GOSPEL OF JOHN CHAPTER 11 - 15

JOHN 11

1 A certain one was sick, by name
Lazarus of Bethany's fame,
From the same village from which came
Mary and her sister Martha.
2 And it was Mary who in awe
Anointed the lord with the oil
And wiped his feet with her hair's coil,
Whose brother Lazarus was sick.
3 The sisters sent a message quick
To him and said “Sir, do behold,
One whom you love is sick and cold.”
4 Jesus heard and he said “It's not
Sickness to death, but for the plot
Of God's glory, that by it may
The son of God know glory's way.”
5 And Jesus loved Martha and her
Sister and Lazarus in spur.
6 That's why, when he heard he was sick,
Indeed, he stayed in the place thick
Where he was for two days to stick.
7 Then after this he told his friends,
“Let's go back to Judaea's ends.”

When the synoptics feel by memory
Or trick of statement from disciplery
That Jesus rarely used the word to say
He's son of God, I wonder at the play.
For the synoptics son of God just means
That Jesus is Messiah on the scenes,
A man descended from David at last
To reign upon the throne that was outcast.
But John loves the term all the more to bring
The message that Jesus is one to sing,
Life-giver is the hint upon the string.
Beloved, You are life-giver, both to him
And to those he might resurrect and trim.
So can I take you both to be my king?

8 Disciples said to him, “Rabbi,
Just recently the Jews would try
To stone you, and now would you go
Back there again and dare to show?”
9 Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve
Hours in the day? If any delve
And walk in the day, he does not
Stumble, because he see a lot
Of light that lightens the world's plot.
10 “But if a man walks in the night,
He stumbles because then the light
Is not in him nor in his sight.”
11 He said these things. And after this,
He said to them, “Our friend to miss,
Called Lazarus, has gone to sleep.
But I'll go and wake him to keep.”
12 Then his disciples said “Sir, if
He's gone to sleep, he is no stiff,
But will recover from the tiff.”
13 But Jesus talked about his death,
While they thought he spoke of the breath
Of slumber. 14 So then Jesus said
To them clearly, “The man is dead.
15 “And I rejoice because of you,
So you may have faith in what's true,
Since I was not there, but let's go
Now to him and keep up the show.”
16 Then Thomas, who was called the Twin,
Told his fellow disciples' chin,
“Let's go, we also, that we may
Die with him in the coming fray.”

My brother twin, my Thomas, be so brave,
But I doubt too he'd go down to the grave
With Jesus with such desperation's wave.
And yet You give him all the chance he needs
To see the dead man rise up in the weeds
Well washed and wrapped and spoken for in seeds.
I wonder who it was that washed the man,
And if it was a sister as in plan.
I wonder was he then embarrassed when
He met the two again out of the den.
So Thomas has no fear, embarrassment,
But only rushes to the washing tent
Too late to see the act or to prevent
The female desecration of the gent.

17 When Jesus came, he found him there
Already in the tomb for share
Of four days. 18 The town Bethany
Was near Jerusalem’s degree,
Of fifteen stadia from the din.
19 And many of the Jews had come
To those around Martha to hum,
And Mary, that they might console
Them for the brother in the hole.
20 When Martha heard Jesus was coming,
She met him. But Mary was humming
At home. 21 Then Martha came to say
To Jesus, “Sir, if on that day
You had been here, my brother dear
Would not have died, I have no fear.
22 “But even now I know what you
May ask of God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will
Rise once again upon the hill.”
24 Martha told him, “I know he will
Rise up again in the last day
When resurrection comes to stay.”

Belief in resurrection day depends
On history of Hellenistic bends,
The killing of the righteous and the way
Of leaving apostates to rule the day.
So hope in retribution that must come
After death made the rabbi doctors hum.
The Pharisaic faith in jumping from
The grave is really also one that Your
Sent one digs up in hope upon the shore
Of what Elijah and Elisha did.
The life that stays in one that came and hid
In You and laid hand on Your grace alone
To give us back the tree and so atone,
To open Paradise beneath Your throne.

25 Jesus said “I'm the resurrection
And the life. Who makes my selection
Will live though he die in confection.
26 And everyone who lives and who
Believes in me shall not die through
The age for ever. Now do you
Believe that what I say is true?”
27 She told him, “Yes, sir, I've believed
You are the Christ and so received,
The son of God who came into
The world to bring life into view.”
28 After she said these things, she went
Away and called her sister meant
In secret, saying “The Rabbi
Is here and calls you to come nigh.”
29 When she heard that she got right up
And came to him, 30 where with his cup
Jesus not in the village yet,
But in the place where Martha met.
31 Then the Jews with her in the house
To comfort her saw her go raus
So quickly getting up to go,
They followed her, saying in row,
“She's going to the tomb to grieve.”
32 When Mary came to Jesus' sleeve
And saw him, she fell at his feet
And said to him, “Sir, if your seat
Had been here, my brother's defeat
Would not have come in death unsweet.”
33 When he saw that she wept and Jews
Came down with her weeping in shoes,
Jesus groaned in the spirit and
Troubled himself right there to stand.

It was quite right that Jesus groan a bit
When he saw Mary in her grieving's fit.
He only thought of his own glory when
He doddled on the way with his own men.
He wanted Lazarus to die and tear
The hearts of Mary and Martha a share
Just so he could raise up the dead and take
More gratitude and glory for their sake.
Beloved, it was right he should have regrets
For bringing suffering on his own life pets.
I'm glad I was not born to be Messiah
And always have to be cruel pariah,
Forgetful of the fact that people grieve,
Cut to the heart for my little reprieve.

