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[after Acts 15:36-40]

. . . Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;

of whom I am chief.
---1 Timothy 1:15

Christ, our Great God, is Lord of second chances,
and of reversals that become advances.
But Paul refused to let Mark come along
the second time.  He knew that this was wrong.
The greatest missionary partnership
was split when Paul refused to let the young
man's error---slight as it was---simply slip
into forgiveness.  Stunned, and likely stung,
by Paul's final and adamant decision
to split the work, and so disclose division
(and that Paul's bite could be worse than his bark)
before the church that met in Antioch,
kind Barnabas did not abandon Mark,
but took him on a missonary trip
back through Cypress once more.  Slow to forgive,
Paul proved how long the smallest grudge can live,
undiscplined, uncouth, and unabated
without regard to any consequence,
refusing any humble deference
to Christ's own Gospel and wise common sense.
Late, he declared that Mark was profitable:
did that bring some relief into Paul's soul?
Or like wounds salted, or thirst splashed with brine,
was Paul tormented, in the Mamertine

Prison by sad regrets well contemplated---
while death, at Nero's judgement, was awaited,
soon witnessed at the chuckling headsman's block.

Starward

[jlc]