The powers of darkness descended in hate,
Maliciously, leeringly trying to bait
Their Victim, Creator, this self-emptied Man,
Committed to wrecking their Maker’s bold plan.
Seducing Iscariot, whipping the crowd
To lynch-mob ferocity (fear rages proud),
Self-righteousness hoodwinked to murder the Lord—
The angel of light is the lion that roared.
Disowned and alone, by close friendship betrayed,
Contemptuously punched while in purple arrayed,
Raw meat for the lash, bleeding target of hate,
The Crucified One seemed the plaything of fate.
But princes of darkness could not comprehend
The still acquiescence no suff’ring could bend—
No victim of fate or of plans that had strayed—
Such stillness was born in a Son who obeyed.
What seemed his destruction to rebels whose glee
Erupted too soon in perverse ecstasy
Would prove but a sentence of unrelieved doom,
Sealed up by the witness of one empty tomb
Repulsively shocked, the defeated archfiend
Discovered his loss in the death that had seemed
Another’s destruction, heav’n’s own Ichabod—
Deep wisdom mislabeled the folly of God.
No demon foresaw that the God-man himself
Would triumph by weakness, not power or stealth.
The plan of hell’s cohorts, too clever by half,
Was crushed by Christ’s cross and dismissed by God’s laugh.
Free eBook by Rebecca McLaughlin: ‘Jesus Through the Eyes of Women’
If the women who followed Jesus could tell you what he was like, what would they say?
Jesus’s treatment of women was revolutionary. That’s why they flocked to him. Wherever he went, they sought him out. Women sat at his feet and tugged at his robes. They came to him for healing, for forgiveness, and for answers. So what did women see in this first-century Jewish rabbi and what can we learn as we look through their eyes today?
In Jesus Through the Eyes of Women, Rebecca McLaughlin explores the life-changing accounts of women who met the Lord. By entering the stories of the named and unnamed women in the Gospels, this book gives readers a unique lens to see Jesus as these women did and marvel at how he loved them in return.
We’re delighted to offer this ebook to you for free.
