By a perversion of justice
he was taken away.
—Isaiah 53.8
Don’t blame the cross on God,
on some crazed deity’s scheme
to sell forgiveness for blood.
That’s a lie.
Jesus’ death wasn’t God’s plan:
it was ours.
This is the story of our fear,
and fear’s depravity and violence.
It’s the story of how we judge,
and think we can,
the portrait of fear’s only hands and feet:
curses, weapons, prisons, blood.
Forget your wearable crucifixes:
this is every rape and lynching,
every put-down, every beating,
every authoritarian act.
Look at the news: it’s that.
And it’s the story of another way, God’s way,
God’s unfailing love toward us,
and the Way God invites us to follow,
to thread all this brutality
with gentleness and blessing.
Notice the Two Ways.
Be astounded either way.
Make your choice.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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