Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum

Before the governor he stood, his head bowed to the floor,
His silence fed the legend, leaving room for something more.
He let the others speak for him, refusing to reply,
Each unanswered question let another doubt take root and lie.

The scourge tore open crimson tracks across his back and brow,
The thorns sank deep; in purple rags, they mocked his royal vow.
The soldiers knelt in ridicule before their battered prize
He saw the generations yet to kneel before his lies.

Chorus:
Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum - deceit enthroned on high!
He brands them guilty, then sells grace beneath a promised sky!

They laid the timber on his shoulders, drove him through the street,
He fell into the dust, blood soaking through beneath their feet.
They forced another man to bear the weight he could not own
Already, strangers’ shoulders bore the burden of his throne.

Upon the hill, they stripped him bare and stretched him on the beam,
The hammer’s measured rhythm drowned the crowd’s unsettled scream.
The iron pierced his flesh; they raised his body to the sky
The people saw his wounds; he saw dominion drawing nigh.

Chorus:
Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum - deceit enthroned on high!
He brands them guilty, then sells grace beneath a promised sky!

Above his head, the board proclaimed his name and royal claim,
What once was mockery became the emblem of his name.
He promised gardens past the grave to one who gasped in pain
He sold a land from which no soul could bring complaint again.

His breathing broke; his head fell forward, lifeless on his chest,
The spear laid bare his side; his cooling flesh was laid to rest.
Yet fraud outlived its maker; still the world dragged on his tree
And bound upon it those who would not bow or bend the knee.

Chorus:
Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum - deceit enthroned on high!
He brands them guilty, then sells grace beneath a promised sky!