Hung on a Tree
Solid
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I've got dreams I've got dreams, too... I've got dreams I've got dreams, too... I've got dreams... The suns shining, but I can't feel it past my skin There's a million places I would've rather been Families young and old are gathering Now the victim staggers in Things are getting tense The crowd and religious leaders hate who he represents They accuse him loudly but it's not making sense The authorities don't resist and they ignore his defense This much be a botched trial even though he's docile Their words are harsh while it's getting hostile Then they beat him. The violence and brutality Have to be the sheer depravity of humanity My heart breaks as I see his agony While the crowd sits passively or even cheers happily Words fail to describe this tragedy They hung him high and let him die so all would have to see My mind screams "I would've set him free" Then I look into the crowd and see people just like me This sin is so ugly now I see Humiliated, violated and hung him on a tree And they come draggin' one of the boys down Out of the jail, took him right down the sidewalk Everyone was kicking and hitting him and everything else And there was a Model-T Ford coupe That a woman standing up there And just all goin' crazy She jumped down, she had high-heels, I seen this happen And her high heels just scraped a hole Just like a cut with a knife down his back They pulled him out and they drug him up there by a car And took him over there and put him, hung him up on the maple tree... That's the story of a lynching A brutal execution similar to crucifixion And this was while my grandparents were still living Rarely do we mention or reflect on all the victims: Mary Turner, Ernest Green, Charlie Lang, Thomas Shipp Laura and LD Nelson, George Meadows, Abram Smith Rubin Stacy, Jesse Washington, and Emmett Till And thousands more just like them all were killed And had their lives erased in violent hate in the United States I can't try to shake this without seeing the Messiah's face He walked in the shoes of the falsely accused Mocked and abused and died, and we all were there too There is a deep suffering in our history And I've learned about it I've learn how Jesus can relate to the victims Who have carried such terrible pain But can I be real? I honestly struggle how do I relate to these stories And the fact that the lynchings were so similar to the crucifixion? Well, it's been said that "before we can begin to see the cross as done for us We have to see it as done by us" Well we know that the cross was done for us Jesus was crucified for our sin How was it done by us? I mean, that was 2000 yrs ago It's because we recognize sin isn't just an actions or thoughts in us now But it's a systemic problem, since Adam, that affects us all We don't just do sinful things We have a sinful nature, sinful tendencies, that we share So if I'm asked "where was I?" in the crucifixion, I relate because: I'm the religious leaders, who accuse with their agenda I'm the Roman soldier, you know, just, "doing his job" I'm Pontius Pilate who was concerned about pleasing the crowd I'm the disciple who claims allegiance to Christ but fled I'm guilty Barabbas who was released When he should have died, while Jesus took his place I'm in the crowd that praised Him one Sunday But didn't mind Him out of their lives that next week Only Jesus died to take away our sin Only Jesus died with the power to rise again But that death causes us to look within And truly ask ourselves where we would have been So when someone's publicly murdered and stops breathing I am broken and I start grieving I don't know all the reasons but I drop my pretense It's humans like me who commit these sins My response sets a precedent I must confess all my sins, including prejudice And not just the past, my current sins are relevant My brothers and sisters suffer from my negligence If I see the other as a scary thug I'm barely forgiven so I barely love Seeing specks but I miss logs And despite it all Christ died for me in the lynch mob This love shatters my defenses I cannot justify myself, I seek repentance Not just knowing it, but am I showing it? I think I've got the upper hand, but I've got a stone in it He knew I wouldn't set Him free Yet He died for the crowd, people just like me I was there too, now I see It was my sin that hung Him on a tree I gotta respond to the crucifixion of Jesus With humility and introspection But then that same heart has got to be in me When I'm confronted with a brutal killing Or I read about a lynching or I even just see the suffering That these events cause in others You see, I'm preaching to myself first before I preach to anybody else Because that's where we'll have a heart to actually One, know what the crucifixion means Two, be able to bring our sin into the light and deal with it and Three, lastly, that's the only space and the only heart From which we can begin to learn to love each other and be healed...
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"Hung on a Tree Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.lyrics.com/lyric-lf/8137335/Solid/Hung+on+a+Tree>.
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