The Last and First Reward

The Last and First Reward

Ben Preiser

In agony he strives aloft
With every bone and nerve aflame
The foaming cup of wrath he quaffed:
A vessel filled with human shame

Through tears and sweat, through gruesome pangs
He looks to see, there at his side,
With guilty ones the Guiltless hangs:
Two slaves of greed, and one of pride

The stiff-necked one declines to yield
But grips, this boastful infidel,
His final, fatal, futile shield.
"Christ, save yourself, and us as well!"

His hardened heart could not perceive
Why endless pow'r would choose this pain
To spare himself, he'd simply leave;
To win his own, he must remain

The second thief would also raise
His voice to slander and denounce.
With beaten breast and lowered gaze
He turns, his own self to renounce

"Our sins deserve this brutal fate
Remove this bitter draught from me!
Oh, dying King, my wrongs are great
When thou art crowned, remember me!"

Then to the cup of sin's dark load,
To Jesus' lips already pressed,
Is added debt the thief had owed:
Christ suffers still, so he might rest

As he repents, the angels cheer;
His soul freed from its catacomb.
Though in the depths of grief and fear,
The Shepherd brings his first lamb home

The firstfruit of that awful tree,
The life that bloomed as Glory died,
Displayed for the Firstborn to see:
Two brothers hanging side by side

Upon that day of woe so cold
The Man of sorrows won his prize
And with his last breath did behold
The joy God set before his eyes

---

Ben Preiser
Seminarian & Poet

Ben is a seminary student at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC and an incoming Pastoral Fellow at University Reformed Church, East Lansing, MI. He has been writing poetry and music since high school. 

Drypoint Print by Rembrandt