34 And he said “Where have you put him?”
They told him, “Sir, come see the brim.”
35 Then Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said
“See how he loved him!” 37 But some said
“Was he who opened blind eyes not
Able to keep his friend from plot
Of death?” 38 Then groaning once again,
Jesus came to the tomb and den,
A stone lay on the opening.
39 Jesus said “Lift the stone from spring.”
Martha the sister of the dead
Said to him, “Sir, he stinks instead,
For it's the fourth day from the spread.
40 Jesus told her, “Did I not say
To you that if you'd give faith sway
You'll see God's glory here outspread?”

Martha's a practical sort who knows well
That bodies in the grave will come to smell.
The cautious character I have to spell
Is why I'm not successful in the dell.
Success means pushing forward every day
To catch the business that might come your way.
Instead I keep my hermit's shell and pay
No mind to chances to gain pence and pound.
Instead I keep my eye on all around
That makes no cents: the ants upon the ground
That give an earnest example of work,
The grasshopper that rather comes to shirk,
The firs that sing the melodies in praise
Of You, Beloved. Such are my simple days.

41 And so they lifted up the stone
Where the dead one was laid alone.
And Jesus lifted eyes above
And said “Father, I thank Your love
That You heard me. 42 I know that You
Always hear me, but for the view
Of the crowd standing all around,
I say so they'll believe You're found.”
43 And saying these things, he cried out
With a loud voice, “Lazarus stout!
Come out here now without a doubt!”
44 And the one who had died came out,
The feet and hands still bound in sheets,
And his face covered with the pleats
Of a cloth. Jesus said to them,
“Cut him loose and let go the hem.”
45 Then many Jews with Mary come
Saw what Jesus had done in sum
And they believed he was a gem.

I might have thought him more a ghost so bound
In cloths and rags around the head and gowned.
But some men were so cool there to be found,
That when dead Lazarus stood on the ground,
They ran forward and unloosed all the mound
Of white that had been buried with him sound.
Beloved, when Your sent one calls out to me,
Though I may be dead on my bed to see,
Let me get up and follow in my shroud,
Praising Your name in syllables aloud.
Beloved, when Jesus calls in this life's woes,
From toils and trials, from heartaches and from blows,
Let me not hesitate more than one dead
To rise up and to follow where I'm led.

46 But some went to the Pharisees,
And told them what Jesus with ease
Had done. 47 Also then the chief priests
And Pharisees gathered the beasts
Of a Sanhedrin and said “What
To do, for this man is not shut
From doing miracles in glut?
48 “If we leave him alone this way,
All will believe in him someday,
The Romans will come take away
From us both place and nation's sway.”
49 But one of them, Caiaphas,
Who was the high priest that year passed,
Said to them, “You know nothing here.
50 “You don't consider profit's gear,
How it is better one man die
In place of the people awry,
And not all the nation pass by.”
51 He did not say this of himself,
But being high priest on the shelf
That year, he prophesied Jesus
Was soon to die for the folk's muss,
52 And not just for the nation, but
That he also might gather shut
Into one the children of God
Who had been scattered on the sod.

The death of Jesus was the substitute
For death of more to face the Roman brute.
That pagan attitude has always been
The first recourse of folks met by their sin.
And yet it was true that his death alone
Could cancel all the hopes failed to atone.
Your kingdom in the patriarchal day,
The judges, kings, and after goes the way
Of destitution. All hopes of good men
That Your kingdom might rise and rule again
Are failures. There is only one recourse:
The demonstration of that Roman horse.
All hopes of power must die, all crucified
Before the onslaught of the human tide.

53 Then from that day they made their plan
How and when they might kill the man.
54 Then Jesus did no more appear
In public in the Jewish sphere,
But went away from there into
The land of a deserted view,
A city called by Ephraim,
And stayed there with some friends of him.
55 The Jewish Passover was near,
And many went up to the pier
Into Jerusalem from there
Before the Passover with care
To purify themselves in share.
56 They looked for Jesus and they said
To one another, standing spread
In the temple, “How does it seem?
Will he come to the feast or dream?”
57 And all the chief priests and also
The Pharisees gave orders low
That if anyone knew where he
Was he should so inform the see,
So they could capture him in spe.

The true faith's always in a secret place,
Found in the desert, despite Matthew's trace
Not to believe the voice that says that he
Is found a-lurking in eternity.
The true faith's not in institutions grand,
But in the humble hovels on the sand,
Among the teeming crowds, and yet so small
That it would seem choked by the din and gall.
Beloved, let me meet Jesus in the nest
Away from bishop's hall among the best,
Where tiny voices rise to praise Your name,
And little eyes and ears welcome Your fame,
Until the twilight turns into the night
To wait the morning prayer before the light.

19 The Pharisees said to themselves,
“See that you gain nothing on shelves,
See how the world goes after him.”

It's Pharisees started the Baptist church.
They're the ones who got on the racing perch
And started competition for the names
Of members who come join them in their games.
The bigger the church better is the pastor,
The fighting starts and that is a disaster
When they decide if a new roof is faster
Than new pews or piano foot in castor.
The numbers game was started by that crew
That was so jealous of the Jesus few.
But Jesus tried to tell them all he wanted
In congregation was just three or two.
But no, the Pharisees were sure he vaunted.
Religious murder by numbers ain't new.

