If He Had Faltered Even Once

They spit upon His meekness, 

And struck Him in the face. 

Their floggers swung with hatred; 

They stripped Him in disgrace. 

Deep worked the Roman anger 

That tortured Him, a Jew; 

Yet this His contemplation: 

“They know not what they do.” 

 

His people cheered “Hosanna,” 

Then had Him crucified. 

They freed corrupt Barabbas; 

To sentence Him, they lied. 

He hung outside their city, 

Where leaders mocked Him too; 

Yet this, the hurt He carried: 

“I would have gathered you.” 

 

No angels came to help Him 

When Heaven on Him fell. 

The Devil tried to reach Him 

Through ev’ry lie in hell. 

Unthinkable the anguish 

As Father crushed the Son, 

Yet this His firm conviction: 

“Thy will, not mine, be done.” 

 

No selfishness, no hatred, 

No spitefulness was there. 

No unbelief, no cursing, 

No pity from despair. 

One sinful thought; one failure, 

And Love would not succeed. 

The ransomed souls of hist’ry 

Must His perfection plead. 

 

If He had faltered even once, 

In flames of hell would men abide. 

Then ponder Christ, and praise at length 

The strength of Him there crucified. 

   

-- K. Hartnett, May 2007

 

I wrote this one backwards, i.e. having the idea for the last four lines before writing the rest.  Verse one highlights Christ's physical sufferings; verse two, His emotional/mental and verse three, His spiritual.  The colossal irony that the very men who tempted Him to failure were among those He died in perfection to save captures my imagination - and praise.

 

Comments

[Kyle French]

Hey! Nice to see a Christian poet with such good reading taste. A friend pointed me to this poem and I wanted to say I enjoyed it and I wish you were still posting. Serious Christian poets are hard to come by.

A suggestion: Your first stanza has a bit more complicated rhyme scheme than the others, and some enjambment, which really caught my attention and got me reading all the way through the poem. I wish you'd been able to keep that pattern up throughout, since it really heightens the effect.

[Kevin H.]

I'm grateful for your comments, Kyle, thank you. I hope to be posting more again in the next few months. We've been building a new house, and I completely underestimated how time consuming this would be!