I am Him.

I had been stripped naked.

I had been stripped naked and whipped cruelly.

They had placed a crown of thorns upon my head.

They had jeered me.

They had spat upon my blood smeared body.

Step by agonising step They had made me bear my instrument of torture and death to the place of execution.

They had bid me to lie upon the cross, wedded me to it with nails then raised it.

*

Naked.

Naked and bleeding.

Naked, bleeding and slowly suffocating to death.

They are witnessing my death, relishing my agony and humiliation

Yet

I forgive Them

Because

I love Them.

I am the Son

And

I come to save them, save them from the cruel justice and wrath of Our Father.

They do not understand that They have made of me a sacrifice to placate the All Powerful One, to atone for Their sins.

*

I begin to drift blissfully towards the Light

But

As I do I discern a rustling like the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through the leaves of a tree.

The rustling becomes a hiss, an evil hiss, and the hiss becomes a whisper, it is an eternal whisper

And

It is the whisper of the Devil, my Father's Brother:

"Vanity. Vanity. All is Vanity..."