The Mirror
Three ‘t’s on the scrubby hill, neatly crossed the Roman way,
The naked ‘i’s, skewered like worms, dotted burgundy with blood,
As clear to the passing eye as three billboards by a roadside:
Death to the thief. Death to the rebel. Death to the author of life,
Not even important enough to murder on his own, he,
Just one in three, the uprooted vine stretched out on a barren tree:
The anointed poured out, the gift scorned
The able disabled, the healer torn,
The way barred, the truth buried,
The life killed, the door bouldered,
The King mocked, the reconciler, reviled,
Grace, beauty, glory in spited spittle defiled,
The light snuffed out… Darkness at noon,
The world dancing to its self-enthroning tune,
The shepherd like a lamb to such slaughter.
The teacher taught his final lesson. In torture.
I know, I know on this Good Friday, that Sunday is but a blink away.
But this Friday is each and every year our ‘why’ day.
I look up from the water eddying out of the bathroom sink,
And see the billboard on the wall in front of me:
Whose rebellion required such grim reparations?
For whom would love submit to such savage butchery?
And the face on the billboard mouths slowly back, “Me”.
Mark Greene
Lent, 2018
Dear Mark
BRILLIANT – THANK YOU. YOU’VE CREATED BEAUTY OUT OF REJECTION, DESTITUTION AND ABANDONMENT. IN THE PROCESS YOU’VE REFRESHED MY SOUL. MAY EASTER BRING YOU EVERLASTING JOY, WITH LOVE, Ralph
…and ME
Profound and yet beautiful
Mark, that was so thought provoking… thank you for disturbing the ease in my soul, and drawing me back to the reality
Very thought provoking, always good to have a new way of looking at Good Friday.
Especially the last line; we are all guilty.
Great ……
spine-tingling. thank you.
Like it.
Says it all
Reflects my thoughts
Why Should it have happened that way?
To save?
Was it worth it ?
Especially the state of the world today !
Which is going to hell in a handcart!
Perhaps northerners will understand that last bit.
Brilliant!
May I use it in services if I credit you?
Hope there’ll be a book of Mark’s poetry sometime…
Hi Kate,
Really glad you liked the poem. Yes, you’d be so welcome to use the poem in your service(s), as long as you credit Mark. Thanks for asking!
All the best,
Nell
Powerful indeed
Beautifully crafted. Thank you.
I agree with all the above – my wife and I read it over breakfast and it has set us up spiritually for the next few days – thanks Mark.
What can we say in the face of such furious love? As for me “nothing”
I don’t have the gift. I thank the Lord, on the other hand, you do!
Thank you mark, for your deep thoughtful expression not looking at the cellophane wrapped obviousness of Good Friday, but drawing me deeper into it.
Wow!
“Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling”
Thank you.
Skull
Whose hand held the nail?
Whose calloused fist beat home
The iron into blood stained wood
Three times?
How gracelessly was lifted high
The healer, teacher, people’s friend?
Who stood there mocking on Passover’s eve
Scoffing blind to their Messiah’s pain?
And as your heart reached out
To those beside and those below,
As blood and sweat dragged out by gravity
Betrayed the ground
As death eclipsed
The Life
There death expired
Broken
For the ones who held the nails
Brilliant, visceral and touching. Thank you Mark.
A profound poem stripping us, and Jesus, back to who we really are. I have shared this poem on the intranet at work.
Mark
So moved to read this. I share your mirror. Jon
Thanks so much, came at just the right time for me.
To the cross HE willingly went. Obedient to the end HE was. Dying a gruesome death just for me. Where would I be without the “GOOD FRIDAY “. Lord I’m eternally grateful.
Thank you so much for writing this heart felt and moving poem.
So powerfully expressed. OK to share on twitter?
Yes please do share the link on Twitter!
Thanks
Nell
Many thanks Mark for enabling us to stop and embrace Good Friday. It is a day that we would rather rush pass so that we can get to Resurrection Sunday.
Thank you, Mark. It’s beautiful and striking.
– Heather from Boston
Brilliant
Typically magnificent.
Beautiful
Savage and yet beautiful
Thank you
Thank you, Mark, you have blessed me today.
Guilty but so loved by the King who gave his all.,forever grateful!
So evocative of so many agonising images, making me conscious of the healing wounds. Thank you for this. Such artistry with words. Keep painting the mind-pictures, and stirring hearts. Thank you.
Thanks Mark. Me too.
Fabulous! A modern take on the old hymn:
Was it for me He bowed His head
Upon the cross and freely shed
His precious blood – that crimson tide
Was it for me the Savious died?
It was for me, yes all for me
O love of God, so great so free
O wondrous love, I’ll shout and sing
He died for me my Lord and King.
Thank you too Steph Downham. Lots of comments helping us think further too.
Brilliant… simply brilliant… brought me to tears and prepared my heart for this day of quiet reflection and worship.. Un très grand merci!
So powerful
Thank you
Dear Mike,
I heard this poem for the first time during yesterday’s evening service at Oundle Road Baptist Church. Several of the congregation were so impressed that they have urged me to include it in the next church magazine (free of charge). Would this be possible?
Thank you
Thanks for the query Geoff, we’ve asked and one of the team will email you back directly!
Our Vicar read this out at our Good Friday service this morning and it had a most profound effect on me. So powerful and moving. Thank you.
This is so powerful – this Easter is going to be different in so many ways, but we will perhaps meditate more deeply on the sufferings and sacrifice of the Lamb of God and how personal it is for us. Thank you!