to the Roman judgment seat; “ Behold your King,” said he, to make the irony complete. “ Away with Him, away with Him, let Him be crucified!” This cry prevailed as Pilate failed to stem the rising tide. Then, “ Shall I c r u c i f y your King?” he said despite his fears. “We have no king but Caesar,” came the answer to his ears. He finally consented to accom plish their demands, And stood before the multitude to wash his guilty hands. He did concede in word and deed; he set Barabbas free, And Jesus bore the lash before the crowd in agony. They put on Him a purple robe; He wore the thorny crown, While soldiers coldly tried to drag the name of Jesus down. The men saluted Jesus with a loud sarcastic “Hail!” And tortured Him inhumanly, but all to no avail. They bowed the knee in mock ery; a spitting crowd were they; They smote His head and later led the King of Kings away. The purple robe had been re moved ; His raiment was His own. The people sought to make Him bear His heavy cross alone. The steps of Jesus faltered on the old Golgotha road, So they compelled another man to bear the heavy load. His tortured soul was near its goal; the Man of Sorrows came To Calvary, the place where He mus t bear Hi s greatest shame. But women of Jerusalem had fol lowed near at hand, And wailed and wept for Jesus— this heroic, helpless band. They saw the Son of Man refuse the vinegar and gall, And seemed to be the only one who cared for Him at all. The human race would turn its face defiantly away,
forth, some miracle to see, But only went unheeded by the Man o f Galilee. The men o f Herod mocked Him, and the accusations rose, And Jesus seemed completely at the mercy of His foes; For Herod sought to set at nought this Man of pure re port; The Lord was spumed and then returned to Pilate and the court. The governor prepared to set this Man at liberty, For neither he nor Herod could condemn Him lawfully. Now Pilate sought to free Him by traditional release, But sentiment was moved against the mighty Prince of Peace. This shiftless herd o f men pre ferred a murderer instead, And hoped to make the Master take his place among the dead. “Release Barabbas unto us,” they cried with one accord, So Pilate asked what he should do with Jesus Christ the Lord. A crown of thorns was fashioned for the Galilean King; While old Praetorium itself ac quired a deathly ring. The swelling cry was “Cruci fy ” ; it rose without a pause, But Pilate still forbade to kill a man without a cause. “ I find no fault in Him,” he said, “What evil hath He done?” The Jews replied that He had made Himself as God the Son. The governor was threatened by the leaders of the mob, And feared to think of losing his position and his job. The people made him more afraid than ever in the past, And he was bound to lose his ground before the verbal blast. The heart o f Pilate trembled as he wondered what to do. He couldn’t honor Caesar great and honor Jesus too. He brought the Master forward
faint; he rose in deep despair And tried to hide amid the throng qu i ck l y assembled there. But he was apprehended twice in but a little while, And twice again denied His Lord in very vulgar style. And met the gaze of Jesus Christ whom he had failed to own. A cock was heard, a conscience stirred, and Peter went out side To bear his grief without relief in tears he couldn’t hide. The dreadful night was over and the morning came at last. The Lord was left forsaken by the faithful of the past. The council met together to decide and shape His fate, And led Him off to Pilate in an at mosphere of hate. They lied with grim reports of Him be f o r e the judgment hall; Divinely trained, the Lord re mained in silence through it all. Now Pilate marveled greatly that He answered not a word To charges more offensive than the court had ever heard. The governor inquired of the Kingdom and the King, And wondered that His enemies had failed to prove a thing. The scene conveyed that He was made the victim o f a grudge. “What hast thou done?” the royal Son was questioned by the judge. The regal Christ again declared His case before the hall, And Pilate stated he could find no fault in Him at all. The Lord was sent to Herod with a similar result, Though charged to be the leader o f a detrimental cult. This Herod mean had never seen the Son of God before, Nor had he heard the Living Word, or seen His deeds of yore, The petty ruler brought Him
32
Made with FlippingBook HTML5