Passion Redoublé (10)

Sonnet/Station No. 10 - Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments
His garments stripped, the scornful laughter rings.
Each dignity the man once knew is gone.
Outrageous Fortune’s arrows and her slings,
This Jesus suffers now into the dawn.
To Shakespeare, these were words upon the page.
To Jesus--near the end--they’re something more.
For soon to die upon the world’s stage,
He pushes through the final scenes of gore.
A few more steps now, Jesus nobly wends;
A few more steps to spill his final blood.
“Place of the Skull” is where the madness ends
(In Hebrew, though, the spot is Golgotha).
The third hour comes, and certainly Time cries.
Then on the tree, our Lord is crucified.