As he rode along,
people kept spreading their cloaks on the road,
saying, “Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Holy One!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
—Luke 19.36, 38
There was tumult in the city, a crowd.
He entered riding a donkey;
clearly he wasn’t a billionaire.
People stood along the road with signs
and cheered, or sang protest songs
against the Emperor, while, uptown,
the Emperor’s local enforcer, back from a golf trip,
also rode in, with the usual motorcade.
One couldn’t bow to both. It was one or the other.
The Pharisees saw exactly what was gong on.
“Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”
But there was no stopping them,
the voice crying out for deliverance
coming from the very earth.
Of course it would amount to nothing.
Soon the dissident would be arrested,
without a real trial, just a lot of accusations.
Encouraged by religious hardliners,
the governor, overnight, issued an executive order
that he be eliminated, and that was that.
Still, year after year we gather along that road,
singing our hopeful songs of deliverance
and waving our palms for a lost cause.
Year after year we’ll stand by as he’s executed.
We’ll betray and deny and kick ourselves afterward,
like we’ve scored a goal for the opposing team.
And then year after year we’ll go on, like onlookers,
like concertgoers, or maybe people who have
observed a video of some tribal initiation rite;
we’ll go on, pleased that he’s died for us,
but not really clear which side we’re on.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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