Was Jesus of Palestine?
Let Him be your answer.
Where have I seen the thirsty?
There, you have seen Him.
When the water is cut off
and the children’s mouths are parched.
Where the land is hot and broken
like oven-baked bread.
He cries out from the cracks,
He begs for water, and you turn away.
Where have I seen Him beaten?
There, you have seen Him.
In those beaten down;
men and women with smoldering eyes
like the dark womb of the earth,
where the seed is buried and breaks.
In the empty farms and scattered stones.
He is there, among the stripped;
Skin from bone, shell from sapling.
Here He is dying!
Here He is growing!
Where have you seen him pressed?
There, where the olive trees are cut
and the oil is spilled like blood,
though the lamps of hope are dimmed
where the free are enslaved.
He is there, and enters among them,
for He dwells in the darkest cell
and sets the captives free!
Where have I seen the poor?
In the eyes of Christ, and in men!
And here, in Gaza’s streets,
a prison beneath the sky,
raining orange, crimson,
fire and blood, and fierce hearts.
There, look for His Agony!
Where have I seen Him born?
There, you have seen Him,
in the cave’s straw, in the house of bread,
or in Maryam’s caress ‘neath the date tree.
And who is this Mother who holds Him?
The enchanted lady of many faces,
who knows her Lord will scatter the proud
and lift the humble to high estate.
And what race might claim Him?
Brown, black, yellow, white,
Eyes like the earth, or like the sky.
A Saxon warrior. An Ethiopian prince.
A Jewish carpenter. An Arab farmer.
Wherever there are souls that cry,
wherever there are souls that pray,
wherever there are souls that strive,
wherever there are souls that suffer,
there He cries, He prays,
He strives, He suffers!
He is there, with the shepherds,
Though there is nowhere left for the flocks to graze,
And there, with the fishers,
though their boats have been taken away from them!
What land might hold Him to earth?
Issa, Breath of God, is unconstrained,
and yet He suffocates with those who are suffocated!
Woe to those who poison the air!
Yes, Jesus sits and waits,
in Palestine, a boy on a chair,
as the tractors come to tear the ground,
and truly, He is with the oppressed!
And truly, He is with the uprooted!
And truly, if you cannot see Him there,
you have never seen Him at all.
