The Soldier’s Song

I saw the wounds Love did receive

That drove Him to death's dark reprieve

For I scourged Love to make Him bleed

He wore a crown, and held a reed

I'd fashioned those to give Him pain

I struck His face, once and again

Just then His eyes looked me straight through

With Love so sweet it made me new

Love! I'd known the word for all my years

I'd felt its joy, and wept its tears

And now before me — Love Revealed!

His Mercy-Heart — my own heart healed!

I comprehended not at once

But slowly over weeks and months

The seconds that I held Love's gaze

Became the meaning of my days

Yet instantly Love's look disarmed

My bestial urge to hurt, to harm

That innocent, misguided fool

My thought before I knew God's Tool

We brought Love out before the crowd

Their call for death was long and loud

The governor heard with chagrin

He was opposed, but he gave in

When we marched Love to Calvary

I made a Cyrene bear the Tree

And marveled that within my heart

I envied his appointed part

The troops that marched out at my side

Saw not how I had changed inside

Nor did they see, as now I did,

How Love in human flesh had hid

His tunic they removed with care

Lest it should suffer any tear

And then they tossed to take that prize

While Love stood stark before their eyes

As Love lay stripped upon His Cross

I shuddered for this senseless loss

I would not wield hammer, nail

My comrades took that grim detail

I felt the clank of each deft blow

And saw the blood from each cleft flow

To saturate the waiting earth

The Precious Blood of my new birth

Other men who have known this pain

Have cursed, reviled, or screamed in vain

Love asked His Father to forgive

These men who knew not what they did

They heeded not this word of Love

But nailed a mocking sign above

His head to taunt Him with this news:

“This is Jesus, King of the Jews”

They raised Him as I strove to see

Again those eyes that first saw me

I hoped to say with somber look

That in His death no part I took

But He this while would only see

A woman who stood by the Tree

Her own eyes fixed on upraised Love

As sunflower stares toward sun above

No other woman I have seen

Struck me as half so like a Queen

Erect and tall, her regal grace

Undimmed though grief marred her fair face

Salt tears streamed on her soft pale cheeks

Her angel brow, by sorrow creased

Still could I see that she and He

Were of one noble Family

I knew that by no act or word

Could I dare hope to comfort her

I knew not that, in years to be

The thought of her would comfort me

I stood mute guard, but inwardly

I witnessed to that sad Lady

How much I longed her to console

And beg forgiveness for my role

There stayed by her a loyal friend

Who shared her suffering to the end

Love spake once to that forlorn pair

And placed each in the other's care

No witness to Love's agony

Could be unmoved by sympathy

Save those with hardened hearts, the worst

Of men, for whom Love said, “I thirst”

Two hours passed in deeper gloom

Than lay of old on Egypt tomb

And then a third, and in this last

Love readied for life's final gasp

“Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

He cried out to the blackened sky

Then, “Father, to Thy hands bring Me!”

And that is when I saw Love die

What next occurred is mystery

None can the Spirit's moving see

My soul proclaimed this piteous sob:

“Truly this was the Son of God!”

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