20 And there were some Greeks among those
Who came up to worship in rows
At the feast. 21 These came to Philip,
The one from Bethsaida a trip
To Galilee, and asked and said
“Sir, we would be to Jesus led.”
22 And Philip came and told Andrew,
And Andrew and Philip, the two
Told Jesus. 23 But Jesus replied
To them and said “The hour of pride
That son of man be glorified.
24 “Truly indeed, I say to you,
If the grain of wheat that falls to
The earth does not die, it remains
Alone. But if it dies, it gains
Much fruit. 25 “The one who loves his life
Loses it, and who hates his life
In this world will keep it instead
To everlasting life then led.
26 “If anyone serve me, let him
Follow me, and where I am trim,
There my servant will also be.
And if anyone will serve me,
The Father will come honour him.
27 “And my soul's troubled, and what may
I say? Dad, save me from this stay?
But because of this I have come
Up to this time with grief unspun.
28 “Father, glorify Your name now.”
Then a voice came from heaven somehow:
“I both glorified it and now
I'll glorify again, I trow.”
29 The crowd that stood and heard said that
The thunder ran and thundered flat.
Others said an angel said that.

If every time You speak, Beloved, the crowd
Is disagreed on what they heard aloud,
Then the report of Sinai must be bent
Selecting only what the one side meant.
The ones who heard You say they ought to keep
The first day Sunday were then made to weep,
And could not get their view recorded by
Moses who was a biased sort of guy.
It is a great thing that Jesus came in
To correct that outrageous sort of sin,
For by the time a hundred years had passed
At least some were keeping the Sunday crassed.
It happened first in Rome, I hear, so I
Guess the Greeks spread a different reply.

30 Jesus answered and said “This voice
Has not come down for my own choice,
But because of you, so rejoice.
31 “Now is the judgement of this world;
Now is this world ruler uncurled.
32 “And I, if I be lifted up
From earth, I'll draw all to my cup.
33 “But he said this to show by which
Kind of death was about to pitch
Him out of life into the ditch.
34 The crowd replied to him, “We heard
Out of the Law that Christ is stirred
To stay for ever. How can you
Say son of man's lifted in view?
Who is this son of man, be true?”

In those days it was easy on hearsay
To know the Torah told Messiah's way
Was this or that to hear the donkeys bray.
Whatever people thought in hopeful sigh
Might throw down empires beneath a brass sky
Was well attributed to Moses' pen,
Or that of some other prophet again
Trembling with age beneath a wrinkled wen.
Truth is the texts that promise anything
Like a Messiah, sufferer or king,
Are few and star between a franker bill,
No matter what, obedience to Your will.
Beloved, save me and greater humankind
By what You will, but keep me in Your bind.

35 Then Jesus told them, “Yet a while
The light is with you without guile.
Walk while you have the light to shine,
So the dark does not break your vine.
The one who walks in dark does not
Know where he's going in the plot.
36 “While you have light, believe the light,
So you may become sons of light.”
Jesus spoke these things and was gone
Away and hidden from their dawn.

The light of Christ is gone since he arose
Into the cloud where every good one goes:
Enoch, Elijah and Muhammad’s pose,
The guided one before Abbasid nose.
The light of Christ is hidden from the view
Of all men but the chosen three or two
Who in his name are gathered in their pew
Reciting the Four Books ever anew.
Beloved, I walk in light that shines abroad
From inner temple where the ark is shod
To shelter day and night the tables set,
The fleshly tables where Your Law is met.
So may I be a child of light within
A world still darkened by its sleep and sin.

37 But his doing so many signs
Before them did not stop their whines
Who failed to believe in his lines.
38 So the word of Isaiah prophet
Might be fulfilled up to a soffit,
When he said “Lord, who has believed
Our word, and who now has received
The revelation of YHWH's arm?”
39 That's why they could not believe, since
Isaiah said again to wince,
40 “He has come to blind their eyes” and
“Has hardened their heart” in the land
“So they might not see with the eyes”
And “understand with the heart cries
“And be converted” in that wise,
“And I should heal them” of their sties.
41 Isaiah said these things when he
Saw his glory and spoke in spe.

I doubt not that Isaiah saw the light
And spoke of future hopes in words aright.
But I doubt that the very words he chose
Were written of Messiah's pains and throes.
There are no doubt some words in prophecy,
But most of them are written in degree
Of those who hear Isaiah, came to see.
Fulfilment of the words happened that day
His hearers saw Your word in strength to play,
And were fulfilled each time and from that time
Your children lived according to that rhyme.
Beloved, let glory behind every stall
Come out illuminating all in all,
And I shall rush to enter in the call.

42 And yet even from ruling class
Many did believe in his pass.
But because of the Pharisees
They did not confess it with ease,
So they would not be put out from
The synagogues daily to hum.
43 For they loved more glory of men
More than glory of God again.

The bitterness of John to say these words
Turns to a comfort as I see the herds
That enter church and mosque without a thought
Of truth and light, the very things I sought.
It is a comfort to know that there be
A multitude upon the rising sea
Who have faith in You and Your word of light,
But fear to separate from reigning night.
You know the heart and motive and You take
Your own out of the hands of church and stake
And set Your loved ones in Your heart alone
To live before Your own celestial throne.
I stand with two or three and yet I know
The myriads of Your children join the row.

