Act 1: The Room
The time has come.

You washed our feet.
You washed our feet.
You washed our feet.

The Slave of all.

We stood there, stunned,
Witnessing your kneeling down.

You will betray me.
In our arrogance, we swore:
Never!
Never!

Never!

I tell you the truth:
Do not think yourselves above
This wandering from the fold.

We ate and we drank with you.
A banquet of body and blood.
We could not understand that night
What leaving meant, or why, or how
You were our hero, our savior, our Meshiak!
Your distress was our undoing.

Yet you prayed for us.
To be one as We are one.
Your hands outstretched,
Reaching
Pleading
Trembling–



Shadows flickering in the candlelight,
The moon bleeding from the weight of your words.
Silence hanging like mist in our eyes.

The weight.

Come.

Act 2: The Garden
The deep ravine rose
Around our feeble frames
As we shivered, though the night was warm.

The stars were silent, bowing to the glow
Of the red moon goddess prophesying
As we stumbled and grumbled and huddled together.
And the rocks became a garden.

Wait.

We stopped.

To pray and to think…
I walk.

Only three of us walked with you.

My heart is so heavy.

You wept.
You wept.
You wept.
We stood there, stunned,
Witnessing your breaking down.

Wait. Pray. Think. Stay awake–
Keep watching for what is coming.



But sleep stole us, and we dreamed–
As the weight you bore
Burst your veins and the pools
Beneath your knees
Gleamed red in the blood moon light
Drip by drip
drop by drop
A silent offering.

The garden trembled.
The stars gasped.
The planets arrested.
The universe held its breath–

And the blood moon goddess witnessed.

You whispered,
Abba!
Anything is possible for you.
Please, let this cup
Pass from me now
Show me mercy, for I am afraid to drink it.
I've never known
One moment without your love
I can't bear the thought of
One moment without your love

Please take this cup
If there’s any other way
To bring them close
For them to see you the way I do
But if not, then Your will, not mine.

Rising, you needed us
To cry with you,
To hold you,
To tell you–




(You are ours, and we are Yours
And you are not alone tonight!)


–For your spirit was heavy,
Under the weight of death.
But beneath that tree,
Shivering in the blood moon light,
We slept–
Our bodies like lead against that ground
We knew not what we fought against that night.

You groaned,
Abba!
Anything is possible for you.
Please, let this cup
Pass from me now
Show me mercy, for I am afraid to drink it.
I've never known
One moment without your love
I can't bear the thought of
One moment without your love

Please take this cup
If there's any other way
To bring them close
For them to see you the way I do
But if not, then Your will, not mine.

You stirred us -

WHERE ARE YOU?

Angry, You kicked at the ground–
Could you not be awake one hour?

You pleaded with us–
To stay for your sadness,
To sit in your sorrow.
Watch. Pray. Temptation is near.

But we could not understand
Why you needed us so now.

You walked away.
We looked at each other.
And fell.
Like Father and Mother before us,
We hid behind the shrubbery.
Our nakedness laid bare–
Our hands quivering like fig leaves.
Our bodies betraying our spirits.

You gasped,
Abba!
Anything is possible for you.
Please, let this cup
Pass from me now
Show me mercy, for I am afraid to drink it.
I've never known
One moment without your love
I can't bear the thought of
One moment without your love

Please take this cup
If there's any other way
To bring them close
For them to see you the way I do
But if not, then Your will, not mine.

Looking back at our frames against that tree,
You wept with love we did not know.

Separate us if you will,
But make them one as We are now one.
For this is for their sake.
Even if they abandon, reject, deny,
I forgive them, for they know not what they do this night.

The blood moon goddess wept.
Our rest was silent and full.
It was enough.

The hour of betrayal
Into the hands of sinners–
Cowards
Blasphemers
Murderers
Into our hands–
–Came with a kiss.
One kiss, which should have meant
Friend
Love
Peace
Became betrayal in flesh–
And You knew for our sake.

Three times You stirred us awake,
Three times we fell from intimacy
Three times You said we'd deny
Three times we cursed the ground we walked upon–
The earth that bore you in your reckoning
The blood-soaked garden

Three times.
And the rooster crowed.

The weight.

We did not know you.

Act 3: The Shore
Caught any fish this morning?

No!

Cast your nets over the right side and see what you can catch.


153. The number of fin-flapping, finicky fish that fought our net.
They did not break it.

Come and eat, my brothers.
You beckoned us back from the water.

The scales crackled over the flames,
the smells filled our nostrils,
the sea salt blew through our hair,
and as we gazed at you,
we caught the slightest glimpse–
holes torn in your wrists.
Your soft eyes flashed with flame–
we felt the heat within.

Supper in a room of shadows.
Breakfast by the sea.
Body and blood as bread and wine
Still the Slave of all.

The weight.

Three times you asked:
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Do you love me?

And all I could say was–
Yes! But help me in my despair–
I am only a hired hand!
I am unworthy to be…

–And three times you laid
your hands
on me:

Beloved–
Beloved–
Beloved–

I trust you, my
friend.
Feed my lambs.


Do not despair.
As I walked alone that night,
I walk with you now and always.

Do not forget that
I know your heart,
your love,
your weakness.

I have felt the weight
of the darkness
and the endless road.

I ask you now:
Was it worth it to drink the cup my Father would not take from me?

Think of the risk, my friend–
to peel back eternity for one moment,
to step into time for one experience,
to give in to gravity for one chance,
and knowing the risk of losing it all,
I came to witness the weight.

I ask again:
Was it worth it to drink the cup my Father would not take from me?

To step into flesh only to lay it down–
my blood dripped from my pores into pools of salt and water on your hands
my blood gushed from my side into pools of salt and water at your feet
my blood poured from my heart into pools of salt and water in your eyes.
and would I have the need, I would do it seventy times more.
because I came to witness the weight.

A third time, I ask you:
Was it worth it to drink the cup my Father would not take from me?



This is my answer–
love burst its veins under this weight,
love drips from my sweat into the ground
love flows from my body into your grave
and love will not stay covered behind a stone.
because love will run to witness the weight.

I choose to bear this weight–
This WEIGHT
THIS weight.
for you–
with you–
always.

From now until the earth
Sings.