The Echo of the Questions

A garden to cherish with so much to enjoy.
Should be easy to obey
God's only given command.

We paint him as some cosmic killjoy.
So we refuse, come what may,
and hide from his face's demand.

Where are you?
Where are you?

Through the night they were wrestling,
leading him to strike
the portentous blow.

His for the giving was the blessing,
but the giver's name
was not yet for the recipient to know.

Who are you?
Who are you?

Powers of darkness and deceit
getting a stern reproach
are left with no choice but to flee.

Well on their way to defeat,
trembling on approach
of the one with mission to set free.

Who is he?
Who is he?

He sees Eve's daughter in plight.
By her lust or despair,
found with illicit lover.

Her shame of nakedness in sight,
yet the guilt of others
her sin will now uncover.

Where are they?
Where are they?

With iron swords and spikes of wood
men approach the garden
with judgment hardly tentative.

The pretend-servants of public good
have now come to arrest
the only true representative.

Where is he?
Where is he?

Cry of the incomprehensible languish
witnessed by the one graced
with having borne him in her womb.

Her moment of unconsolable anguish
the precious son on the cross
crying out and soon carried to the tomb.

Why did you?
Why did you?

The Sabbath passed, the sun now rising.
Their minds still residing
in dark tomb's hopeless gloom.

At the garden tomb a sight so surprising,
still slow to understand
death itself had met its doom.

Where is he?
Where is he?

Accompanying them on their journey to night
then breaking bread amongst them
as the True Bread himself was broken.

Eager hearts burning with the freshness of light
new eyes now open to see
what the Living, Risen One had spoken.

Were they not?
Were they not?

He stands knocking on heart's door.
Arriving here for a meal,
bringing the invite back to garden.

No soul should dare to demand more
than the one who will heal.
No time to let your heart harden.

Will you open?
Will you open?

Did you mean anguish instead if anguish?

Cry of the incomprehensible languish

A garden to cherish with so much to enjoy.
Should be easy to obey
God's only given command.

We paint him as some cosmic killjoy.
So we refuse, come what may,
and hide from his face's demand.

Where are you?
Where are you?

Through the night they were wrestling,
leading him to strike
the portentous blow.

His for the giving was the blessing,
but the giver's name
was not yet for the recipient to know.

Who are you?
Who are you?

Powers of darkness and deceit
getting a stern reproach
are left with no choice but to flee.

Well on their way to defeat,
trembling on approach
of the one with mission to set free.

Who is he?
Who is he?

He sees Eve's daughter in plight.
By her lust or despair,
found with illicit lover.

Her shame of nakedness in sight,
yet the guilt of others
her sin will now uncover.

Where are they?
Where are they?

With iron swords and spikes of wood
men approach the garden
with judgment hardly tentative.

The pretend-servants of public good
have now come to arrest
the only true representative.

Where is he?
Where is he?

Cry of the incomprehensible languish
witnessed by the one graced
with having borne him in her womb.

Her moment of unconsolable anguish
the precious son on the cross
crying out and soon carried to the tomb.

Why did you?
Why did you?

The Sabbath passed, the sun now rising.
Their minds still residing
in dark tomb's hopeless gloom.

At the garden tomb a sight so surprising,
still slow to understand
death itself had met its doom.

Where is he?
Where is he?

Accompanying them on their journey to night
then breaking bread amongst them
as the True Bread himself was broken.

Eager hearts burning with the freshness of light
new eyes now open to see
what the Living, Risen One had spoken.

Were they not?
Were they not?

He stands knocking on heart's door.
Arriving here for a meal,
bringing the invite back to garden.

No soul should dare to demand more
than the one who will heal.
No time to let your heart harden.

Will you open?
Will you open?[/Q

I keep thinking a few more times and I will understand all of it, but I will eventually. I think at the 70 percent level. Of course the exclamation points are wonderful!

I wouldn't stop writing poems just because your audience (me!) is to dumb to understand it all. Others are secretly reading and enjoying. Really wonderful poetry.

A garden to cherish with so much to enjoy.
Should be easy to obey
God's only given command.

We paint him as some cosmic killjoy.
So we refuse, come what may,
and hide from his face's demand.

Where are you?
Where are you?

Through the night they were wrestling,
leading him to strike
the portentous blow.

His for the giving was the blessing,
but the giver's name
was not yet for the recipient to know.

Who are you?
Who are you?

Powers of darkness and deceit
getting a stern reproach
are left with no choice but to flee.

Well on their way to defeat,
trembling on approach
of the one with mission to set free.

Who is he?
Who is he?

He sees Eve's daughter in plight.
By her lust or despair,
found with illicit lover.

Her shame of nakedness in sight,
yet the guilt of others
her sin will now uncover.

Where are they?
Where are they?

With iron swords and spikes of wood
men approach the garden
with judgment hardly tentative.

The pretend-servants of public good
have now come to arrest
the only true representative.

Where is he?
Where is he?

Cry of the incomprehensible languish
witnessed by the one graced
with having borne him in her womb.

Her moment of unconsolable anguish
the precious son on the cross
crying out and soon carried to the tomb.

Why did you?
Why did you?

The Sabbath passed, the sun now rising.
Their minds still residing
in dark tomb's hopeless gloom.

At the garden tomb a sight so surprising,
still slow to understand
death itself had met its doom.

Where is he?
Where is he?

Accompanying them on their journey to night
then breaking bread amongst them
as the True Bread himself was broken.

