Tamed to a timid & benign
image too familiar to confess,
too sentimental to proclaim
as much more than a sweet
pablum of a tepid teacher,
dulled at the edges into
a harmless, vapid figure,
the ancient Jesus is made
a caricature of Himself,
an oral & dull parody
appeasing a modern world
addicted to the mediocrity
of fireworks, circuses
& ideological vacuity
making the fiery Lord
of all being and life
both bland & boring.
Lacking all subtleties
& mystical amazement,
Jesus is thinly portrayed
in decadent thought games
devoid of cross & uprising,
a nicety without His passion
& radically sacrificial blood,
a paper tiger of a distraction
cancelled of His fierce love,
an ironical domestication
fogging Jesus to a docility
betraying His beauty, truth
& humble, drastic power.