GETHSEMANE RHAPSODY

(This follows the rhythm, and could be sung to the tune, of Queen's song 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which has already been parodied as Bethlehem Rhapsody (two songs, one about the Christmas story, the other that of David and Goliath).  My parody portrays the events remembered on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and the feelings of Peter during those dark days.)

(Note – lines in parenthesis represent background voices)

It seemed all over, down in Gethsemane;
Jesus was betrayed into the hands of His enemy.
Jesus was right:
“One of you will betray Me.”
Peter protested:
“Surely, O Lord, not me?”
Jesus told:
“Ere cock crow
You’ll deny Me thrice so.”
“To death with you I’ll go”,
Rashly answered Peter, he…

Jesus, the Son of Man:
Three years His disciples’ head,
The next day He would be dead.
For them, things had just begun
And now He seemed to throw it all away.
Peter, as we know,
Did not want Him to die;
Now Christ would hang upon a cross tomorrow,
Carry on to His end,
Leaving them in sorrow.

Too late, His time had come,
The Bethlehem Child Divine
Is tried for some trumped up crime.
But, for everybody, He had to go,
Had to leave our world behind, that was the truth.
Peter, oo-oo-oo
(Three times, then cock crowed)
Didn’t want Him to die, and perhaps wished he’d not followed Him at all.....

“I see a cowering silhouetto of a man.
Hey come round over here, did you follow this man, oh?”

Questions came like lightning, very, very frighteningly:
“Galilean? Galilean? Galilean? Galilean? Galilean fisherman, are you not so?”

“I’m just a poor man, what do you want with me?”

“He’s just a poor man from a place called Galilee,
Scratching a living from fishing that Sea!”

“Easy come, easy go,
Will they let Him go?”

“The people, no, they will not let Him go!”

“Let Him go?”
“The Temple, no, will not let Him go!”
“Let Him go?”
“Lord Pilate, no, will not let Him go!”
“Let Him go?”
“Never let him go –o-o-o
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.”

“I must get right out of here,
Now they will not let Him go.
I have a wife and a family
Who’ll starve without me, without me, without me..”

So they’d scourge Him, mock Him and spit in His eye,
They’d nail Him to the cross and make Him die.
O, Jesus, that’s God’s purpose for Jesus.
He came to suffer, die to take away my sins from me.

Jesus, Jesus!
None else really matters, this is what we say.
So this ends the matter:
Come now, He died to save you and me.
(Let’s give God the glory.)