Levi The Poet - Tetelestai lyrics

When your betrayer kissed your cheek
Did he slip his serpents tongue between his
"Greetings, Rabbi, "
And did you feel it forked
And flickering against your skin?
I guess it’s vulgar
But I wouldn’t put it past him

My tongue is shaped the same

I know without a doubt that I do
Not understand the weight in my pockets
Change clashing with change and did you
Know that thirty pieces of silver
Was the penalty paid by the owner of an
Ox that gored a slave to death? (And I know
I know: "I’d have sold you for less")
I guess more than likely, I’d have
Tried to monopolize, like:
You mean you didn’t negotiate the rate
And ask for a higher price?


Counting my own pennies like how high
Can I stack this copper
And what’s the value of my ROI
When I decide to commodify Christ?

Like moralistic
Therapeutic deism was exactly what
You were going for when you told us to make
Disciples of all nations
And baptize them in the name
Of celebrity bank statements
And motivate replication in the
Same dualistic vein as
The Way aka self-actualization

Like we didn’t commit cosmic treason so
Much as made a mistake, and
Our bodies aren’t groaning along with
The rest of creation, and
Our hearts aren’t broken
What good is reconciliation
To an adulteress who doesn’t see
Her need to consummate with god?

Let alone that God would want
Or long after her

Misplaced worshippers
Praise is inherent to the way we were made
But our hearts are easily led astray
Our hearts are idol factories
I was reminded of it this morning
When I woke up intimately aware
Of my desire for God
To bless this silver piece that I’m writing
About elevating Jesus so that whoever sees it
Might elevate me
Preceding time and space, God spoke
And in that thunderous tone
Purposed to forfeit his rightful
Throne and cloak himself
In flesh and bone and enter into humanity
(And we called it vanity) No
We called it profanity, slandering
Blaspheming
"all hail to the king" and still, I
See my name in his handwriting, kite flying
Flailing but still tied to the string
That rejoices over me with singing

Quiet me, repeat

And in the quiet conversations
Before the beginning
I wonder if you laughed together
About what was to come, or what came
Or however time works where it doesn’t

Not making light of or minimizing my blame
But the kind of laughter that helps
Us cope with the pain
Like a farewell between friends
When they know that when they
See one another again, it will have hurt
But they both know there’s no other way
And in that Perfect Community’s case
There’s no character change, but the both
And of God’s wrath and grace
Cut crimson across Christ’s face
As the Father forsakes the son
Who suffers in our place

And I don’t have a son of my own yet
But, I know what it’s like to
Be forsaken by a father
But, I still see selflessness
In that selfishness and if sinful
Lowercase s "saviors" think that they know
How to give good gifts to their kids
Then how much more a perfect king become
Sin that I might become his righteousness?
When you predetermined in pre-incarnate
Existence to persist
In pursuing the people you envisaged
As the profane remnant made
Pure through crucifixion
As the blood-stained hands redeemed
Through your submission
Did you shudder at the anxiety?
Did you bleed my Type B
Through your sweat at Gethsemane?
Greater love knows none than to lay
Down one’s life for his friends
(who were once his enemies)

Condemnation flows through our bloodlines
And it’s true that all of
Us have been consigned to disobedience
Yet through Christ the most high
Will have mercy on all of us

God have mercy on all of us

I gathered thorns and rust
And money for bludgeoning
Unleashed all of my fury whipping
Ripping ribs from their core
And washed my hands clean

I gathered fame and pleasure and
Glass strapped to leather
Availed myself to the Baals and
Whittled them into nails
And washed my hands clean

I gathered dice and clothing
And splinters and fear
Clenched my fists for the blow
And washed my hands clean

As if Pilot and I aren’t really stained red

It has been said
That "behind Calvary lies the
Throne of heaven"
When you carried the grave to Golgatha
Was the crown eclipsed by the cross?

While you were suffocating
Did you think back to
Time that predated time
Drowning to the sound of
Mockery on both sides?

That’s my voice

"Today you will be with me in Paradise"

That’s your voice

While they cast your clothing for lots
Did you recognize their intimate design
Giving your life up to the
Sound of pride screaming crucify?

That’s my voice

"Tetelestai"

That’s your voice

And when they mocked and called you a liar
Did they see the truth in your submission
When you withheld power and committed your
Spirit to the father’s vision?
When the centurion was gifted with conviction
Following your dying plea that the
Father wouldn’t convict him
- that the father would forgive him
That the punishment that the perfect
Law demanded would be rescinded
On your behalf -
Did you wash our hands clean?

At the cross of Christ I see:
Compassion mercy

And Jesus is more than a
Selling point for a piece
Of self-serving silver penance on
Personal piety when at his cross we see:
Compassion mercy

And we can’t keep flogging ourselves
For staining filthy rags he
Isn’t sold on either

When they retrieved your broken body
And buried you beneath
Time and sin and space and folly and
Guards set to ward off thieves
Did the thief come in to gloat and
Glory in your defeat and did he
Slip his serpent’s tongue between his
Lips to kiss your
Feet and did he slither at your side
For all three days boasting in his cunning?

And did he ever see it coming?

When they retrieved your broken body
And buried you beneath
Wrath and love and hate and cup please
D to crush the low-born king
Did the thief come in to curse
The quarry that quaked and
God, when death lost it’s sting
Did you crush his serpent’s tongue
Between his lips using
The skin scarred into your feet and
Swallow the grave in victory?

You swallowed the grave in victory