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Calvary
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close enough to a sonnet Father, why have You forsaken Me,
Jesus, Your Only Begotten Son?
I thirst upon this cursed tree,
Forgive them, they know not what they've done!
I sweated blood in Gethsemane,
Praying if Your will this cup may pass!
Betrayed, a kiss unto Calvary,
To die for sinners gathered en masse;
Mocked with scourges, a crown of thorns,
Beaten, broken and given to shame,
Bearing by Your will their sinful scorns,
Death by crucifixion in Your Name!
My Spirit I commit unto You,
It is finished, Father, make them new!
I dislike the
I dislike the wrath-appeasement theology in Western Christianity (especially fundamentalism); and I like the Eastern Christian interpretation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son which points out that the wronged Father did not require---did not even ask---for any kind of appeasement from the repentant Son, nor was any penal sacrifice required. I like the simpler and (I think) more Biblical perspective that Sin (as a force, not as an individual failing) is the cause of Death (Genesis 2:17), and that Christ's death on the cross broke the lasting effects of this power---rather than merely appeasing the anger and outrage supposedly felt by His Father. (Again, nothing of that sort is attributed to the father figure in the parable.) Jonathan Edwards' "sinners in the hands of an angry God" approach to preaching/exegesis was obviously ignorant of the commutative and associative powers of logic when comparing 1 Corinthians 13 to 1 John 4. I apologize for my verbosity, but your poem inspired me to pursue this thought.
Starward