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Jesus
Can you imagine what crucifixion is?
My executioners stretch my arms;
they hold my hand and wrist against
the wood and press the nail
until it stabs my flesh.
Then, with one heavy hammer smash,
they drive it through --
and pain bursts like a bomb
of fire in my brain.
They seize the other arm;
and agony again explodes.
Then raising up my knees
so that my feet are flat
against the wood,
they hammer them fast, too.
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Response
O Lord, thy Father could have taken you home without all this suffering. You've been through so much, you suffer it fearlessly and willingly as is thy Father's will. Would we have paid attention if you had not suffered so? Would we have heard the lessons in your words? Known your sacrifice for our shortcomings and sin without your suffering as you have?
I hang my head O Lord, for truth is we'd likely not have heard or heeded you and often we still do waver and fall. Guide me, and all who seek to follow you, to accept for all our lives whatever sickness, torment, agony may come. To see the cross and remember for always the precious gift you gave to us.
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched our your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honour of your Name. Amen
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| The soldiers grab Jesus, pushing him roughly,
the soldiers lie him down face up on the cross stretching his
arms out as a flurry of actions take place. The banging of hammers
on nails, the piercing pain of sharp metal entering flesh, the
echo of the wooden beam. Jesus' painful scream to relieve the
pain seemed to echo to the furthest corners of the city.
The sunbeams blinded him, each hammer blow ripped the metal into his flesh at his wrists, breaking the arteries and fracturing the bones.
The pain was unbearable, he was almost senseless. Too much turmoil swirled around him, the hammer blows, orders being roared out, different voices talking or screaming. He couldn't take it anymore, he closed his eyes against it all.
The spectators on the sidelines stood motionless and impassive. A few women sobbed quietly in a corner. All was set, Jesus was nailed to the cross.
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