Judas in the Upper Room

Judas in the Upper Room

Michael Stalcup

“He sends rain on the just and the unjust.”
— Jesus (Matthew 5:45)

Incessantly, the water poured and poured
over my calloused feet. The dappled silence
stretched long and dead like trees across a gorge,
the fallout of some rot or hidden violence.

Then Jesus took my feet and our eyes met.
He stared at me, I feared, as if to say
he knew the paths my feet had walked, the debt
I owed—but no: he smiled. I looked away

and felt: the working of a servant’s rag—
his promised revolution’s timid thorns—
the thirty silver daggers in my bag—
the man that could have been—my patience worn

until the task was done. He set me free
and welcomed me to join him at his feast.

---

Michael Stalcup
Poet & Missionary

Michael is a Thai-American missionary living in Bangkok, Thailand. His poems have been published in Commonweal Magazine, First Things, Sojourners Magazine, and elsewhere. He co-teaches Spirit & Scribe, a workshop integrating spiritual formation and writing craft. You can find his work at michaelstalcup.com.

Photography by Chansy