Crucifying

I had to read this poem several times to grasp what it was saying, and I still find it very difficult. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful way of describing the different attitudes that spectators of Christ's crucifixion had toward Him (lines 1-9a) and the way that most people in the crowd considered Christ's life to be only that of a mere man, and therefore reduced the value of infinity to "a span." The second half of the poem describes the glorious "reversal," that mystery in Christ's death whereby his humiliation was the means of his exaltation and our redemption. It ends with a cry for Christ's blood to become more powerful in our lives.

I think my favorite lines are where Donne describes with great simplicity how much it must have pained Christ to bear the sins of the world while the Father turned his back on his beloved Son: "Condemned he bears his own cross, with pain, yet by and by when it bears him, he must bear more and die."

By miracles exceeding power of man,
He faith in some, envy in some begat,
For, what weak spirits admire, ambitious, hate;
In both affections many to him ran,
But Oh! the worst are most, they will and can,
Alas, and do, unto the immaculate,
Whose creature fate is, now prescribe a fate,
Measuring self-life's infinity to a span,
Nay to an inch. Lo, where condemned he
Bears his own cross, with pain, yet by and by
When it bears him, he must bear more and die.
Now thou art lifted up, draw me to thee,
And at thy death giving such liberal dole,
Moist, with one drop of thy blood, my dry soul.

-- John Donne (1572-1631)