Some left Bethany believing;

Some carried news another way.

The dead man walked, the mourners saw,

And fear assembled men that day.

Chief priests, Pharisees, a council,

Doors shut against the sign:

"What do we? This man works wonders.

Soon all will cross the line."

What shall we do?

The evidence stands breathing.

What shall we do?

The grave itself is leaving.

They did not ask if truth had come;

They asked what power they might lose.

What shall we do?

What shall we do?

"If we let him thus alone,

All men will believe.

Rome will come and take our place,

Our nation, and our seat."

They weighed the living Lazarus

Against a guarded throne;

A miracle became a threat

Where fear had made its home.

Caiaphas rose among them,

High priest within that year:

"Ye know nothing at all;

One answer should be clear.

It is expedient for us

That one man die instead,

And not the whole nation perish."

A sentence clothed as sense.

One man should die for the people,

Words sharper than he knew.

He meant to save their station;

God spoke a larger truth.

Not for that nation only,

Not one enclosed design,

But to gather God's scattered children

And bring them into one.

One man should die for the people;

The prophecy outran the man.

From that day the counsel hardened,

No longer whether, only when.

The sign that brought a brother home

Moved rulers toward a death for him.

Jesus walked no more among them,

But went toward Ephraim,

A city near the wilderness,

And stayed there with his friends.

Passover roads grew crowded;

Purifying pilgrims came.

They searched the courts and asked each other,

"Will he appear again?"

The order passed through temple hands:

Who knew where he might stay

Must tell the rulers where he was,

That they might take him away.

One man should die for the people,

Words sharper than he knew.

A council wrote a murder;

The Father gathered through

The death they planned for power,

The life they could not bind.

One man should die for the people,

And scattered children would be one.

The feast drew near.

The command waited.

The Lamb knew the hour.