Best Laid Plans

Christ taught the crowds and healed their sick
Some thousands He would feed
"Dispatch the Romans!", "Be our King!"
The multitudes would plead

From country side and town to town
He seemed to be content
Not ruling from a lofty perch
But serving as He went

The devil stood not idle by
His plan was under way
To undermine the work of God
And lead more men astray

Religious leaders fanned a flame
Of envy in the heart
This wedge was driving each of them
And Jesus Christ apart

The more He served, the more He taught
With true authority
The more it stoked the fiery flame
Of burning jealousy

Accuser of the brotherhood
Surveyed with much delight
The efforts of his handiwork
All carried out just right

Come now phase two of secret plan
Betrayal of a friend
As Judas signals with a kiss
Which one to apprehend

The trial held was farcical
Those who once held Him high
Esteemed Him as the King of kings
Now each yelled, "Crucify!"

Then Pilate starts to wash his hands
His conscience he relieves
And orders Jesus crucified
Between two other thieves

How well all things were working out
The devil's plan, phase three
The Son of God is mocked and jeered
While hung upon a tree

"Forgive them for they do not know
This thing which they have done."
Was Jesus' cry before He died
The bruised and beaten Son

Exulting in his finished work,
The enemy rejoiced
But not for long before the song
Of some concerns were voiced

The sky grows dark, the earth it shakes
A feeling very strong
There's something that we may have missed
That we were very wrong

But three days hence the truth revealed
Their part in God's own plan
To raise from death the One they killed
And share His life with man

Today the devil still recalls
How God played him the fool
And how the very best laid plans
To God are just a tool

This poem was a finalist in the April 2020 poetry contest