44 But Jesus cried and said aloud,
“The one who believes in me does
Not believe in just me who was,
But in the One who sent me here.
45 “And the one who sees me revealed
Sees the One who sent me appealed.
46 “I've come as a light to the world,
And everyone who's faith's unfurled
In me may not stay in dark curled.
47 “And if anyone hears my words
And do not believe with the herds,
I do not judge him, for I did
Not come to judge the world, but hid
That I might save the world on skid.
48 “The one who rejects me not to
Receive my words is judged in view
Of the word which I spoke and which
Will judge him the last day in pitch.
49 “For I did not speak from myself,
But He who sent me, Dad on shelf,
He's given me command what I
Should say and what to speak thereby.
50 “And I know that His commandment
Is everlasting life and sent.
Then what things I speak as Dad said
To me, so I speak them as led.”

If Jesus does not judge one who rejects
His name and fame, but sees the world selects
The purity on the last day to make
Even the blasphemer a child in stake,
I rise to praise You when the reddened sky
Turns all the world around me coloured by
The dawn a place of worship. Here I stand
In harmony with all the frozen land,
The tinselled trees, the sparkled frozen snow,
The ice-flakes on the fields that go and go
In furlongs hidden finally behind
The wilderness of sighted and the blind.
The word and not the flesh is of the kind
To bring eternal life. I am resigned.

JOHN 12

1 Six days before Passover, came
Jesus to Bethany, the same
Where Lazarus was who had died,
The one he raised up and untied.
2 They made a supper there for him
And Martha served and did it trim.
But Lazarus was one of those
Reclining with him in his rows.
3 Then taking a pound of pure oil
Of costly spikenard not to spoil,
Mary anointed Jesus' feet
And wiped off his feet to complete
With her hair, till the whole house filled
With the scent of the ointment spilled.
4 Then Simon's son, one of his own
Disciples, Judas as was known
Iscariot, who would betray
Him very soon, was heard to say
5 “Why was this ointment not sold for
Three hundred denarii in store
And the price given to the poor?”
6 But he said this, not that he cared
For the poor, but because he was
A thief and he carried the shared
Moneybag and filled up his claws.

This think is very slander, to accuse
Without proof that Judas came to abuse
Position as the treasurer to take
Sums for himself out of the common stake.
John ought to offer proof that it was so.
Instead he piles this calumny to glow,
Because he knows that we sweet Christians here
Would not think to defend Judas for cheer.
But is it not enough the man must bear
The shame of his betrayal without share
Of such embezzlement beyond the crime?
For shame! He truly thought the scent of lime
A waste of funds. Beloved, I know the guy
Will go to hell. But let it be for why.

7 Then Jesus said “Leave her alone,
For she's kept it for the day's groan
Of when I shall be the grave's own.
8 “For the poor you may always know,
But not always have me in show.”
9 Then a great crowd of Jews heard he
Was there. And they came not to see
Jesus alone, but also to
Take Lazarus again in view,
Whom he raised from the dead in pew.
10 But the chief priests took counsel that
They might put Lazarus on mat
To death also, 11 because through him
Many Jews went away and trim
Believed on Jesus and with vim.

The rulers are ready to set aside
Any law for the interest and the pride
Of state. I've seen the same in principle
And practice in Iranian chapel.
So Lazarus must die, though You raised him
To life. Such action on Your part was dim,
And did not take reactions set and trim
Into consideration in Your vim.
O my Beloved, where's Lazarus now that
The centuries have set us on our mat?
For all I know he's had to die here twice,
Which was neither just nor anything nice.
Unless, of course, in resurrecting many
You took them all to Paradise for penny.

12 On the next day, coming to feast,
Hearing that Jesus came at least
Into Jerusalem, a crowd
13 Took palm branches and went allowed
To meet him, and they cried aloud,
“Hosanna! Blessing to the one
Coming in the name of the Lord,
The king of Israel adored!”
14 And finding a donkey colt spun,
Jesus sat on it as was writ,
15 “Do not fear, Zion's daughter fit.
Behold, your king comes in to sit
Upon the foal of an ass won.”

The royal seat in David's kingdom is
A donkey, not a horse or mule to whiz.
That's why the man took donkeys in his way
For transportation on that far-off day.
The palm branch and the shouting raise a stir
About the twitching ears as though a blur
Could turn the air to gold, and crown a cur.
And yet the party never will see May.
Beloved, the king rides ever under sun,
As though the happiness, though never won,
Should never disappear for what man's done.
The king is always riding in the street
Towards the gates of Zion for a treat,
And I look out at dusk empty, complete.

16 But his disciples did not know
These things at the first time to go,
But when Jesus was glorified,
Then they remembered in their pride
These things had been written of him,
And that they did these things to him.
17 Then the crowd which was with him when
He called Lazarus out to men
From the tomb and raised from the dead,
They witnessed then of what he said.
18 Because of this also the crowd
Met him, because they heard aloud
Of this sign he had done instead.

For many signs, Beloved, I raise a cry
In witness and a hue to answer why.
For many signs I wait the narrow set
To find a sharper name than any met.
The friends of Jesus are not a dense lot,
Despite not knowing anything in plot.
Time teaches all things, and the day that's bright
Becomes but brighter each succeeding night.
I meet the Christ among the shouting crowd,
I meet him in the singleness and shroud,
I meet the seamless robe and touch his hem
To find the magic tsitsit and by them
Am transfixed on a moment to stand still
Before eternity upon my hill.

JOHN 13

1 And before the Passover Feast,
Jesus knowing his hour increased,
That he should move from this world to
The Father, loving his own who
Are in the world. He loved them to
The end. 2 And supper being done,
The Devil put in the heart won
Of Judas who was Simon's son,
Known as Iscariot, that he
Should betray him by false degree.

