Good News For the Poorest Spirit

A Poem Based On Isaiah 52 and 53

We ran

we scattered

like wayward children we darted off

Like frightened sheep we bolted

to try to find our own way

to try to find our own safety

Immediately we were lost

Immediately we were cold and dirty

and tangled in briars

How could we ever find the way?

We startled with fear 

and darted between demonic shadows

We wandered along wild and disappearing trails

in dim moonlit forests

While seven thunders broke apart the skies

While all the shades around us told us lies

Our soul was cut from root to leaf

Our tree was cut through 

We were felled and dying

There was no one there to look for us

There was no one close or far to blame

We ran

We scattered

It was our choice 

We prayed at the wind

We prayed at the sun

We prayed at the moon and at the stars

We tried to entice the visible powers to rescue us

We tried to move the powers to pity us

No one came

No one mothered us

No one whispered our name

We turned against our home

home after home

We stampeded like nightmare sheep

We cared nothing for our world

until finally the shadow of death blackened our sky

until its coldness took ownership of our bones

and fear became a star of ice in the lonely sky

And on earth our fear was a mountain of fire

in our crying breath

and we could run no longer

We could not even move our eyelids

Then the soft voice of God was heard

by one lamb alone

Only one lamb heard

the voice of God’s whisper

One lamb who was called his weakest lamb

and God drew him apart

The warm voice of God encircled him

and set him in the midst of Jerusalem

and called him Israel

He made that lamb his servant

How kind and glorious God’s servant was

to stand in the midst of Jerusalem our mother

The city of scattered sheep

became the sheepfold of lost sheep

when Israel was lifted up in her midst

How kind and glorious Israel was

to stand in the midst of such a city

as Jerusalem was

when God found her in the wilderness

lying in her blood

How kind and glorious Israel was

to be God's kind and righteous hand

reaching out to her and to us

her scattered sheep

her wayward children

One day God’s servant will be praised

in the Supreme Torah Court.

Israel will be honoured above all people

for he accepted responsibility for our actions.

The servant claimed guardianship for the world

when we turned away from God

when we made ourselves nothing

but the prey of demons

Israel suffered with us the shame of what we did

He suffered so much humiliation and punishment

that he could not be recognized

neither at the first when God called him

and separated him from the nations

so that he was humiliated among his own kind

nor in the generations to come

when he was punished for Jerusalem’s sake

and for our sake

As severe as Israel's punishment was

to that very degree

he will bring free flowing love and blessings

between the hearts of all God's creatures

great and small

He will bring Jerusalem again

into the joy of her motherhood

Multitudes of lost and broken families

will be found and healed in her

The rulers of the world

will be utterly confused by God's servant

They will stand with their mouths wide open

unable to think or speak

They will hear the homeless speak

and little children speak

They will hear them say wondrous things

about Israel

that they never could have imagined

Deep truths of creation

that they never could have dreamed of

will be taught to them

by children

Who can believe a story like this?

Who can believe that it is not a fiction?

