Poetry from the Cabin 1/13/2024

Life never stops. Even here at the cabin during a time of peace. We have become aware that some whom we love very much are suffering the consequences of their own sin. This poem is about the cost of sin and the reality of Jesus’s resurrection life. Before reading this it is important to know that the Greek word translated Hell is Gehenna. Gehenna is a valley near Jerusalem with a dark history, human sacrifice not among the least of its evils. By the time of Jesus, Gehenna was used as a trash heap. Later during the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 many bodies of the dead were thrown into the valley. This imagery is at work as I explore our own sin as what crucifies us, and more importantly the ability of Jesus to save us from our death. It is this same valley being discussed in Ezekiel 37, the story of the Son of Man prophesying to dry bones and they come to life. As well as the valley of Ben Hinnom in Jeremiah 19, concerning the potter’s field, later references in Matthew 27.

A tangled web of misdeeds red
Against white innocence
Bad decisions, Like spikes driven
To hang up the condemned
Words are bread with shaking heads
At one with no defense
Hung up exposed broken and known
Tainted and corrupt

Removed from sight and thrown to hell
With burning fires and rancid smell
Taken outside the city walls
Away from all but Jackal calls
Among dry bones and shattered clay
There lies the guilty grave

But here one comes with crown of thorns
Back victim of nine tailed horns
And red spikes beat through hands and feet
For hell did leap at His defeat
They had Him locked in solid rock
Death they sought and death they wrought

But he walked out the open grave
This God this king mighty to save
Among dry bones and potter’s field
Here he calls out to His people
The dry bones rattle as they rise
Forgiven now and filled with life