Some think the Devil's not a being made
Like other creatures here and on parade,
But just the evil principle that's found
Within the human heart when it's unbound.
The truth is, if that's so, the human heart
Is not a pretty place or pretty part.
I'd rather think old nick truly had horns
And was a trusty deil to meet my scorns.
I'd rather think that Judas had a soul
Of wonder and of faith before the toll
That entered suddenly and dimmed the bowl.
But if it had to be but lifeless toil
Of wickedness upon the human soil,
I trow it is enough in tightened coil.

3 Jesus knew the Father gave all
Things into his hand and in thrall,
And that he came out from God, and
Went away to God from the land,
4 He rose up from the supper and
Set off his garments. Then he took
A towel and tucked it in the nook
At his waist. 5 He poured water out
Into the basin and was stout
To start to wash disciples' feet,
And to wipe off with towel complete
Around his waist. 6 And then he came
To Simon Peter. He for shame
Told him, “Sir, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied and said to him,
“What I do you perceive as dim,
But you will later see things trim.”
8 Peter told him, “You never will
Wash my feet for ever and still.”
Jesus replied to him, “If I
Do not wash you, then you will die
Without a part in my last try.”
9 Then Simon Peter said to him,
“Lord, not my feet only for limb,
But also my hands and my head!”

Good Peter is a Muslim in his heart:
He wants to wash his head and hands to start,
And then his feet to keep all three apart.
That's how the Muslim starts his daily prayer
With his ablutions done with love and care.
But Peter there mistook the task then set.
It was not an ablution he had met,
But rather humble hospitality
That Jesus tried to instil in the free.
Let me accept the coming of the lord,
The washing of my feet by the adored,
Meet You with clean hands in the works I may,
And clean feet in the paths I come to stray,
And clean head in the thoughts I bear away.

10 But Jesus told him then and said,
“He who is bathed need only wash
His feet, but is completely clean,
And you're clean, but not all of you.”
11 For he knew who should betray him;
That's why he said “You're not all trim.”
12 So after he had washed the dew
Off their feet, and had taken cue
Of his garments, and sat back down,
He said to them, “Upon your crown,
Do you know what I've done to you?
13 “You call me master and your lord,
And you say well: I'm so adored.
14 “If I your lord and master then
Have washed your feet, you in your den
Also ought to wash the feet of
One another and done in love.
15 “I've given you example here
To do as I have done with cheer.
16 “Truly, indeed, I say to you,
The servant's not greater in view
Than his lord, neither he that's sent
Greater than he who sent in tent.
17 “If you know these things, happy are
You if you do them under star.

Some find the rite of washing feet is fine
Before the taking of the bread and wine,
A practice I think not so bad a thing,
And yet I'd rather go beyond the wing.
The washing of the other's feet is not
Enough in regulation and in plot.
The mind of service to each one I see
That bears upon his face divinity
Is washing that will last eternally,
Beyond my dissolution in the sea
Of universe or after I have risen
Into the skies and put off carnal prison.
A greater lord I find in every way
I turn between the sweet night and the day.

18 “I don't speak of you all. I know
Whom I have chosen on the go.
But that the Scripture might fulfil,
The one who eats bread at my sill
With me has lifted up his heel
Against me. 19 “Now I tell the deal
To you before it happens, so
When it comes to pass, you may know,
Believing I am he to show.
20 “Truly indeed, I say to you,
The one who receives one I send
Receives me, and the one that's penned
To receive me receives the One
That sent me to the world undone.
21 When Jesus had said so, then he
Was troubled in his spirit wee,
And testified and said “Truly,
Indeed, I say to you that one
Of you'll betray me before done.”

The trouble in the loving heart of Christ
Was not that betrayal at once enticed
Him to feel sorry for himself before
The trial of the sweat and blood and gore.
What weighed upon that spirit sweet and good
Was that the one he loved as lover should,
Could fall beneath the hammered stroked in pale,
Satanic attack from beyond the veil.
The troubled heart bled for the loved one that
Was rushing toward the darkness and the vat
Of non-existence and the silent room
That was to be the blind man's final doom.
Beloved, You too look on in horror when
The good fails in the heart of better men.

22 Then the disciples looked around
In doubt of whom he spoke the sound.
23 Now there leaned on Jesus' breast one
Of his disciples, whom for fun
Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter then
Motioned to him to ask again
Who it should be of whom he spoke.
25 The one leaning as for a stroke
On Jesus' breast said to him, “Sir,
Who is the one to make such stir?”
26 Jesus replied, “It is the bloke
To whom I'll give a sop to croak
When I have dipped it.” And when he
Had dipped the sop, he gave freely
To Judas Iscariot, son
Of the unfortunate Simon.

In Turkey, where I met Hajji Küresh
Beneath the terebinthine tangled mesh
To taste the newly sacrificial flesh
Of little goats relieved of their life fresh,
I sat beside the eater at the dance
Of bride and groom and at each hungry glance
Received a morsel and a sop to eat.
I sat upon the ground where dancing feet
Turned round and round again in timing fleet.
Beloved, I take the sop and so betray
The love I have for You from day to day.
I taste the sweeter gift that You bestow
And whirl about in ecstasy to show
Me back to where I rest upon Your stay.

27 And after the sop Satan came
Into him. Then Jesus was game
To say to him, “What you will do,
Do quickly before all the crew.”
28 Now no one at the table knew
Why he spoke this to him in view.
29 Some of them thought, since Judas had
The bag, that Jesus told him, “Lad,
Buy the things we need for the feast,
Or to give to the poor at least.”

