Cross Examined Poem by Denis Martindale

Of all the trees God ever made, one tree was set apart,
For on that tragic tree was laid the Saviour's beating heart...
The tree would lift the Lord on high upon that fateful day,
When Jesus Christ was meant to die, to take Man's sins away...

And there He was before the crowd, who mocked Him to His face,
As God prepared for Him a shroud when taken from that place...
Golgotha was its awful name, the hill the skull was seen,
That was its only claim to fame... except the Nazarene...

Upon the Cross a sign was nailed which vainly called Him king,
Yet to that crowd, the Lord had failed to change a single thing.
The Romans ruled, so no change there, the Jews were merely slaves
And Jesus Christ was lost in prayer, before His death He braves.

One thief believed, the rest did not, why trust in Paradise?
Christ said He was the way to God, the holy sacrifice.
His hour came, He breathed His last, they took His body down.
The crowd departed still aghast, while I picked up His crown...

It fell to me, and how I wept... His Blood still on each briar.
That night I prayed, I never slept, for hatred turned to fire.
They beat Him up, they scourged His back, they nailed Him high above
And even then, when all looked black, He prayed for them with love.

I mourned for days, then heard it said, the Saviour was alive!
Yet still I prayed beside my bed, for how could He survive?
The rumours went from street to street as if from friend to friend.
Such that each person I would meet hoped this was not the end...

I'll wait and see... I'll follow John and James and Peter, too.
If true, I'll tell you later on... Till then what can I do?