The Great Reversal

It has been said,
One Solitary life change the world
I say, God turned our whole world upside-
Down when he broke into human history
And changed the course of time.

One says, Jesus is a radical,
Another says, no, Jesus is holy!
I say, Jesus is indeed holy-
And His Holiness is radical indeed.
Is not a radical is someone who goes against the tide?
Jesus came to confront the tide of sin
And overcome death with His Righteousness.

In a world where the first in line
Is the first to gain access to their destination,
Jesus said, "In my kingdom, the first will be last
And the Last will be first."
Indeed, a saying so radical, no one is quite sure
What he meant!

One says, "He means in the end times…"
But does not the scripture say, the dead will rise first?
I say, Jesus fulfilled his saying as he walked the earth
And intends to fulfill it in all time, as he turns on its head
All our mighty precepts

The world says, "love your friends, and hate your enemies"
Jesus says, "No, Love everyone, and especially your enemies."
The world says, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,
Jesus says, "You have taken a law intended to limit revenge,
And used it as an excuse to work iniquity, Now I say, do good
To your enemies, and pray for those who Persecute you."
The world says, "Do unto others as they'd do unto you-
Only do unto them harder and do unto them first."
Jesus says, "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you."

The world says, "Shun weakness, for only the strong survive."
Jesus says, "It is the meek who shall inherit the earth.
For I shall bring low the exalted and exalt the humbled."
And amen, Lord! For your words are Truth and Life.

In your reversing, you do not leave us untouched,
We seek after the elite, and shun sinners
You abhor sin, yea, but you seek after sinners.
We are hard pressed to give our lives even for you,
Yea, we are hesitant to suffer even humiliation in your name,
And you left your Glory in Heaven,
To live as a Pauper and die like a thief,
Slain on the tree to save us when we were in our sins,
Living lives antithetical to everything you are.

Indeed, the great reversal you promised, was fulfilled first
When you received not the pious, religious elite of your day,
Yea, when you chose not those the world said were righteous,
Instead calling them snakes and vipers, white washed tombs,
But calling sinners instead, saying, "I did not come to call
The righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Yea, the first in the eyes of man became last,
For they were too busy being righteous
In their own eyes to listen to Jesus' call.
But indeed, it is the weak, those last before man,
Whom gave all they had to you and embraced your call,
It is these who were least among all, whom you have made first.
For we shall enter your Kingdom and have already entered.

-Andrea Graham