It is a worthy thing to see the lad
Set out to do the evil job well clad
In hopeful accolades that he's not bad.
The positive is always better writ
Than pessimism before final fit.
It is a worthy thing disciples saw
Iscariot go out without a claw,
The door shut on his last chance under law.
Beloved, though I am given the command
To go betraying Your sent one at hand,
I turn and twist and loiter at the door,
Both loathe to step out on the darkened shore,
And loathe to leave the Saviour evermore.
I think at least about the worthy poor.

30 So when he took the sop he went
Straight out into the night as meant.
31 When he'd gone out, then Jesus said
“Now is the son of man out spread
In glory, and God in him too
Is glorified for all in view.”
32 If God is glorified in him,
God shall also no glory dim
Give him in himself and right off
Shall glorify him and not scoff.
33 But little children, yet a while
I am with you. And without guile
You shall seek me, and as I said
To the Jews, where I am to go
You cannot come, so now I show
To you. 34 A new commandment I
Give to you, that you love nearby
One the other as I've loved you,
That you also love each one true.
35 By this shall all men know that you
Are my disciples, if you love
One the other like hand in glove.
36 Then Simon Peter said to him,
“Sir, where's it you are going trim?”
Jesus answered him, “Where I go,
You cannot follow me, but slow
Afterward you will follow me.”
37 And Peter said to him, “Sir, why
Can I not follow you nearby?
I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Jesus replied to him, “Will you
Lay down your life for my sake too?
Truly indeed, I say to you,
The cock shall not crow till you make
Denial three times for my sake.”

The sop is what will separate the true
And false among disciples come anew.
The gain beyond the moneybag is sure
To separate the guilty from the pure.
Beloved, I too ask Jesus where he goes,
And whether he'll return and take repose
Within the chambered meeting of my heart,
Or whether he will linger there apart.
All lives are laid down in his humble cause:
The Jewish festivals are given pause
To question what to do with Jesus now.
Islamic prophet comes to teach all men
To take him as the Christ and prophet then,
Not rejecting, or making a god's den.

JOHN 14

1 Let not your heart be troubled, you
Believe in God, believe me too.
2 In my Father's house there are found
Many mansions: were it not bound,
I would have told you. So I go
To prepare a place for your row.
3 And if I go prepare a place
For you, I'll come back in a race
To take you to myself, so where
I am, you also may be there.

The promise is that while he is away,
Jesus will be making ready the day
When he will come again to find his own
And take them to himself in flesh and bone.
The cleansing of the sanctuary or
The sweeping of the house up to the door
Is the task of that High Priest by Your throne.
Beloved, I find around me many say
That he is not preparing any home,
The only temple is a church in Rome.
While others kiss the crucifix, I stand
Alone upon the rocky shore and sand,
Just waiting for the touch of Jesus' hand
To take me away from the Roman band.

4 And where I go, you know the way.
5 Thomas said to him, “Sir, I say,
We don't know where you're going to,
So how can we know the way through?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I'm the way,
The truth, and the life, no men stray
To the Father except by me.

Jesus embodies ten commandment law,
And so he is the way to walk in awe.
He is the truth indeed, for nothing's more
The truth than what You said upon the shore
Of Sinai on that fateful day of yore.
He is the life. Now that is some good news.
The keeping of the law in family pews
Was good, the best way to succeed in life
Until death overtake the weal and strife.
But now the law's alive in flesh and tongue,
A source of life to keep the old heart young,
And bring the soul that sins back from the grave,
The living law gives freedom to the slave,
Eternal hope and love, without a knave.

7 If you had known me and truly,
You should have known my Father too.
And from now on you really do
Know Him, and have kept Him in view.
8 Philip said to him, “Sir, show us
The Father, and we'll make no fuss.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been
So long a time with you sans sin,
And yet you’ve not known me a pin,
Philip? The one who's seen me has
Seen the Father. What's all this jazz
You say then, show us Father's bin?
10 “Don't you believe I'm in the Father,
And the Father is in me, rather?
The words I speak to you I speak
Not of myself, but from the leak
Of the Father who dwells in me,
He does these works of mine you see.

It all comes back to words and words again.
The life, the bread, the hope, the truth for men,
All lie within the words Your sent one speaks,
And not in rituals human heart seeks.
The image of the Father in the son
Is merely the commandments being done,
The Word is word and that is all there is.
Let me not falter whirling on the whiz
At the sound of the ten commandments sung,
The foot upon the altar's lowest rung.
Beloved, You dwell in him and he in You,
But both of You dwell in the words to do,
The song of Sinai and the loving true
That being flesh meant in the greater view.

11 “Believe me I'm in Father, and
The Father is in me at hand,
Or else believe me for the sake
Of the works themselves in my wake.
12 “Truly indeed, I say to you,
The one who believes in me too,
The works I do he shall do too,
And greater works than these he'll do,
Because I go to my Dad's pew.
13 “Whatever you ask in my name,
I will do, so my Father's fame
May be glorified in the son.

Whatever I may ask? I've heard the prayer
Of a pink Cadillac upon the stair.
If you had known what things the folk I know
Pray for beforehand, in the Jesus show,
You would have stopped the mouth of Jesus then,
And saved the false hope of so many men.
The help I ask for is that I may be
Content with what You've given here to me,
And without some petition great or small,
I might come in before the judgement hall
Of heavenly throne with only praise, no plaint,
And penance, if I must. I'd be a saint.
Perhaps it would be easier in time
To ask for Cadillacs and some new rhyme.