Only the poorest spirit

can be made to uncover her face

and see the suffering King of Israel

who makes Jacob to be called Israel

and Leah to be called understanding

who makes Rachel to be called Jerusalem

Only the poorest spirit can be made a believer

Come and see the King of Israel

Come and see Israel

Do not hide your face because of his scars,

Come and see Israel

standing in the midst of Jerusalem

The King of Israel

sits at the right hand of the Almighty

He arises from the dead

to walk in the midst of his family

He arises from the dead

that Jacob may arise from the dead as Israel

Abraham was just a toddler

and he walked around

all the Land of Israel

under his Creator's fatherly eye

no one believed

he would become the salvation of the world

For Jerusalem’s heart was broken

when her children did not save her

when they turned back toward the wilderness

to the place from where she had come

Jerusalem saw Israel

her beloved

standing in the midst of her

and spread out her wings to us

but we turned away

and went back to our familiar ways of life

The King's heart was pierced

for our sakes

It was bewildering to us

God has his reasons

we said

and continued on our way

Jerusalem's heart was shattered

Her tears do not cease

We found our own paths of life

and fought to bring our offspring joy

but our paths were only paths in dreams

For in truth

we were ourselves still-born infants

Some miracle had incubated us

and our bodies grew

into the bodies of warriors

but our souls were lost

and we immediately wandered off

into the cursed forest of the tree of death

Now the servant of God

has agreed to take custody of us

Israel has agreed to be responsible for us

Israel is a shepherd to Jerusalem

and to all the nations

who become her sons and daughters

The king of Israel

is a shepherd of shepherds

a servant of servants

the gentle gatherer of lost and lonely

rebellious children

The king of Israel

makes Jacob to be Israel

and Israel to be God's blessing

to multitudes

For Jerusalem's sake

and for our sake

his soul suffered a great wound

He was cut off from trust

and from intimacy with God

Jerusalem's heart was shattered

when her king's mind and soul and body

were battered

and beaten by death

Had God destroyed her hope?

It was for our souls

that Israel was made accountable

It was for our sakes

that he suffered the bitterness of God's curse

and Jerusalem was left desolate

Israel was inseparable form Jerusalem

in all her actions

he stood with her

He called all of her children his own

From the consequences of their actions

he did not escape

and from his peace

she will not be cut off

He took death by the collar

and made it a beast of burden

to carry all the weight of life

He fell ill

with our diseases

took our medicine

and we are being healed

The servant of God's servant

a most gentle and humble man

was taken like a lamb

to the knife

Silently he walked from the court

convicted

A violator of the law of God

a worshipper of demonic idols

It was Jacob's transgression

Jerusalem's fall from grace

But he called Jacob his kingdom

his partner in suffering for Adam

and Jerusalem was his princess

He was a convicted murderer

a convicted thief and adulterer

He was charged with the folly of every

child of Jerusalem

He was held accountable for every crime

condemned for our arrogance

It was we who were guilty

and it was Israel who suffered

He was placed in the earthen grip of prison

beneath execution skies

He was arrested for the loving of Jacob too much

and for pitying the world without compromise

He risked the reputation of God

and took the fall for sinners

and gave up his life

He was meant for a criminal's grave

but in the end was buried with the rich

In fact

he broke no law

of humans or of God

He had only truth

in his mouth

only love between his words

every day of his life

Yet Israel's God

was willing that he should give up his life

like an elevated offering

in order to create peace

for Jerusalem

As soon as Your servant was willing

for his soul

the soul of Israel

to remain one in death

with Jerusalem

You accepted his offering

Oh God of Israel

You accepted his suffering

as a gift of life

for his beloved

You accepted his prayer

as a way of transforming sin

into obedience

correcting wrong

creating from it what is right

As soon as Your servant was willing

for his soul

the soul of Israel

to remain one in death

with Jerusalem

You accepted his offering

Oh God of Israel

You accepted his suffering

as a gift of life

for his beloved

You accepted his prayer

as a way of transforming sin

into obedience

correcting wrong

creating from it what is right

Suddenly he saw the offspring of his soul

He saw the children of his eternal life

filling the earth

as the waters fill the beds of the seas

It was for their sakes

that Israel suffered

for the sake of seeing

Jerusalem's joy

when she beheld as her raiment

a new creation

of heaven and earth

her tears of joy

seeing her children

full of eternal light

Israel saw

and was satisfied

He will hold the children of his soul in his arms

They will rest forever their heads

upon his chest

He will hold the answer to his prayer

in his hands

and his heart will create

Sabbath peace

From all that he learns

he will bring understanding

to the judgement of God

He will announce the mercy and justice of God

from his own experience

For God has made Israel

the servant of all

God's true and eternal servant

Through her labor pains

Jerusalem will pronounce multitudes righteous

in his name

Therefore

God enthrones him

amidst the adulation of angels

and gives him a name

that is above every name

because he gave up his soul

that it might be the soul of Israel

that it might be the peace of Jerusalem

He stood in the courtroom

in the place of criminals

that he might rescue the poorest spirit

All the weight of creation

was poured into sin

It hung from his shoulders

when he prayed to be counted one with Israel

a sacrifice for Jerusalem

a salvation for Adam's lost soul

Father forgive them

for they do not know what they are doing

We were little children wandering away

He made Jacob one soul with him

He made Israel one servant with him

He made Israel the home of all creation

He made Israel a house

without limit or end

And Jerusalem He made

the living room of the king