...and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all... Isaiah 53.6b

Behold the Man

Shall Christ hang on the Cross, and we not look? 
    Heaven, earth, and hell stood gazing at the first, 
    While Christ for long-cursed man was counted cursed; 
Christ, God and Man, Whom God the Father strook 
And shamed and sifted and one while forsook:-- 
    Cry shame upon our bodies we have nursed 
    In sweets, our souls in pride, our spirits immersed 
In wilfulness, our steps run all acrook. 
Cry shame upon us! for He bore our shame 
    In agony, and we look on at ease 
With neither hearts on flame nor cheeks on flame: 
    What hast thou, what have I, to do with peace? 
Not to send peace but send a sword He came, 
    And fire and fasts and tearful night-watches.

       - Christina G. Rossetti

Good Friday

Am I a stone and not a sheep 
    That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross, 
    To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss, 
And yet not weep? 

Not so those women loved 
    Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee; 
    Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; 
Not so the thief was moved; 

Not so the Sun and Moon 
    Which hid their faces in a starless sky, 
    A horror of great darkness at broad noon,-- 
I, only I. 

Yet give not o'er, 
    But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; 
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more 
    And smite a rock.

       - Christina G. Rossetti