14 “If you ask anything in my
Name, I will do it by and by.
15 “If you love me, then come to keep
My commandments, and do not sleep.
16 “And I will pray the Father, and
He shall give you another hand
Of comforter, and he'll abide
With you for ever at your side.
17 “Even the spirit of truth, whom
The world cannot receive in room,
Because it does not see him, nor
Does it know him, but you in score
Know him, for he dwells beside you
And shall stay always among you.
18 “I will not leave you comfortless,
I will come back to your address.
19 “Yet a while and the world will see
Me no more, but you'll see freely,
Because I live, you'll live and be.

The thing You give when I ask anything
Is comforter as promised on the wing,
But that You give alone, not to the king
Or to the charismatic paupers' ring,
But only to those who obey commands
As coming from Sinai and from Your hands.
The thing You give is spirit, though for bread
I may implore upon this earth of dread
Where hunger stalks the heart and hand and head.
Beloved, I earnestly rush in to keep
Your law before the gentle breezes sweep
Me into lulling comfort of the pew
Where blood and sacrifice exchange the view.
I turn from sacrifice and law to You.

20 “At that day you shall know that I
Am in my Father and thereby
You are in me and I in you.
21 “The one with my commandments true
Who keeps and so observes them too,
He is the one who loves me too,
And the one who loves me shall be
Loved by my Father, and I'll come
To love him and appear in sum
To him and show eternally.”

Some tell me that both love and indwelling
Of spirit in this portal where I sing
Outweigh the law and run away from it
Into a Paradise more light and fit.
But John, who loves to emphasize the life
That Your Jesus proclaims before the strife,
Also indelibly takes in the law
And makes of law, love and the spirit's claw
A faithful trinity to sound of fife.
I take hold of that trinity and fail
Not to keep clinging to the shiny nail,
With Your own spirit in my heart I bow
To love and Your commandment on my brow.
The spirits rise and fill the slackened sail.

22 Judas, not Iscariot, said
To him, “Sir, how is it that you
Will show yourself before our view,
And not before the world on cue?”
23 Jesus replied and said to him,
“If a man love me, he'll be trim
To keep my words: and so my Father
Will love him, and we shall come rather
To Him and make our dwelling place
With Him. 24 And the one who does not
Love me, will not keep sayings' plot
Of mine; and the word that you hear
Is not mine, but the Father's steer,
The One who sent me to come here.

Judas is hardly heard at all, and yet
His question is the better of some met.
How can the thing that You provide be true
When doubters find no room or guide in view?
The truth should be a thing for all to see,
A manifest and certain destiny,
And not a matter of dispute like crown,
A shadow for the elite of the town.
It's not a matter of capacity
To see the sensitive in industry,
But merely to keep Your word in the heart
And let the hand do its apportioned part.
Then faith will turn to sight as from the start.
Let me, Beloved, see or see not the veil,
But only keep Your word and so assail.

25 “These things that I've spoken to you,
I speak while I'm still here with you.
26 “But the comforter, who's the holy
Spirit, whom the Father will roll you
In my name, he shall teach you all
Things, and bring all things to recall,
Whatever I've said to you all.

Some say the Comforter's Muhammad come,
Some say he is the hoped for without rum,
Some say he is the spirit that once fell
On the apostles like the flames of hell.
Beloved, I take the comfort of all three
Instead of Christian trebled Trinity,
And with the arms and tokens of the best
Find comfort in Your word and in it rest.
And while I rest and wander through the lanes
Of Scripture to see what thing here profanes
And what does not the pleasures and the pains.
Knowledge or not, I grope within the dark
And find anon the healing, livid spark
And enter Paradise if not the park.

27 “Peace I leave with you, and my peace
I give to you; not in release
As the world does, do I give you.
Let not your heart have troubled view,
Nor let it be afraid to do.

The peace of Islam that Your sent one shows
To be the help and hope of Israel's rows
Did not ascend the throne of Rome to cast
The pagan idols from the ship and mast.
It failed to live and breathe among all men.
It slept among the humble in their den.
The peace of Islam that Muhammad taught
Is just as futile as a thing that's sought.
No better than the Christian church, it fell
Among the teachings of a burning hell.
Beloved, save me from peace as it appears
In this word of Islamic Christian tears,
But let me find the path of that goes alone
To You upon Your heavenly sort of throne.

28 “You've heard me tell you that I go
Away, and come again to show
To you. If you loved me, you would
Rejoice, because I said for good
I go to the Father, for my
Father, He is greater than I.
29 “And now I've told you before it
Happens, so when it comes as fit,
You might believe it by and by.
30 “From now on I'll not talk so much
With you; for the prince of this world
Is coming, and has nought to touch
In me, though his flag is unfurled.
31 “But that the world may know that I
Love the Father, and as thereby
The Father gave me commandment,
Just so I do. Get up, time's spent,
And let us leave this embankment.”

If You, Beloved, are greater than the Christ
Who here pronounces blessings tossed and diced,
That means the two of You cannot be God
Almighty and both stand upon one sod.
I praise You that impartial mood assigns
Your being where the universe aligns.
I'd rather meet the judgement before One
Than have to satisfy a royal tonne.
Beloved, if justice can be had on earth
Only where One is divine without birth,
And where You send Messiah above worth,
Then let that justice consummate before
The threatened peace of human sort of gore.
It need not be a further kind of shore.

