Luke 23.44-46

Behind the heavy curtain was the room
Where none except the designated priest
Dared go—and then but yearly, on the Feast.
Death threatened all who brashly might presume,
With warm lamb’s blood, drawn from mortal wound.
Unwilling victim dead, the holy priest
Sought on behalf of sinners full release
Before the Presence shrouded in the gloom.
Outside, the willing Victim calling to
His Father, ‘To your hands I now commit
My spirit’, signaled to the watching few
The sins the holy God would now remit.
The Lamb breathed out his last, the curtain torn:
The Priest provides bright access to the Lord.

This sonnet by D. A. Carson is based on Christ’s seventh and final saying from the cross. Used by permission from Banner of Truth magazine.