It was mob action! Wish I could exonerate me
Wash my hands off like Pilate, though till date
He remains stained, ineluctable party in that saga:
You were there, I was there, all of us joined on a spot
When times past and future met in the present. That
Day, choices were made and consequences born.
Innocence was dethroned by treason, lie crowned
A judge that condemned Truth. That day, freedom
Went into hiding but it was spotted and captured
As enemies celebrated their new found friendship
Righteousness was nailed to a stake by irreverence
Rebellion burgeoned and bludgeoned harmony
Sound health and long life were sacrificed
Good lay helplessly buried beneath stacks of evil.
Though the voice of reason beckoned and posterity
Stared us in the face, we all as one raised our voices
To death and cast one single vote that convicted
And executed virtue and honor and a worthy life.
Today, we wonder why the world has gone awry
When that day we screamed, “Away with Truth.
Let the evil be on our heads and on the heads of
Our children!” That day, as fists of death clutched
Its delicate throat, Life consoled, “Weep not for Me
But for yourselves and your children.” We thought
We knew better but as the strings we spun unwind
We wander and wonder how and why: we’re yet
To grasp what we unleashed that fateful day.
© Glory C. Odemene, 2014
When this post, first written in 2014, showed up on my wall recently, it left me pondering: that though people and things change, truth remain ageless, undiluted and undiminished by times and events. The dealings of every day may leave us battered or bettered, hope may rise and dreams may fade, but the truth of what Christ accomplished for us on the Cross 2000 years ago remains inarguably unsullied by the gains and losses of time and life in general. Men may hate and deny God but nothing can debase the weight or tarnish the worth of that priceless sacrifice and the salvation it secured for doomed humanity.
In the face of all happenstances, I still ponder, Christ died, many of us are saved and are being saved as a result, yet we are still here; humanity is still this way. What would have been the case if He did not die? Yes, we wish the world were a better place. Neither should such wishes nor the reality of continuing human depravity, in the face of so great a salvation, rattle our faith in so wondrous a Savior who counted His life as nothing, that ours may count for something. Eternity will never be enough to appreciate the beauty and the glory God worked revealed through such painful and ugly incident that took place that day.
I also wonder, if we knew better, the import of diverse decisions we make today on days ahead, would anyone of us still be in a hurry to decide or jump to conclusions? It is easy to say, “I don’t care,” but when the mud hits the fan, we are forced to stop and ponder. It is bad enough that we don’t know but when you add the fact that we don’t care, outcomes are complicated. That day, they said, “We don’t care! Let the consequences rest on us and our children.” Today, history is littered with decisions and actions whose ripples will continue to affect us and generations to come.
It is responsibility to look beyond where we are and what we want now as we draw conclusions and make decisions. As we stand in awe at the foot of the cross today, may what we learn in these sober times stay with us through exciting and downing moments. May we learn to choose between voluntarily caring about the after-effects of our decisions and actions instead of being forced to reconsider what we didn’t want to contemplate. As we pause today in remembrance of the sufferings and death of Christ on our behalf, may God’s grace and wisdom guide our thoughts and actions today and always. Amen!
Glory!