December 23: Bearing Witness
♫ Music:
WEEK FOUR
December 23-29
FIRST RESPONDERS
First responders are typically trained individuals who arrive at the scene of an emergency or disaster before anyone else. Here however, we are referring to those first participants in the Christian narrative, individuals who responded to the good news of Christ’s coming with a wide variety of reactions. Their intriguing relationships to Christ offer insights into the multifarious and complex nature of divine/human interactions. From Mary’s quiet obedience to the shepherd’s awestruck wonder, and from Herod’s murderous insecurities to Simeon and Anna’s overflowing hearts of praise, all have something to teach us about what it means to encounter Christ.
Day 22 - Friday, December 23
John: The First Evangelist
Scripture: Mark 1:4-6, 8-11
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Poetry:
Icon of an Unknown Saint
by Cameron Lawrence
Your eyes are a brocade of finches,
feathered bronze and gold-flecked
shards of stained glass, afloat
in pails of morning’s milk.
Your pupils are black as onyx,
as distant stars moments beyond collapse.
I enter through them to find,
in a barn lit through rafters,
the Son of Man
with mud dripping from his hands.
Oh, my God
—he looks like you.
BEARING WITNESS
Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects tells an extraordinary tale about the creation of today’s artwork, Andrea Verrocchio’s Baptism of Christ: “In this work he was assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, his disciple, then quite young, who painted therein an angel in his own hand, which was much better than the other parts of the work; and for that reason Andrea resolved never again to touch a brush, since Leonardo, young as he was, had acquitted himself in that art much better than he had done.”
Verrocchio’s dramatic abandonment of the art of painting has become part of Renaissance art lore, no doubt spurring on the secret ambitions of every young art student to surpass the work of their teachers. We should not feel too badly for Verrocchio, since he made his living primarily as a sculptor. While probably apocryphal, this story has been told countless times before this painting partly because we know there must have been several less melodramatic moments in which Verrocchio did recognize the presence of something truly extraordinary in his apprentice, something greater than himself. This story is also perfectly intertwined with the painting’s subject.
Verrocchio and his precocious student elegantly present a moment that is both a commencement and a culmination. Jesus’ ministry is launched, and John’s is effectively ended. Appropriately, John is not the center of the painting’s composition, and he stands to one side so as not to obscure our view of Jesus and the marvelous trinitarian event occurring center stage. John is here is present here to bear witness, the role he had played since leaping in Elizabeth’s womb.
John the Baptist models a truly right relationship to Jesus, a relationship that for him meant living a life of renunciation and loss. He cried out in the wilderness, living a life of solitude, eating an extreme diet, his ascetic life a shadowy precursor to the celebratory and indulgent public ministry for which Jesus would be criticized. For John, witness was indeed something one had to “bear” in all the most difficult senses of that word.
And now, at the baptism of Christ, John is superseded in an instant. His whole life of devotion and self-denial–preparing the way–culminates in this moment. Heaven opens, God speaks, the Holy Spirit descends, and John begins his dramatic journey of decrease. He loses most of his followers to Jesus, and continues this loss all the way to imprisonment, doubt, and a seemingly pointless, gratuitous death after offending the wrong powerful people. Nevertheless, John’s recognition of the Lamb of God at this moment allowed him to fulfill his purpose of bearing witness, to usher in the new work of God, and to become more like Jesus than he could of understood at that moment in the muddy water of the Jordan River.
Perhaps his cousin came to mind when Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, will find it.”
Prayer:
Father,
There are so many spaces in my life in which I do not want to be superseded. I do not want to experience the righteous loss that is your invitation. So many greater things than I are already present in my life, and some are waiting to commence, please grant me the vision to recognize what you are bringing into the world, and to prepare the way. Grant me the courage to bear witness to the new thing you are doing.
Amen.
