yours be done
Jesus repeated
Jesus saw the joy set before him while
on the cross
Joy
While on the cross
Jesus saw joy
The joy of each of us
Having our sins washed
Us being redeemed
Us being cleansed
By the
One and only
Sacrificial Lamb
Who takes away the sins of the world
The only
Lamb of God
Whose blood
Takes away
Does away with
All
of our sins
Sins which we cannot cleanse
We cannot atone for
By our own efforts
No matter how much good we do
How well we try to behave
For nothing
Absolutely nothing
Can earn us our salvation
But
The
Blood
of
The
Sinless
Lamb
The CHRIST
We were the joy Christ saw while on
the cross
The joy of us becoming his sisters
and brothers
Co-heirs of Christ
Cleansed
Holy
Pure
Spotless
Just like Him
So that we might join him in glory
For all eternity
The cross is a curse to the world
The cross symbolizes shame and
humiliation to the world
But not to Jesus
And not to us
For the cross is where the Lover of
our Soul
Joyfully
Saw us
Beyond the cross
The accomplishment that only he can achieve
And he
Willingly
Stepped into this world as a young
babe
As he
Willingly
Stepped up to the cross as a savior
So that he might
Gain
Us
“…who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2b).
