Sealed Away

Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone. Matthew 27:55-66 

Sealed Away

As if torture and crucifixion were not enough

they locked and sealed your body away

guarded from friends and robbers alike

mortar made from the hate and fear of the world.

When love is too free and God is too near

we rise up to crush and to deny them both

kind spirits are ousted with sticks and stones

and we break the backs of those who carry love.

There is no seal that love cannot break

no paste or glue that will repair the prisons

the Divine is breaking down the confining wall

and destroying the fences we fearfully erect.

No borders can confine the love of God

given freely and constantly to us who would deny it

poured out again and again,  aliens and strangers

know what balm and compassion truly are.

Build what you will to hold back love's tide

but it is rising all the same this night

you cannot guard nor control a swelling ocean

nor keep still these hearts that are set on fire.