richards odes

The Kiss

You’ve had a pleasant evening eating with your friends

None of them imagine how this special evening ends!

True it started strangely when You went to wash their feet

A truly smelly, lowly task in the city’s heat!

All of them protested that it really wasn’t fitting

For You to be there on Your knees while all of them were sitting!

If they thought that that was strange, how did they react

To Your talk of dying as if it was a fact?

Saying that Your body was like the broken bread

And the wine was like Your blood, which would soon be shed.

To follow that by saying You would be betrayed

By one within your fellowship! No wonder they’re dismayed!

Then you have a quiet walk in the pale moonlight

And sit within a garden on a balmy summer night.

Suddenly Your friend appears and greets you with a kiss

And temple guards arrest You. You’ve been betrayed by this!

This kiss! The sign of friendship! Indeed the seal of love!

This kiss! A vile corruption is allowed by God above!

This kiss! An act of infamy, which leads You to the cross

This kiss! Which on the face of it, leads to grievous loss.

This kiss! Which makes all Christians want to scream and bawl

This kiss! This gross betrayal, leads to life for all!