Peter
This world is my home you say, as you grab your sword.
Malchus’ bloody ear shows your fear that God won’t keep his word.
The one who said follow me now says sheath, your sword.
How can this be?You follow from a distance
Your mouth betrays resistance to his words:
“the cup, which the father has given me, shall I not drink it?”
Before the governor, he stands bound and cold,
But you, warm by the fire so bold…
Deny you ever knew him…
You had been so sure
That He was the one on whom your fathers waited
To deliver you from…
Oppression, cruel rulers who steal, blindness, sickness, death, and fear
But now his hands are bound,
His head bows low
He willingly goes…
In fear and disappointment,
You curse,
Him you do not know
A rooster crows in the market nearby
Crushing your soul as you remember he said you’d deny
You’re weak now with shame
As he tells Pilate why he came
Not for a kingdom you can see
But to gather his subjects for the world to be…
Ruled in righteousness by one who obeyed
Perfectly God‘s law
Yet on him was laid
Your sin, so you would win - Him
The blind world continues to mock
You are a king?
They laugh as they kill…
The one who called you and changed your will
Counted a sinner, He is lifted high
On a cruel cross of wood
Condemned to die
Between two thieves like you and I
One yet blind cries out that He
If a real king, a real God
Would free
Men now from earthly tyranny
My best life now!
Set me free!
Now you see the other thief cry…
His eyes now opened to the one
Beside whom he now died…
Remember me, is his cry for mercy
As he sees his sin before the eternal king
Who promised to bring…
This great sinner with Him to Paradise which is
The kingdom of God
Not of this world which you forgot
It is finished!
You hear him cry
The price now paid,
The law fulfilled
You couldn’t keep it, so he was killed
Crushed by the father
His bleeding wounds
Give up his spirit
As he’s laid in a tomb
You walk away, head bowed low
Three times you’d denied Him
Ashamed to know
Such a weak king
Who had not fought to show…
His power, his right to live,
You give up hope
You’d been sure that Rome was soon to fall
But you’d failed your king, now dead
Your heart fails, and you give up all
Three days later, outside the tomb
Mary find his body’s been stolen
You run inside to find it’s true
More disappointment, more pain
Your king didn’t win
And now he’s been shamed
You trudge back home
Feeling to blame
Later that evening, from Mary came news
That she’d seen him and
He would ascend to his Father and be
King forever, world without end
But you in your weakness needed to see
The one who had promised
Your Savior to be
“Peace be with you”
Are the first words you hear
The doors had been shut
Yet he appeared…
Alive from the dead
To give you his Spirit
And send you to be
A peacemaker, bringing
Salvation and forgiveness
Of sin,
Through the one who had come
Like a lamb to the slaughter
To bring many sons and daughters
To an everlasting kingdom
Through the blood that was spilt
For forgiveness of sins
And removal of guilt
Now, by his spirit, you see
Like the humble thief on the cross
That He as God with us
Came to bear sin’s curse
It is no loss to lose one’s life
To take up the cross
For him to allow pain
Removing the dross
Refining us like silver
And taking our eyes from this world of sin
To desire a home and a kingdom
Where we worship and love only Him
Adam’s shame in the garden
And your shame in denial
Cannot be covered with fig leaves
But the blood of the lamb, who’d been on trial
When you’d said you didn’t know Him
And proved to be a liar
Now washes you clean
And makes you fit for the kingdom of God
Which last forever and it
Will not fade, kept by the power of God through faith though now you suffer
This trial of your faith, is now more valuable than riches
Or an earthly kingdom granting all your wishes
Now you with unspeakable joy
Receive with glory
The salvation of your souls
Now the hope of your faith
Is more precious than gold
“ for all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”
I Peter 1:24-25