Agape Love

He could hear the sounds of boots as they drew even closer,
The key turns and he listens for the scraping echo of his door opening,
Rough, calloused hands grab at him, releasing him from his chains,
Cursing they kick at him, his battered body and mind screams, 'Not again!'

He is dragged through the prison courtyard and outward to the paved street,
The light pounds through his eyes and he stumbles joustling one of the guards,
A Roman soldier pulls up a main beam, places on the thief's shoulders and back,
'Carry it!', he shouts,the thief slowly climbing up Golgatha's well-trodden track!

Both guards whine about having to pull double duty today because of this strange Jew,
Bartamaeus wonders who they are talking about and recalls gentler times of his childhood,
'Forgive me Jehovah for all Your commandments that I Bartamaeus have broken or never kept!'
'God are you really out there?' 'Please here me, Oh God, forgive, oh forgive me!', he wept.

'Shut your mouth!', growled the soldier named Proca.'Try acting like that Man to your left!'
Bartamaeus looked and thought it is just another poor wretch like me but he is not afraid?
'Who is he? 'They call him the 'King of the Jews!', spat Baccaus, shoving the thief down,
Reaching for a spike,Proca grabbed the thief's left hand and tied his arm with cord found.

A pain slammed into the thief so intense that he stared at the protruding spike in unbelief,
'Oh God, oh God; this can't be happening, it hurts so bad, Jehovah!, he blubbered and sobbed,
'Oh, NO!' 'Pleeese not again, the thief pleaded as once again his arm was tied to the beam,
The soldier drove the spike into his hand and Bartamaeus let out a blood-curdling scream.

Packing up their tools, the two Roman soldiers, righted and dropped the cross into place,
Through a mind-bending blurr of agony, the thief saw another thief to his left,
This man was a rebel, even stealing from his own kind; Bartamaeus watched him curse and rage,
Even in a hazy mist, Bartamaeus realised that his venom was directed at the Man nearer their age!

This quiet Man between them, looked down at the crowd, he spoke, but no cursing passed his lips.
Piously he said, 'Father forgive them for they know Not what they do!' He smiled at the crowd.
As he looked at the Man, Bartamaeus saw every sin and unjust thing that he, the thief had done,
The Man smiled and Bartamaeus was CLEAN; accepted and forgiven by the Savior, God's only Son!

"Stop It!', he yelled. 'Can't you see this Man is innocent! 'He has done nothing evil or wrong!'
The Romans paid no attention, offering mulled and sour wine on a stick to the Man of God,
The Man spoke a second time; Bartamaeus listened hearing'My God, MY GOD, why have You forsaken Me?'
The other thief spat, 'If you are really the King of the Jews,then climb down from this tree!'

The Man looked at him with great sadness and said, 'Father into Your Hand I commit My Spirit!'
'Master, please Master!, Bartamaeus cried, 'Remember me when You come into Your Holy Kingdom!'
The Man smiled at him and said, 'Verily I say unto you tonight you will be in Paradise with Me!
He lifted Himself and said with great power, 'IT IS FINISHED! He died, setting His Spirit free!

Bartamaeus watched the sky darken and lightning split the ground near the Man and the cross,
He marveled as the captain of the guards, kneeling at the cross, said, 'This truly is God's Son!
He was newborn and he no longer struggled to rise for even that one last gasping breath of air,
For when he awoke, angels were singing, the Man was in Paradise and he, Bartamaeus was THERE!

©Jane Richer
07/04/2012