Borne is The King

 Borne

 

 The manger,

And the cross,

Wooden scaffolds.

Would hold the weight,

Elevate,

The naked state,

Man and God combined.

On wooden arms,

In wooden palms,

 

Christ the saviour is borne.

Reflection: Borne is The King of Israel

Yet another prophetic layer was peeled back when I saw this in the nativity; That the manger, like the cross, was a wooden scaffold. If the type of manger was indeed the sort so often depicted in traditional religious art, the design actually includes wooden crosses. 

Of Course, I enjoyed the word play. Born vs borne. The cross and the cradle both bore him. His weight was borne by them.

I had encountered this notion before (in relation to the cross) some 7 years prior, in my poem Tree-hugger (see link below) when I saw the the cross was a sort of presentation. That in the moment of his crucifixion a saviour was born. Sure he'd been a saviour all along, but here it came to fruition. Here's an exert from that poem (for the whole thing click the link). The tree is, of course, a metaphor for the cross and the use of the word wait rather than weight is intentional.

The tree lent its support,
To the wait of the saviour,
Bore him,
For just a little longer,
As Christ clung,
The Tree's embrace lifted him,
Crimson and Glorified,
Like a mid-wife's hand presents the baby,
To the waiting world.

I saw, in the cross there is an element of presentation. Of course, for the Romans, that was a part of the purpose of this barbaric execution. To make an example of them. And how utterly fitting for the saviour, who through the cross made an example of our sins, by bearing them himself. But I envisioned this presentation, in the 'birth of a saviour' The the cross was like a midwife's hands presenting the new-born baby to the waiting world. 

And we see all through the nativity, echoes of the work he would do on the cross. 

The manger was his crib, and in it, he was presented to the world, the new born King. A King in the manner none had known before. The King of Glory, his glory laid by.

The crib bore his physical weight for a little while, as the cross would later. 

But the true weight of glory be known: 

Wooden Scaffolds

Wouldn't hold the weight.

Nothing in all creation could hold that kind of weight.

~scripture~

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

~Colossians 2:13-15~

Poiema: Tree-hugger (matthewjosephpoet.blogspot.com)