Poetry

Outside the Camp

by John Puckett 
03/21/23
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Outside the camp
In mocking cruelty
They crucified
Their King.

‘Away with him’
They cried,
And thus
Religion triumphed
For another day,
The status quo
Preserved for priests
Impelled by hatred
To defend their faulted cause.

Too blind to see
The God-writ symbols
Of their ancient rites,
Those pointers
To the Prince of Life
They pierced
And pinned
Outside the camp.
They saw their deed
A timely vindication
Of their careful rule
To keep the Roman peace.

This self-appointed Christ
Suits not their concepts
Of Messiah come –
Too mild to liberate
Their Israel from its pagan yoke.
Dark prejudice saw not
This faultless Christ,
Messiah born to live
And die
Deliverance
For the greater captives
Chained in slavery to sin.

Outside the camp
His death-cry founds
A kingdom
Mightier than a thousand Romes,
And crumbles all the edifice
Of Judah’s temple fair.

Outside the camp
In death
He slew the greater foe – 
And I go free!

Written in July 1993 after reading these words: “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.”
   Hebrews 13:12-13