Tags
blood geld, Cain, crown of thorns, Cybore, Dorset, George MacDonald, Haceldama, Jacobus, Joshua Tree, Judas, Laurence Whistler, Moreton Church, Moses, nard, parricide, Pilate, Redbud, Ruben, Sanhedrin, Scariot, Sicarius, Tree of Life
It’s that time of year when we remember Judas…
A re-blog:
Ever since I wrote my poem called ‘The Forgiveness Window’ (in my Poetry
section), inspired by glass windows in Moreton Church, by Laurence
Whistler, I have been meditating on Judas Iscariot and the question of
forgiveness. This poem has been some time on my back burner, but I gave
birth to it this morning.
The Judas Tree
(George Macdonald: When a man begins to loathe himself he begins to be saved.)
Those plumb-like seed pods cannot mask the corpse.
The sagging branch touches the earth. Strange fruit
suspended from a limb: a pendulum
measuring a moment of treachery.
At each bloom’s heart is a crown of thorns.
From the scarified trunk blood beads burst forth-
a rosary protecting its blush of shame.
Cybore had a premonition:
she dreamt her son would ruin Issachar.
She and her husband, Ruben, cast him off-
Moses-like, adrift, in a pitched basket.
He then washed up on Scariot, whose Queen,
childless, lonely, feigned a pregnancy,
taking the outcast child to her own breast.
Anxiety dispelled, she then conceived
her own son, Jacobus, whom Judas loathed.
Supplanted, he destroyed, as Cain did; fled
to Pilate’s service in Jerusalem.
Then, asked to fetch his master some ripe fruit,
he argued with the owner of the land
and slew him with a rock. Haceldama-
The Field of Blood- is his, with the man’s wife,
who promptly tells him of his parricide.
Now he is Sicarius: ‘assassin.’
He follows Jesus, seeking redemption,
yet dips his fingers in the common purse
and, angry that three hundred silver coins
spent on some precious ointment should be poured
on the Messiah’s feet, he takes umbrage;
betrays his Master for a tenth of that-
the price one paid to liberate a slave.
Since bowels of mercy he had none, he spilled
his innards from that tree, so that his soul’s
quietus should not defile the lips
that had kissed God. He died not on the earth;
nor in the heavens (where men and angels range),
but dangled in the air, devils’ plaything.
Jesus harrowed Hell to plant His tree;
to cut down Judas and to set him free.
Look! Now we see the pods have seeds in them
and, though deciduous, those leaves return,
heart-shaped, assuring us of sins forgiven.
Its branches lifted up, like hands in prayer,
surrounded by an intense cloud of nard,
the Redbud props a ladder to the stars
and even men like Judas can aspire
to Paradise, via The Tree of Life.
Blood-geld bought the Gentile burial plot-
the first Garden of Rest, that Potter’s Field.
(Sanhedrin-laundered guilt’s slick charity.)
But the Potter makes new vessels from shards,
firing up His kiln from the Joshua trees.
Andrew said:
I am tempted to ask why you meditate on forgiveness but perhaps I should do so too. A beautiful poem.
Candia said:
Thank you. Maybe because I find it so challenging, but so good for the soul. I need to practise it.It isn’t simple.
Candia said:
Are you going to Winchester Cathedral on Easter Sunday with Mrs H?
Just wondering??!
C D-S
Andrew said:
I don’t think we would be welcome. We are living out of a suitcase and have no smart rags to wear. I suspect jeans and T shirts with trainers would not please the Bish.
Candia said:
I think Jesus would welcome you under the circumstances. Plenty of other people turn up in casual wear. Just wear an Easter bonnet and you will be fine!
Candia said:
Did you go?
We looked out for you…
Andrew said:
No. We ended up trying to sort out house issues. We arrived in Shawford today. Let battle be joined.
earthstills said:
so true…