Stations of The Cross - First Station

                   The  First Station

 Jesus in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

                     Mark 14.32-36

 

        Son of Man, alone in the wood,

        weeping tears of blood, pressed out

        like small red olives, drip by drip

        into the cup of his resignation.

        This Second Adam, born not of man

        but of God and woman; his human

        heart anguished and weak, while

        nearby his disciples are still asleep.

 

      “Abba, father, where are you now?

        When I need you most, when I call

        to you in prayer, can it be that you

        no longer hear? I always had the  

        sense of you beside me, but now,

        I can no longer see. Abba, Father

        must I be pressed to drain the bitter

        cup? Or can it yet be taken from me?

 

        Must he then, as one so weak, be asked to

        taste the pangs of bitter death?  

        Not yet the cross, but so much more:

        the agony of doubt he never foresaw.

        After bleak hours praying alone to

        the Father, whose approval he seeks.

        If death comes, he shan’t be found weak

        so that all who follow shall be atoned.

 

       The candle gutters, his faith burns low, as

        he wonders why he has been left alone,

        his Fathers absence felt deep in his bones.

        But if the die is cast, and if time, like

        sand is running fast through his hands;

        he will pray for the strength to fulfil

        what he knows to be his Fathers will,

        although he seems to be hiding his face,

 

        He is never alone, the Fathers love,

        is not withdrawn, it rests upon his Son.

        Insects sound their call; wind rustles the leaf’s;

        the Angel Azrael watches from the trees, as

        the breath of faith cools his tear-stained face,

        he prays for the grace to face what will be.

        His heart is calm, his grief is at an end,

        he waits for the one, the enemy will send.

 

Images  from Wikimedia Commons: Jörn Droemann.

                      © D G Moody 2023