I Feel Sorry for Jesus

Today, let’s listen to the voice of the poet. Sometimes a song or a play or a painting can reach more deeply into us than the two-by-four of a sermon. So open yourself up. Can you see Jesus this way? And what do you think the poet learned through writing the poem?

I Feel Sorry for Jesus
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Listen

People won’t leave Him alone.

I know He said, wherever two or more

are gathered in my name…

but I’ll bet some days He regrets it.

Cozily they tell you what He wants

and doesn’t want

as if they just got an e-mail.

Remember ‘Telephone’, that pass-it-on game

where the message changed dramatically

by the time it rounded the circle?

Well.

People blame terrible pieties on Jesus.

They want to be his special pet.

Jesus deserves better.

I think He’s been exhausted

for a very long time.

He went into the desert, friends.

He didn’t go into the pomp.

He didn’t go into

the golden chandeliers

and say, the truth tastes better here.

See? I’m talking like I know.

It’s dangerous talking for Jesus.

You get carried away almost immediately.

I stood in the spot where He was born.

I closed my eyes where He died and didn’t die.

Every twist of the Via Dolorosa

was written on my skin.

And that makes me feel like being silent

for Him, you know? A secret pouch

of listening. You won’t hear me

mention this again.