The Sin He Bore Poem by Cheryl Lavender

It was heavy, this cross I was effecting. So very, very heavy! As I walked the road to Calvary the weight became too great and I crumbled beneath its' significance. It was not the shear immensity of the Tree that caused my legs to buckle, although I was weary in the carrying. It was the sin that weighed me down. It was the sin I would bear for My people.

A man was ordered to take my place and carry the Cross to Calvary. I felt his heart and My compassion rose to meet him. He set the Cross down and the soldiers laid me upon It. The pain from the Crown of Thorns was running round My head and I knew I must steel myself for what was yet to come.

The soldiers began to drive in the nails. With every strike I wanted to scream out, for this frail human body was never meant to withstand the unrelenting mind of a man given over to his sin. I did not cry out to the people, but I did cry out to My Father. I knew He would sustain Me. He was My Father.

Finally it was over. The soldiers initiated a sequence of events that had long since been ordained by Almighty God. I was raised off the ground and placed into My appointed avocation. What the Father had decreed would now come to pass. So many thoughts and prayers were erupting through my mind, but the pain was far too great. I was so very thirsty, I could barely construct the words I was destined to say. A soldier heard Me and gave Me vinegar to drink. 'Father, sustain Me! I am Your Son! ' 'Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani? My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? '

The time was drawing near. Soon My Father would turn His back on Me. He had no other choice. He could not look upon the sin I had taken on. All around Me the people mocked. 'King of the Jews' they had called Me. They could not, they would not understand. 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.'

I knew the moment when it came. I would now suffer the separation I had long since prepared for. With a loud voice I cried, 'Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.' And then I breathed My last.

Joseph of Aramethea had taken Him down from the Cross and laid Him in a tomb. With reverent attention His children wrapped His body in linen cloth and the tomb was then sealed. For three days it seemed as if every thing was lost for what worth was there to life with the Hand of God removed. For the first time since God had effected creation, complete darkness had come to rule the earth.

On the first day of the week two angels were found in the tomb. The stone had been rolled back and Christ no longer was within its' boundaries. Mary was weeping for she feared His body had been stolen. She need only have turned and she would have seen the Risen Christ. Still she wept for she did not know it was Him. Jesus called out to her, 'Mary', and then she knew, her teacher had risen from the dead, just as He had promised.

His hands and feet endure the nail prints of the sin He bore. His head embodies the scars where thorns had pierced His brow. His side carried the implement of our persecution at the hands of unrelenting human cruelity and, more than this, the outpouring of His precious Spirit bore our punishment that we would know the miracle of being whiter than white, while we are yet covered with His rich red blood.

Open Your eyes and see the Risen Christ. He lives for you.

Copyright © 1995 By Cheryl A. Lavender