Sunday, April 09, 2006

day thirty-eight moment

"all your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes"
Psalm 45:8

Joseph carries the body
tightly wrapped in white linen
down Golgotha
raising the question of
why a religious leader
would become unclean
by touching a dead body

the two Marys follow

everyone else has disappeared

Joseph brings the body into the garden
and through an opening carved in the rocky hillside
where no corpse has ever laid

the two women watch
as Jesus body is placed on a stone bench
only leaving when the sky darkens

Joseph removes the linen
and washes the body of this man Jesus
preparing it for burial

Nicodemus
shamed in remembering his silence
when he could have made a difference by speaking up
brings jars of myrrh and aloes

side by side
Nicodemus and Joseph
alternate wrapping the body with strips of cloth
sprinkling the powered spices over it
leaving only the head and face exposed

a small cloth saturated with spices
is now placed over Jesus' face

it is done

the stone is rolled into place

the Son of Man who never had a place to lay his head
now rests in a rich man's grave

as families light the evening candles and pray
the body that once held the light of the world
lies in a cold dark cave

and how I long to anoint Him now
with the aromatic spices of words of love
as I learn to hear Him in the echoes of silence


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