The Thief I Am (Part 1)

There was a written notice above him (Jesus), which read: this is the king of the jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

Luke 23: 38-39 (NIV)

Here on Calvary, the son of man awaits death,

Crying out to God, he gives his last breath,

The hour grows darker, and while night draws near,

Two men on Golgatha, share their doubts and fears

You know, I always wanted to be the center of attention,

To have my name be shouted from the masses in every direction,

I would be elevated above all, and toted as the paragon of perfection

Haha and yet…here I am…

With my dream made true,

Who am I to complain when, with a view up here,

I can stare into a sanguine sea of eyes,

My eardrums beat with their voices demanding my demise,

Though my name is upon every tongue, it is paired with “crucify!”

So I hang...and legs snap like twigs under my weight

I hear the sickening crunch, like enamel against rock,

Yet as my body, a slave to gravity, sinks down,

The cold iron squirms, and wraps itself around a sinew

And strands of muscle hold up my form delicately on this spike,

Which pierces my wrists as I struggle in vein…

Rivers of blood streak across, my mangled body, and gather in puddles where the spear has struck my side

Crimson soaks my vocal chords, and my mouth is a bubbling brook,

Yet no wellspring of life is found here, and my voice can’t get past this red ocean

The wind too bites at me…taking gleeful chunks of this oppressed heat from my face

I am not even granted the mercy of death…

So here I stand, celebrated as a paragon of capital punishment,

Where flogging with scourging are only the genesis of pain,

Where innocent oak has been corrupted to guilty cross,

Where all that is virtuous perishes, and redemption too takes its last breath 

So it ends like this?

With me strung here, name crossed and blotted out of history, alongside another robber and…the King of the Jews?!

Wait…are you the one to whom the crowd cried Hosanna?

The one who is destined to set the captives free?

The one whom the Jews have been hailing as the one true king?

The one who will take away the power of death’s sting?

Are you not the messiah?

Surely you’re the one who is here to strike down the Romans,

So save yourself! And us…

King of the Jews...why don't you cut yourself loose?

The crowds mock your divine power, you have something to prove

Unless all those miracles I heard about weren’t true…

That you’re just a man stirring needless trouble against the Pharisees,

Breaking the law and challenging religious authority

Causing civil unrest throughout the region…

But if you claim to have all this power…why withhold? For what reason?

You are an innocent man, guilty of no treason

Why die an undeserving death?

If I could, I would liberate myself from this wood like you should

This must be the greatest injustice, to have all the power in the world, yet withhold it

You healed lepers yet can’t heal your own sores

You silenced the mockers, yet can’t cut the tongue of this crowd,

You raised Lazarus from the dead, yet can’t stop your own end

Son of man…please do something…

If you still refuse, let death come quickly, I am tired of waiting,

My hands grow tired, the hour is near, and my strength is fading…