To Kill A King {PART III}

When the morning came, the Jews then took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. It was as if the Jews were desperately searching for any means of getting rid of Jesus. This is why they brought him to Pilate, a Roman ruler objective to the situation and outside of Israel’s circle, as their last resort.

The Jews brought him to the palace, but refused to go inside themselves, for fear of contaminating themselves before the Passover feast. So, Jesus went inside, but the Jews stayed outside, and Pilate went back and forth between the two. Pilate was confused about why they were so angry with Jesus, so ready to curse and murder him.

“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
Pilate wanted nothing to do with the situation: “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But we have no right to execute anyone,” objected the Jews, in contempt.

With that, Pilate left and went back inside the palace, where Jesus was. He came right out and asked him bluntly, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied with sarcasm, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?”

“It was your own people, the Jews, who handed you over to me. You must have done something to set them off. You see, I am just acting on their behalf; I am not one of them,” Pilate responded.

“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight for me, preventing my arrest and my death. My kingdom is from another place now.”

Pilate thought he caught Jesus changing his story: “You just said it! You are a king!”

But Jesus cleared things up, saying, “You are right: I am a king. It was for this reason I came into the world: to lead my people, as a king would, in the way of truth. Everyone who listens to the truth listens to me.”

In true Roman fashion, Pilate confused things again. He responded, “What is truth, anyway?”

At that, he left Jesus and went back outside, telling the Jews that he believed Jesus to be innocent. However, it was tradition at the time of the Passover to release a prisoner from custody. Pilate asked the crowd, “Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

They shouted back loudly, insisting that another prisoner be released instead- a man named Barabbas, who had taken part in a rebellion.

So Pilate gave in to the pressure from the crowd, took Jesus, and planned to have him flogged.

forget {July 2007}

Hot air is blowing in, when I want it to be cool. The room is
Stuffy enough already. My eyes are dark, cannot see.

You say that my heart grasps on to what I treasure, somedays
I forget about that. Today is one of those days. I flail and backflip
around my things, my threads. Is
this really blessing? This yoke is too much to bear on days like this.

On days like this, I wish I could stand up straight once again

What is my name today?

To be free, I forget. Somedays I allow my brain to empty itself. Somedays
I forget.

When I forget You, I forget everything.
how to walk, how to put one foot in front
of the other.

If I just lay here, maybe
Just maybe, You will come
And I won’t have to remind myself
What my name is

~ec

an ocean apart {July 2007}

Sit with me awhile
on this soft sand


Promises
off in the distance
these message-in-a-bottle promises
bobbing up and down, up and down in the ocean, washing
up on the shores of my heart.


I miss the way you shake up this heart of mine, with all of the
promises you send my way, in bottles. All of my shelves
are full of
them.


Your bottles are the first
to hold
promises that are real.


You can make a gloomy day beautiful again,
breeze gentle, warmth soft, skies blue.


here we are, an ocean apart…


waiting for the promises,
hidden inside bobbing bottles,
to wash up on shore.

~ec