————Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst
————been here, my brother had not died.

————————————John 11:21

————Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh
————to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

————————————John 11:38

When Christ was told the man he loved was ill,
he tarried two whole days before he went
back to Judea. By waiting, he said he meant
for others to believe. Had Lazarus been in hell,
surely Jesus would have left him there.
Instead, he plucked him stinking from the grave,
this follower he loved and could have saved.
Christ must have wondered, was it really fair

to use the man to make a point? He wept.
Verse thirty-five is clear. His spirit groaned
and he was troubled. But think of Lazarus
who must have been in heaven, and then was swept
back to this vale of tears, his bliss postponed
by the miracle he was, and was forced to accept.

 

 

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Joshua McKinney’s most recent book of poetry is Small Sillion (Parlor). His work has appeared in such journals as Boulevard, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review, New American Writing, and many others. He teaches at California State University, Sacramento.

 

 

Photo by Michael Parulava on Unsplash