The Loneliness of Easter
Pilate:
Pilate stared at the growing hostile mass.
Alone he stands to be manipulated
and called and crowded, til he
falls
and
human justice
is undone – that God’s justice
is embedded in an empty tomb.
The crowd:
Together we are stronger and louder.
Our strident calls for death echo
back off the silent walls
of the palace in its opulence,
as we shout, ‘Let him be crucified!’
Leaving him to death, we depart,
unhurrying, worrying what have
we done? He loved us,
laid hands our sick,
stood up for us
and now he is gone and we
alone and God in the long distance.
Peter:
Hiding was no good because
His voice was in my mind
‘You will betray me three times.”
Three times not once
t’would be bad enough
But I did and now I cannot
be my own company or
theirs and I weep alone
guilty.
Judas:
I destroyed him
and isolated us from hope.
We are abandoned,
unaided and he
did not take
silver, he gave life
in his loneliness.
Jesus:
Yes, I said, ‘Your will not mine be done!”
And then it struck like a stone,
as I stood in silence by Pilate,
It was also their will.
They want me to die.
I have no one left but Him
And Eloi, Eloi lama Sabachthani,
Even He left.
