“Why do you ask me to look on a dead man,
Outside the good city, in scandalous pain?
What could be there that should hold my attention,
Attracting me to this scandalous thing?”
The old sailor stands up and takes me outside
To a place of skulls, where the rats like to hide.
He tells me to look up at the man on the tree.
I see him and cry, “Will he die innocently?”
“He salvages the vilest of all of offenders,”
The old sailor called as he knelt beneath,
“He heals up the shame of deepest transgressors
By dying, this wonderful, suffering king!”
“What is the name of the thief at his side,” I said.
He looks so familiar to me…”
Lord, please forgive that crook who dies near You.
O forgive the man, for I know I am he!
~JAS, (c) 2015