JOHN 15

1 I am the true vine, and my Dad,
He is the gardener that I've had.
2 Each branch in me that bears no fruit,
He takes away: and so to boot
Each branch that bears fruit, He will trim
To make it bear more fruit for Him.
3 Now you are spruced up through the word
That I have spoken and you've heard.

The fair disciples who heard Jesus speak
Were pruned with the sharp shears or maybe beak
Of opposition from the Pharisee.
Oh, they were trimmed and grimmed for all to see.
You are the gardener, Beloved, that's why
You set poor Adam at the task to try.
All fathers hope the ones that they produce
Will carry on the family trade in use.
Beloved, if humankind failed from the first
To be the kind of gardener not the worst,
It's just that our make-up, by You adorned
Is not appropriate. It is forlorned.
And yet the promise that You give is still
In just another garden on the hill.

4 Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit due
Of itself, except it remain
In the vine, no more can you gain,
Except you remain in my train.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches:
He who remains in me for launches,
And I in him, the same shall bring
Forth much fruit: for unless I sing
You can by trying do nothing.
6 If a man does not stay in me,
He's cast out as a branch freely,
And is withered. Men come to take
Them and throw them in fire to bake.
7 If you stay in me and my words
Remain in you, you'll ask like birds
Whatever you want and it shall
Be done for you with seed and sal.
8 Herein's my Father glorified,
When you bear much fruit, on my side
You'll be disciples for the ride.
9 As the Father has loved me, so
I have loved you: in my love go.
10 If you keep my commandments, you
Shall abide in my love as due.

Abiding in the love of Jesus is
To keep the ten commandments with a whiz,
Unless some hope to point out in full biz
That Your commandments and those that are his
Are different. Yours were not written well,
Or did not fit the place, and times and spell
So well as his. And so we changed the beat
And started keeping Sunday in the heat.
It's Sunday keeping shows our freedom here
From keeping laws to which we should adhere.
Beloved, just step aside, take a back place
While Mithra and a false god win the race,
And all rejoice the Roman sort of grace
That's made of crown and crosier and a mace.

11 These things have I spoken to you,
So my joy might remain in you,
And that your joy might be full too.
12 This is my commandment: that you
Should love each other as I do.
13 Greater love has no man than this,
That a man lays down life to kiss
His mates. 14 You are my mates if you
Do everything I command you.
15 From now on I'll not call you slaves,
For servants do not know the staves
Of master, but I've called you mates,
For everything my Dad relates,
I have made appear in your gates.

I take the joy and love that Jesus gives,
And hope it stays as long as Jesus lives.
But I am cynical to find the law
Is now just love behind the club and claw.
I'd rather it be described in detail,
Such as not killing or stealing a whale.
But if the Christian world needs room to rule,
Then I suppose I must give up the school
Of hope in You alone and take up tool
Protecting the frontiers of every fool.
Beloved, if Jesus told us all that You
Relate, then why the word of comfort's pew
When spirit of the truth comes in to stake
What we were too tame to hear in his wake?

16 You did not choose me, I chose you,
And I ordained you to go too,
And bring forth fruit, and that your fruit
Should remain: so what you would root
In your petition to my Dad
In my name, the same you have had.
17 These things I command you, so you
Will love each other in the crew.
18 If the world hates you, you'll know that
It hated me before it spat.
19 If you were of the world, the world
Would love its own, but since you're furled
Not of the world, but I have chosen
You out of the world, the world's frozen
And hates you everywhere you're at.
20 Mind the word that I said to you,
The slave's not greater than the view
Of his lord. If they've persecuted
Me, they will persecute you rooted.
If they have kept my sayings, they
Will keep yours also, and at bay.
21 But all these things they'll do to you
For my name's sake, because they do
Not know the One who sent me too.

The fact is the world persecutes in name
Of the love that Jesus produced in game,
And so betrays the word he first would shove
Instead of pitter pattering of love.
How can the Inquisition and the State
Be sure of the right persons here to hate?
It's only by the law You gave in crown
Of Sinai to be spilled about the town.
It's only by the law of Christ's renown.
The split between the name and the address
Is too much for the bishops to confess.
Lay open rather Joanna's box and
Let Pandemonium out on the land,
And see if any bishops come to stand.

22 If I'd not come and spoken to
Them, they would have no sin in view;
But now they do not have excuse
For their sin and the false abuse.
23 The one who hates me also hates
My Father. 24 If I had not done
Among them the works such as none
Other man's ever done before,
They would have no sin to their score.
But now they have seen and hated
Both me and my Father on skid.
24 But this comes to pass so the word
Might be fulfilled that's writ and stirred
In their law, that they hated me
Without a cause unfaithfully.
26 But when the Comforter has come,
Whom I will send to you to hum
From the Father, Spirit of truth,
Which proceeds from Father forsooth,
He shall testify of my ruth.
27 And you also shall testify
Because you've been with me to fly
From the beginning of the try.

According to the law of Moses such
A man who claimed to be God at a touch
Was well deserving of death without pity.
So by this word, Jesus rejects the gritty
Claim that he made himself God to blaspheme.
The Christ when grasping at the straws that seem
Falls flat before the truth on Jesus' tongue.
He never claimed to be Almighty strung.
Who make him out a man-god like the sun
Among the heathen all around who run,
Hate both the Father and begotten son.
I grasp the holy truth of testament,
And thank John for the final word he sent
And turn to You until You might relent.



AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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