Jonathan Puls
Professor of Art
Associate Dean in the School of Fine Arts and Communication
About the Artwork:
Baptism of Christ, c. 1472-75
Andrea del Verrocchio with Leonardo da Vinci
Oil and tempera on wood panel
5 ft 10 in x 4 ft 11 in
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
As water pours from a bowl held in John’s sharply upraised hand, we witness the dramatic moment when John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, baptizes Jesus at Jesus’ instruction. The heavens open to reveal the wide-spread hands of God the Father with the dove of the Holy Spirit descending, declaring Jesus as God’s beloved Son while two angels kneel in adoration. John’s role as the first evangelist, “preparing the way” for Jesus, is emphasized by the gilded cross on his staff, and the scroll that unfurls from his left hand that reads, “Behold the Lamb of God.” The angel in profile on the far left with luxuriant golden curls, holding Jesus’ clothing, exhibits a subtlety of treatment not seen in the other figures and is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, who may have also done part of the background landscape.
About the Artist:
Andrea del Verrocchio (Andrea di Cione, 1435-88), Italian sculptor, painter, and metalworker, had the most important studio in Florence in the second half of the 15th century. Reflecting his early training as a goldsmith, his sculpture is recognized above all for its technical mastery and exquisite craftsmanship, in contrast with his rival sculptor, Donatello, who emphasized the complex interior life of his subjects. Verrocchio, which means “true eye," was adept at rendering physical types like the lithe male youth (seen in his David) or arrogant hard-bitten warrior (the equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni). Few paintings apart from the Baptism of Christ, can be attributed with certainty to Verrocchio himself, but his studio produced a great many. Verrocchio’s reputation was overshadowed by his pupil Leonardo da Vinci, who, according to 16th century biographer Giorgio Vasari, painted one of the angels in the Baptism, and surpassing his teacher so much that Verrocchio resolved never to paint again, a response largely considered myth not fact.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer, and draftsman who studied music, anatomy, geology, botany, and cartography. He is considered the epitome of the “Renaissance man” known for his paintings and his inventions. He has been called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank, he epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Among his artworks, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time. His few art works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise an incomparable contribution to later generations of artists.
About the Music:
“Christmas Symphony in D Major, 'Pastorale per il Ss Natale di nostro Jesu': II. Allegro” from the album Great Joy - Renaissance and Baroque Christmas Music for Brass
About the Composer:
Gaetano Maria Schiassi (b. 1698) was an Italian composer and violinist. He was primarily known for his operatic compositions but his instrumental works for the violin were also well-known. Schiassi's works for violin include settings for sonatas, concertos, sinfonias and dances. His vocal music, other than the operas, were most often set as pastorales. Schiassi was in service at a number of places including the ducal court of Alderano Malaspina, the Landgrave of Darmstadt, and the royal chapel in Lisbon where he founded an opera house. Schiassi’s training as a violinist is reflected in his instrumental writing, which often demands a high level of virtuosity.
About the Performers:
Schwerin Blechbläser-Collegium is an innovative brass ensemble formed in 1975 and based in Northern Germany.
About the Poet:
Cameron Alexander Lawrence is a poet from the American southwest. Born in Phoenix, AZ, Lawrence is currently a magazine editor and poet who uses his background in creative writing to reach an international audience with stories beautifully told for an award-winning magazine and donor-development campaigns for a non-profit in Atlanta, GA. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Asheville Poetry Review, Exit 7, Image, Rock & Sling, and elsewhere. He says of his poetry, ”What concerns me, both in my writing and day-to-day life, is how I might come to fully embrace my humanity, the mystery of who and what I am, of who and what you are, and how it is that we relate to each other and to God—not in spite of our humanity, but because of it and through it.”
About the Devotional Writer:
Jonathan Puls
Professor of Art
Associate Dean in the School of Fine Arts and Communication
Biola University
Jonathan Puls serves as Professor of Art and Associate Dean in the School of Fine Arts and Communication. He is a professional painter and art historian, and an amateur at many other creative enterprises.