Repeating from March 2015:
Reading Isaiah 53:5
Scourged To Heal
Near lictors, nauseated and sweating,
we seek to know our ailing, to confess our place,
and there to seek wellness.
The scourge, so devious, so malevolent,
made most evil by man, is
laid upon His tender body, and we feel each lashing in
ways barely known.
We see Him new each time.
Wet and lacerated, in red risen welts,
there is pain and healing found.
Bound, the way to freedom, and beaten fiercely,
He suffers before me,
before my soul, my weeping presence,
and I will be healed.
In fairness, torn apart, and purity
set aside in bloody flesh,
we are there, and aware,
barely alone in absolute agony,
in community, yet alone.
And the love grows inside,
healing the body, the spirit, the me.
He heals; scourged, He loves.
We are healed each day.
The sharpest scourge breaks the heart,
and in that broken place, there is fresh healing.
–Tom Bolton, 31 March 2015, Bay View
Hopeful 