Jewish Irony

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By Sr. Esther Jeruto Koros OSF 



From Aden, the magnificence of God’s presence

The epitome of perfection, wherein flowed an abundance of grace

Just until a sly serpent, to the human pride appealed.

Oh! mighty fall, turning a deaf ear to a voice so clear.  

Naked of grace, susceptible to evil, such unworthiness.

 

God not relenting loves him still, calls out from himself,

To redeem his beloved, in whose image he’d made.

‘Whom shall I send to cleanse the gory, back to glory?’

An eager voice, in submissive obedience, hastens;

‘Send Me!’ The Son’s voice, heeded. And thus! The redemptive journey:

 

Corrupt humanity, God distraught, flooded all save for Noah;

Virtuous Abraham caught Yahweh’s eye,

In Faith his only son not clinging; Isaac, Such a test!

Earned himself a myriad of descendants; the gain in loss.

Yet still, the journey was maiden.

 

Amongst his descend: a litany of imperfection, Such perfect flaws.

Deceit of identity in Jacob turned Israel, sibling rivalry, envious of a dreamer

Enslavement in Pharaoh’s tyranny, such agony.

Moses, the priest’s shepherd, was the Great I AM calling: The unconsuming fire. 

For God heard the cry, of his afflicted Israelites.

 

A people whose King was Yahweh himself; cloud by day, fire by night.

Well-tended: Manna, water from the rock, in Moses and Aron’s hands:

But their joy was short-lived: Yahweh wasn’t enough. They decried;

The food of heaven, the King of heaven, they regretted their epic exodus.

Worshipped golden calves, even as they received the commandments.

 

God being God, anointed them Kings: David, God’s favourite;

Was promised an everlasting Kingdom. His son Solomon: The wisest of all;

To his anointing, Rode a donkey, a peaceful Kingship, undid Adonijah, built God’s temple. 

The Kingdoms divided; Jeroboam and Rehoboam; the taxes paid, and the people turned to God.

Consolations, warnings, admonitions spoke the prophets.

 

David, in whose Kingdom the divine King would sit,

In whose line Joseph, Jacob’s son, Mary’s spouse was born Christ,

The Divine and everlasting King, whose rule shall endure forever.

Such sadness when the coded message bypasses the intended.

The Jewish irony it is.

 

The Messiah entered the main entrance of Jerusalem and nobody stopped him.

He rode a donkey and not a horse, as the ancient King Solomon did.

The crowds exult him singing Hosanna, save us now! As in David’s psalm.

The procession is bound all the way to the alter, at Calvary where his nature’s revealed.

In mockery: crowned King of the Jews, crucified to the tree of life!

 

The temple, now is the church, whose head is Christ.

The Everlasting Kingdom now is Christ’s, who has come to save mankind from sin and death.

His perfect sacrifice at Calvary; Christ himself is the priest, the victim, the Altar.

Such mysteries: evaded God’s beloved, the Jews.

Such irony, the Jewish irony.

 

© 3rd April 2020

Holy Saturday

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