HE CURED MANY WHO WERE SICK

There was so much to cause you joy—the crowd

that thirsted for his voice, the people healed,

the hungry satisfied in a barren field

with bread, his praise everywhere ringing loud.

So sudden his success, so unexpected,

it seemed to form an ever-rising tide,

never to ebb, never to subside

till it should bring him to the throne predicted.

But what to you were thrones? To you the story

of blinded eyes now seeing, of frozen arms

loosened to life, deliverance from harms

of soul and spirit—this was your hoped-for glory.

The labor of God’s love took up its thread

among those whom the world had left for dead.