IN THE DARK PLACE


In the dark place
  of olive trees
You had a chance
  to turn Your back
  on us and say:
    Father, forget them.
    They're not worth
      the price.
Instead,
In the dark place
Above the taunts
  of men and sound
  of dripping blood
You paid with Your life
  for mine.

—Nancy Spiegelberg


"And he went out, and went,
 as he was wont,to the mount 
of Olives....And being in agony
he prayed more earnestly: 
and his sweat was as it were 
great drops of blood falling 
down to the ground."                       
Luke 22:39,44

"And when they were come to 
the place, which is called Calvary, 
there they crucified him....  
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; 
for they know not what they do.... 
And the people stood beholding. 
And the rulers also with them derided him, 
saying, He saved others; let him save 
himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God....
and there was darkness over all 
the earth until the ninth hour...."      
Luke 23:33-35,44

"But one of the soldiers with a spear 
pierced his side, and forthwith came 
there out blood and water. "
John 19:34

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless 
I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: 
and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
who loved me, and gave himself for me."                             
Galatians 2:20

©1979 Nancy Spiegelberg