“Gone”

“Gone”-A Poem about the Darkest Saturday

Gone….. was his incredible smile,… that they remembered so clearly, as the children had gathered around him, with their laughter, and playing, and dirty hands, trying to climb into his lap as he blessed them.

Gone…..was the authority he exercised,….over the trembling demons, that saturated the poor wretched man of Gadara they called Legion. Pilate and his men seemed to have destroyed the authority of this Jesus of Nazareth.

Gone….was that voice,… of such intense wisdom and beauty of speech, that he could kneel and pick up a tiny seed of wheat and mesmerize them all with a lesson of burial and life and death.

Gone….was the mastery of all of nature,….the storm, wind, lightning, thunder and rain and waves exploding like volcanoes upon a sea, while they clung terrified to the sides of the vessel,…..He himself, now silent like the very storm he quieted.

Gone….was that perfect forgiveness,….to the worst of them, be they corrupted officials like Zaccheus, or that woman caught in her adultery or they themselves, fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and even daydreamers reclining under fig trees, he had forgiven them all…his forgiving voice silenced.

Gone…..the Healer is gone…… Bartimaeus can now see, Jairus’s daughter now lives, that poor dying woman, pale and emaciated from her loss of blood, totally healed after touching his garment,…. They and so many more healed and made whole, but their Healer is gone.

Gone….That horrible Friday is gone,…..with the butchery and what seemed like rivers of blood from the one that knew as Master. Their hope has fled into the darkness of Friday night and the bleak reality of his absence fills their Saturday with a pain so wrenching it burns into their soul with a sense of total hopelessness and a shroud of morbidity.

Gone….what they can’t see…what they can’t know……..
Is the unshakable truth that something else is about to be gone……a huge stone over a borrowed grave.
Gone.

General Director

Dr. David M. Griffis