December 11: Names of Jesus II
♫ Music:
Day 9 - Monday, December 11
Title: Names of Jesus II
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6b
“the government shall be upon his shoulders”
Poetry:
A Scandal in the Suburbs
by X.J. Kennedy
We had to have him put away,
For what if he'd grown vicious?
To play faith healer, give away
Stale bread and stinking fishes!
His soapbox preaching set the tongues
Of all the neighbors going.
Odd stuff: how lilies never spin
And birds don't bother sowing.
Why, bums were coming to the door—
His pockets had no bottom—
And then-the foot-wash from that whore!
We signed. They came and got him.
A CHALLENGING HOPE
Tumultuous times occasioned this portion of Isaiah’s prophecy, which would have been a clear beacon of hope to his fellow Israelites. Their glory days had faded long ago with David, and their contemporary kings, with few exceptions, were faithless and foolish as the shadows of the Assyrian and Babylonian powers engulfed them. Their world - within and without - was full of strife, and their leaders ultimately couldn’t resolve it.
It doesn’t take an especially obtuse or corrupt leader to illustrate that the same political dynamics persist today. Even the genuinely intelligent and well-intentioned politicians of our era seem fated to over-promise and under-deliver when it comes to fixing social, economic, and other problems. They may do good work (and God may do good work through them), but at the end of the day human political efforts can’t fix the underlying human problem of sin. Beyond the inadequacy of individual politicians, human history has shown us the failure of entire systems of government to eliminate suffering and ensure human flourishing. So we share in the hope that Isaiah’s prophecy inspires; only on the shoulders of Christ almighty will all of creation be governed fully with justice, righteousness, and peace.
Curiously, this hope has already been born. This is the hope that 2,000 years ago assumed flesh and blood in Jesus Christ, and this is the moment that Botticelli depicted in his Mystical Nativity. If you ponder his mysterious painting, which blends symbols and imagery of the nativity with those of the apocalypse, while taking in the beautiful but slightly eerie and foreboding music of Max Richter’s Iconography, perhaps you’ll wonder: If people were waiting and watching for this hope, then why did they reject Jesus when he first came? How will we respond when He comes again?
We’re truly blessed to know that Christ’s rejection and crucifixion was part of God’s mysterious and glorious outworking of salvation – but the religious leaders and the Jews shouting “crucify him!” before Pontius Pilate didn’t know that. They wanted him executed because His kingdom, His rule, was unacceptable to them. X.J. Kennedy brilliantly translates this ancient rejection of Jesus into modern terms in the selected poem, illustrating the scandal of Christ’s way of life. Are we ready for a kingdom that upside down? Do we really agree with politics like that? We have to confess that, even as self-proclaimed followers of Christ (like the Jews who professed to be awaiting the Messiah), some of our conventions – from the intrapersonal to the social – are at odds with the scandalous Kingdom of God.
Let’s confess these conventions, encourage one another as we learn to let them go, and pray that God would lead us ever deeper into His kingdom. Let’s be ambassadors of this kingdom in person-to-person relationships, and in conversations about our society at large. Let’s remember that, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, “thy Kingdom come and thy will be done.” Help us to be faithful witnesses of the Kingdom you’ve shown us in Christ as we await its full manifestation. May Your Spirit work in us to reveal allegiances and expectations that are at odds with your rule, and to empower us to lay them down. Teach us to put our hope in you.
Amen.
Paul Rheingans
Biola Alumnus of the Institute for Spiritual Formation
Case Manager, The Salvation Army
About the Artwork:
The Mystical Nativity, 1500-1501
Sandro Botticelli
Oil on canvas
108.5 x 74.9 cm
The National Gallery
London, England
During the Renaissance, the tradition of “Last Judgment” paintings vividly showed viewers the reckoning of the damned and the saved at the time of Christ’s Second Coming. In echoing this genre of painting, The Mystical Nativity asks us to think not only of Christ’s birth, but also of His return. The painting expresses both jubilation and spiritual warfare, combining the attributes of authority and power to Jesus together with the celebration of his birth. At the top of the painting twelve angels dance in a circle holding olive branches and above them heaven opens in a great golden dome. At the bottom of the painting three angels holding scrolls, which proclaim in Latin, “peace on earth to men of goodwill” embrace three men. Behind this grouping, seven devils flee to the underworld, some impaled on their own weapons.
About the Artist:
Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) was an Early Renaissance Italian painter who belonged to the Florentine School which was under the patronage of statesman and ruler of the Florentine Republic, Lorenzo de’ Medici. Botticelli painted a wide range of religious subjects and a number of portraits. He and his workshop were especially known for their Madonna and Child works, many in the round “tondo” shape. His most well-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both housed in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy. The Medici's influence greatly increased Botticelli's notoriety, and he was asked by the Papacy to paint parts of the Sistine Chapel, an honor only extended to some of the Renaissance's greatest artists, such as Perugino and Michelangelo. Despite his success as an altarpiece painter, Botticelli struggled to keep pace with the revolutionary changes taking place in art during this time and, with the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo on the artistic landscape, Botticelli's work became less relevant and popular.
About the Music:
“Iconography” from the album Waltz with Bashir
About the Composer and Performer:
Max Richter (b. 1966), a prolific German-born British composer, performs and records his own electronic music, and collaborates with countless filmmakers, dancers, vocalists, and media artists. His compositional style often dubbed “post-minimalist,” is characterized by fewer dynamic changes and less linear formal design than traditional minimalism with a focus on immediate aesthetic appeal and accessibility. Richter’s piece “Iconography” is featured in the Israeli animated documentary about the 1982 Lebanon War entitled Waltz with Bashir.
About the Poet:
X. J. Kennedy (b. 1929) is a poet, translator, anthologist, and author of children's literature and textbooks on English literature and poetry. Kennedy is most recognized for his light verse, and was the first recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Michael Braude Award for Light Verse. His first book, Nude Descending a Staircase, won the 1961 Lamont Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets, and his dozens of books have won awards including Guggenheim and National Arts Council Fellowships, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine and a Los Angeles Times Book Award for poetry. In 2009, Kennedy accepted the Poetry Society of America’s Robert Frost Medal for lifetime service to poetry.
About the Devotional Writer:
Paul Rheingans graduated in 2016 from Talbot School of Theology with an MA, Emphasis in Spiritual Formation. He and his wife live in Saint Paul, MN. He works as a housing case manager with the Salvation Army, and wrestles with the intersections of theology, poverty, prayer, and human nature.