Betrayed, denied, and crucified, He hung upon the cross; Upon the tree at Calvary He suf fered total loss. The people stood beholding Him— the Christ, the Undefiled, And held Him in derision while the passing crowd reviled. They told the Lord to save Himself and show His deity, While priests and others mocked again the Man of Galilee. In unbelief one dying thief assailed Him with the tongue; The other one besought the Son to save him as he hung. The Master closed the issue with a promise to redeem, Though soon His grieving heart would know the agony supreme. The load of sin for all the world would soon be His to bear; The righteous wrath of God Himself must come upon Him there. His Father dear must turn His ear away from God the Son, And hide His face as in disgrace from Christ the Holy One. A deathly darkness veiled the earth, and day became as night; The sun itself was darkened when it should have been so bright. The light of God was blackened and the face of God was veiled; And Christ the Son of God was left forsaken as He wailed. Observers thought that Jesus sought a prophet of the past, And stopped to see if possibly re lief would come at last. The Son of God was on the cross, for man had done his worst, And openly rebelled against the King who said, “ I thirst” They gave Him vinegar to drink; He took the bitter cup, And uttered, “ It is finished,” and the ghost He yielded up. A holy flood of precious blood was shed upon the tree; For Jesus bled that stream of red for all—for you and me. The might of God was witnessed when the Lamb of God was slain; From top to bottom did He rend the temple veil in twain. The earth did quake beneath His hand, and ageless rocks were rent; And those who stood beholding truly wondered what it meant. But there was one centurion with others near the scene Who saw the death — the final breath of Christ the Nazarene. They seemed to feel the earth con vulse with power divinely odd,
Then, “ Shall I crucify your King?” he said despite his fears. “We have no king but Caesar,” came the answer to his ears. He finally consented to accomplish 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 mockery; a spitting crowd were they; They smote His head and later led the King of Kings away. The purple robe had been removed; 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 must bear His greatest shame. But women of Jerusalem had followed 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 ones who cared for Him at all. The human race would turn its face defiantly away, And show its hate without the gate on this, its judgment day. The Lamb of God was sacrificed upon a cross of wood; Outside the ancient city wall the mor bid object stood. They crucified the Master with a thief on either side, And willed to make Him suffer even more before He died. Then Pilate wrote a triple note, a short and pointed thing; Above His head the title read that Jesus was the King. Transgressors He was numbered with to prove the Scriptures true, And then he prayed, “ Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He prayed for those who cast the lot to take His clothes away; He prayed for those who hated Him, as only He could pray.
AN EPIC OF EASTER Continued from page 15 Though charged to be the leader of 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 forth, some miracle to see, But only went unheeded by the Man of Galilee. The men of 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 report; The Lord was spurned and then returned to Pilate and the court. The governor prepared to set this Man at liberty, For neither he nor Herod could con demn Him lawfully. Now Pilate sought to free Him by traditional release, But sentiment was moved against the mighty Prince of Peace. This shiftless herd of men preferred 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 acquired a deathly ring. The swelling cry was “ Crucify;” 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 posi tion 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 of Pilate trembled as he wondered what to do. He couldn’t honor Caesar great and honor Jesus too. He brought the Master forward 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.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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