Saturday, April 19, 2014

The Resurrection - Martha

I guess this is my tradition. My Easter poem. It took me a long time to write it this year and I'm not sure it's even that good, but it's stuff I've been thinking about embodied in a bible character.




The Resurrection - Martha

Three days gone
Before Jesus even came
And in those days all hope drained from me
while he prayed I wondered if I’d put my faith in the wrong place
Because He could have come sooner
he could have kept it from happening
I’d met him on the road shouting out in my despair
Where were you Jesus, if only you had been there

There was something about the glory of God
and promises for the future
But I didn’t care about it then because my brother was gone
And my whole future and life went with him, sealed inside that stone grave
Now Jesus stood there at the tomb and joined the weepers
Before he opened up his arms and prayed

And I wondered about my wavering faith,
put in the wrong things, lost in the wrong place.

Then the Lord called my brother from the grave
We were too busy being appalled to know how to rejoice
                We took off the grave clothes and watched him walk
And Jesus was there among us
Laughing at the sunlight, wiping tears from his eyes
And that was when I glimpsed that glory,
the Resurrection and the Life


Now it’s all changed in just moments, with news they’d taken Jesus away
And tonight I saw his body, lifted from the cross
Broken and breathless, bleeding still
and I don’t really know what I can do or say
and I’m afraid that the thing I once called faith
was just ambitious dreaming

He said he was the resurrection, but now he’s not here
To bring life or speak those words of hope
And I’m trying to remember what he said
Remember the moments, those pieces of heaven that came and touched earth when he was here
My brother, the rejoicing, the grave clothes on the ground
the palm branches and praises
The woman anointing his feet for his burial
I thought he’d meant something metaphorical
But I guess I was wrong again
And then the words that I’d spoken came back to me
If only you had been here.
Where are you now, Lord
When all of the rulers plot against us
When your friends ran away to hide
I believe in the resurrection, but you had me thinking I wouldn’t have to wait
You were going to be with the Father
And you left us behind to find our own way
So here I am again, worried and troubled about so many things
And though it’s dark
Though the hope you held in your very hands has faded from my heart
I still believe.
I believe you’re the resurrection
And I’m waiting through this time
Whoever believes in you will live even though he dies.