SEVEN PHRASES FROM THE CROSS

I wrote this last week while travelling in the Atacama desert.  The Atacama is one of the driest places on Earth,^[9] and is virtually sterile because it is blocked from moisture on both sides by the Andes mountains  by the Chilean Coast Range. Here in this hot dusty environment I began to think about the fate of Jesus hanging on a cross in the middle of a desert place. A place where the waste from the city is discarded. Humanity has a great ability to treat humanity with such inhumanity. And when it comes to God – well we just don’t seem to be able to recognise him.

A man cried

Seven phrases

In a dry hot dust covered desert

Most thought he was mad

But his words changed humanity.

It seemed no one was listening

He was too hot to handle

Everything was over exposed

Including their souls

Too much sunlight obscures the view

He cries I’m thirsty

He become invisible

Two thousand years later nothing changes

The crucified poor are still left

To cry I’m thirsty 

A man had six phrases left

Six before he died

Surrounded by tretchery

Lies and steel

As soldier stabs his hand with nails

He drew the sting and spoke a word

That demons fear

And angels can’t repeat

And hammered blows are cushioned

By the shock  of  the cry  - Forgive!

Nothing changes

The crucified still forgive today

And in forgiving are crucified again

By those who refuse to let forgiveness

Reconcile  their hurting hearts to bring about peace

With five still left

One for each finger on his palm

Open hand and tearful eyed

He speaks to broken hearts

A word of comfort to revive

Behold my kin my friend your son

You can survive

The cruel lost

Embrace my gift close to your heart

Love camnot be crucified it will survive

Four phrases left still breathing hope

He speaks a word

Where hope is lost

He hangs amidst a waste of space

A thief a murderer has graced

And something changed a selfish heart

To empty out his fearful thoughts

He’d be forgotten lost in time forever.

An echo to the thought returns

Not lost but found in Paradise

With the third cry comes a puzzle

Why would God deny his double

It’s one thing friends denying friends

But how can God deny himself?

Rejected lost abandoned divorced

Can it be the Trinity is broken?

Two against one

A Shadow cast across a face

And then a thought could God be dead

We’re all alone on the edge of time dying

God forsaken crucified by our fathers

The Desert man begins to sigh

Two more phrases still to cry

evil takes the strain of love

But cannot break the bonds if grace

There’s beauty in this awful place

Restoring faith to love and hope

And all who look uncover truth

Amazed to find that mercy lives

And now the cry that cannot end

Commands the ears of everyman

It’s finished.!

Completed

For all time!

A final phrase is breathed aloud

Father into their hearts

I’ve breathed my Spirit