Eager hearts burning with the freshness of light
new eyes now open to see
what the Living, Risen One had spoken.

Were they not?
Were they not?

He stands knocking on heart's door.
Arriving here for a meal,
bringing the invite back to garden.

No soul should dare to demand more
than the one who will heal.
No time to let your heart harden.

Will you open?
Will you open?

This explanation is perhaps too long as the system doesn't even accept it as a single post. But I couldn't cover all of the most relevant points in a shorter amount of text. It was a useful exercise to think about this poem a bit more and try to find ways to explain the ideas behind it. So here goes...

Each stanza of the poem aims to portray some significant events from the history of God's dealings with humankind. For a lack of a better term, I'll call these "poetic snapshots". It would be relatively easy to add many other episodes from this grand story as it's described in the Bible, but I didn't want to make the poem even longer (basically didn't have the time).

Regarding the structure of this poem, I wanted to maintain a repeatable pattern of two sets of three lines, then a question consisting of three words, repeated twice in a way that gives the impression of a kind of echo. The echo would indicate on the one hand the significance of the event and how it echoes through the entire salvation history in many ways, and on the other hand, it can make the question more personal. Repeating the question indicates the need to answer it.

The fixed and rigid structure emphasizes the unity of the seemingly discrete and separate stanzas. There is unity in the content as well, but that may not be evident right away, so this structural unity seems a fitting way to point to the same direction.



(Genesis 1-3)

It starts with the humankind in the gaden of Eden before the fall. God entrusted the garden for the man to work and take care of. "God's only given command" is the prohibition of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Starting to selfishly doubt the goodness and necessity of this command is in part what leads to refusal and disobeying. "Hiding from his face's demand" refers to how Adam and Eve hid from God after the fall. There's also a connection to the Biblical idea that in our sinful state we cannot bear to see God "face to face". "Where are you?" is God's question to Adam in Genesis 3:9.



(Genesis 32:22-32)

There seem to be some differences in how some of the key verses are (or can be) translated. E.g. just on the basis of quickly comparing translations and looking up basic information about Hebrew words, it seems possible to describe God as touching or striking Jacob when they wrestled. Regardless, it did result in some kind of injury. The area of this injury would seem consistent with what the Bible often describes as "loins" which is sometimes a figure of speech used in making reference to one's descendants. After this, Jacob receives a blessing. So one could therefore interpret these events as prefiguring Jesus' death on our behalf. (A future descendant of Jacob would be struck or harmed in some way, and this would result in a blessing.) "Who are you?" refers to the question regarding name (which was asked by both parties of each other, but only Jacob answered it).



(Many texts from Gospels regarding Jesus' ministry)

Jesus had the authority to heal the sick and cast out demons as portrayed in many places in the Gospels. The demons were terrified of Jesus' presence. His ministry of healing and exorcism was already a "mission to set free" the people under these ailments, but of course there was an even greater mission still in setting us free from the power of sin and death.

"Who is he?" is the natural question to ask in response to seeing Jesus doing his work.



(John 8:1-11)

The use of the expression "Eve's daughter" emphasizes the connection to the garden of Eden. The text doesn't tell us why the woman caught in adultery decided to commit this sin. Could be simple lust, but there could also be other reasons that are more indicative of desperation.

"Shame of nakedness" is echoing the original fall to sin and consequent shame of nakedness in Eden. Presumably the woman was no longer naked at this point in the narrative of John 8 as she is brought to public view, but sexual sin is still thematically connected with nakedness and shame. The sin of this woman is the occasion by which the sins of her accusers are also uncovered when Jesus says "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." and they leave. "Where are they?" is Jesus' question to the woman in John 8:10.



(Multiple Gospel texts regarding the arrest of Jesus)

"Pretend-servants of the public good" meaning the armed men are working on behalf of earthly authorities (John 18:12 seems to indicate the presence of men under the command of of both Roman and Jewish authorities) and perhaps even more importantly (though indirectly) the authorities themselves. Politicians and other types of earthly authorities often tend to justify their decisions by "the good of the people", regardless of their real motives.

Christ is "the only true representative" because on the cross he represented us and bore the penalty of sins on our behalf. And he's the only one that could do it. Also in his whole life he fulfilled the righteous demands of the law on our behalf. "Where is he?" is the implied question of those who came to arrest him.



(Multiple Gospel texts on the crucifixion of Jesus)

Earlier as you (ebdesroches) asked about it, I began to doubt the appropriateness of the word "languish" here to describe the crucifixion. But some of the dictionary meanings do seem quite fitting. See for example https://www.thefreedictionary.com/languish and https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/languish and I also found this from a sermon by Spurgeon: "they nailed him to the cross, and there they let him languish out his dying life in agony such as no man hath borne since".

Mary the mother of Jesus witnessed Jesus' death on the cross (John 19:25). One can hardly imagine how horrible it was for a mother to watch her son dying a painful death characterized by prolonged suffering.

"Why did you?" refers to Jesus' words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I'm not sure if any English translation has "Why did you forsake me?" (rather than "why have you..."). That choice of words was probably influenced more by the Finnish translation that was more freshly on my mind. These words are also what I primarily had in mind with the phrase "Cry of the incomprehensible languish". Thinking about the meaning and implications of God the Father forsaking (in some sense) God the Son in his death on the cross seems to add some seeming incomprehensibility to the situation.

(TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST)

Very nice. I haven’t read all yet but looks comprehensive, thanks