Emmaus

Emmaus
By Jonathan Bennett


We were walking together, close and far,
Still so sad on that after-Sabbath day.
In conversation we talked of these things
As our bare feet disturbed the dusty earth.
The road is often full of travelers
But the strangers still stand out like Gentiles.
So it was with this man who drew up close
Looking like fair Dionysus, the vine.
Ignorant, he was, of all the past week,
And we knew he was not part of The Way.
We told the story of the bloody end
That had been witnessed three days in the past.
Derisively we told him of the tales
We had heard before setting out this morn
That certain of the women had crafted
In league with some of those closest to him.
And then, at the end of these tales, he laughed
As though there was humor in our sorrow.
And, laughing, he said to us awful words:
"Did you think it could end another way
That such a man could die of age alone?
Even with your prophets' words in your heart,
Were you surprised at how he met his end?
Did you think lesser love would have sufficed?
Knowing the blood shed on this holy earth,
Would anything less than blood been required?"
So we pondered his words as we walked on
In silence, 'til we came to Emmaus
Where the stranger wanted to pass on by.
But even had come and he was a guest
Whom we begged to come and abide with us.
At table we dined and felt hearts lifted,
By the guest or his words we cannot say.
And at the appointed time he took bread,
And held it to Heaven as he blessed it,
And before our eyes he broke it for us.
We saw then the ram caught in the thicket,
Moses' serpent in the desert held high.
We saw One anointed before all time
Bearing wounds beneath the crown on His head.
We did not know or do not remember
When He left us sitting at the table
But that Bread continues to sustain us.

Rapture

Rapture
By Jonathan Bennett


Awake, near dawn, and He is on my mind.
Out of bed, by the window, listening
For His feet on my path, knock at my door,
So I might hear Him say my name again.
Discalced I would run into His arms
As I did when the ground was wet with dew
And ascend as he raptures me to Him.

tu scis quia amo te

tu scis quia amo te
By Jonathan Bennett


Why do you ask what you already know?
Three years, but do you doubt 'cause of one night?
Are all the miles we've walked forgotten so?
All those calluses erased by my flight?


Why do you ask when my eyes are so plain?
I've filled this sea every night since then.
Is void now all that flowed through heart and vein
Replaced by the black bile of that one sin.


Why do you ask? Oh. Oh now I can see
Answers like this morning light breaking through.
Even when fear caused me to run, to flee
I was then being drawn closer to You.

Resurrection

Resurrection
By Jonathan Bennett


And in a moment, all was joy again.
The conquered Sun emerged, resurrected,
From the tomb vanquished to by old foe Night.
And the grass felt His footprints upon them,
And the flowers felt His gentle caress,
And the birds awoke in their high refuge
To announce in song to a sleeping earth:
Darkness and her armies are defeated,
Wake up! Wake up! the Light has come again.