One of the most freeing things I discovered in my Christian walk is that Jesus took my place. I knew that He died for me. That had been preached from the time I was an infant. But the revelation that He suffered to the extent of dying on the cross, out of pure love, because He saw value in me, was one that took years.

Out of my pain and rebellion, I chose a path that brought a lot of brokenness and even more pain into my life. And shame. Shame that gripped my mind and made me want to hide my story, my life. For years I did that. Only a few people knew teeny, tiny bits and pieces of that story.

Gradually, as Tim loved me without judgement, I started to get it. I am not the sum of the mistakes I have made in my life. My identity is found, not in what I have done, or even what was done against me. It is found in the love of Jesus. In the man who pursued me on that road to judgement and cried out on my behalf, “I love this woman… I will take her place.”

And as that visual struck me, the words to the following poem spilled onto paper…

I Will Take Her Place

I stumbled slowly

Up the steep incline

Driven by a whip.

I knew that I deserved to die

And yet I clung to life

 With every raspy breath:

Praying for mercy

Weeping for grace

Crying for freedom

I covered my face.

I could not bear the shame.

I knew that I deserved to die

I heard the laughing from the crowd

She’s a sinner! A disgrace!

She’s a harlot! She’s a waste!

 Then a firm and gentle voice cried out

Above the cursing crowd

“I love this woman!

I will take her place!”

I watched the Stranger reach for me

Walking up the steep incline

He took my cross upon his back

I watched them spit into his face

“He’s a fool! Let him die!”

The crowd began to chant

Then they beat him ‘til the blood

Flowed down the Stranger’s back.

As his tender gaze fell on me.

I bowed my head in shame.

I knew that I deserved to die,

I knew that I deserved his place.

But His kind and gentle hand reached out

Then lifting up my face,

His voice cried out above the din

“I love this woman!

I will take her place!

She prayed for mercy

She wept for grace

She cried for freedom

Now I will take her place!

I know that she deserves to die

But she can’t bear the shame

Yes she is a sinner

A harlot, a disgrace

But because I love this woman

I will take her place.”

Trudy Metzger ©