December 13: The Birth of John the Baptist
♫ Music:
Day 16 - Monday, December 13
Title: THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
Scripture: Luke 1:57-66
Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zecharias. His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.”
But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.
Poetry:
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist
by Christopher Smart
Great and bounteous Benefactor,
We thy generous aid adjure,
Shield us from the foul exactor,
And his sons, that grind the poor.
Lo the swelling fruits of summer,
With inviting colours dyed,
Hang, for every casual comer,
O’er the fence projecting wide.
See the corn for plenty waving
Where the dark secured her eggs–
In the spirit then by saving,
Give the poor that sings and begs.
Gentle nature seems to love us
In each fair and finished scene,
All is beauteous blue above us,
All beneath is cheerful green.
Now when warmer rays enlighten
And adorn the lengthened time,
When the views around us brighten,
Days a ripening from their prime,
She that was as barren reckoned,
Had her course completely run,
And her dumb-struck husband beckoned
For a pen to write a son.
John, the child of Zacharias,
Just returning to his earth,
Prophet of the Lord Messias,
And fore-runner of his birth.
He too martyred, shall precede him,
Ere he speed to heaven again,
Ere the traitors shall implead him,
And the priest his God arraign.
John beheld the great and holy,
Hailed the love of God supreme;
O how gracious, meek, and lowly,
When baptized in Jordan’s stream!
If from honour so stupendous
He the grace of power derived,
And to tyrants was tremendous,
That at fraud and filth connived;
If he led a life of rigour,
And th’ abstemious vow obeyed;
If he preached with manly vigour,
Practised sinners to dissuade;
If his voice by fair confession
Christ’s supremacy avowed;
If he checked with due suppression
Self-incitements to be proud.
Vice conspiring to afflict him
To the death that ends the great,
Offered him a worthy victim
For acceptance in the height.
AND NOW IN AGE I BUD AGAIN
I am now clearly in middle age, and so I understand the story of Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John better than I used to, and probably better each passing Christmas. My own physical weakness and limitations are becoming more conspicuous companions on the journey of life, and I am ever more conscious of the ultimate horizon of my time on the earth. I now have one adult child, and another close behind, and even imagining a new child in our home at this moment provokes some nervous laughter.
Though I don’t know the exact ages of Zechariah and Elizabeth, I still imagine them as older than I am now. I imagine they had long settled into the conditions and duties of life without children, probably reconciling themselves to what they assumed was the will of God on the matter. Zechariah’s earlier incredulity is understandable given all this, despite a visit from an angel.
As He did with Abraham and Sarah long before, God manifests His power by performing His new work in the old, those well past their prime, a couple who have long endured barrenness. Sarah’s laughter, bursting from her own incredulity, gave Isaac his name. John’s name, also given to him by God, means something like “graced by God;" its focus is on the action of Yahweh and the nature and role of this child as a gift and a messenger of grace. Zechariah’s obedience in John’s naming, as an act of acceptance and blessing over his son’s prophetic work, allows his own priestly voice to be restored. Zechariah may have needed some time to get used to the idea, but the old man is all in now.
Rembrandt’s paintings and prints of older models have always haunted me. Being a figurative draftsman and painter myself, the pathos and humanity that seem to be (miraculously) embedded in brushstrokes or in lines have functioned as a guiding star for my own struggling efforts. While depictions of youth and power are a perennial obsession of visual culture, it is rarer for us to contemplate images of old age, particularly those that picture it squarely, for they often contain a confrontation with loss and mortality.
The exquisite etching Bust of an Old Bearded Man Looking Down is just four inches square, yet even at that tiny scale Rembrandt manages to fill the work with profound description. The drawing of the form displays a love of wrinkled flesh and receding hair, uncannily merging dignity and honesty. The generic title of the work allows us to assign multiple potential identities to the image without settling on one. Rembrandt frequently used his neighbors as models for his paintings of Biblical stories and personages, and of traditional saints. This image could well be, in Rembrandt’s art and context, a depiction of the aged Zechariah or Abraham, or it could be a study of just another old man. This ambiguity is generous and beautiful, for it suggests that any of us could, at any moment in our lives, be chosen as the vessels through which God’s grace enters the world.
Prayer (Meditation):
And now in age I bud again,
After so many deaths I live and write;
I once more smell the dew and rain,
And relish versing. Oh, my only light,
It cannot be
That I am he
On whom thy tempests fell all night.
–George Herbert
Devotion Author:
Jonathan Puls, MFA, MA
Chair of the Art Department
Associate Professor of Art History and Painting
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Bust of an Old Bearded Man Looking Down
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
1631
Etching on paper
11.5 x 10.4 cm
Rembrandt’s interest in depicting the physical and psychological character of aging men and women emerged in the late 1620s and continued throughout his life. The elderly, whether family members, models in his studio, or random people he encountered, clearly fascinated Rembrandt by their expressive physical qualities and underlying humanity. Several etchings that Rembrandt made of this particular subject focused on the bearded man’s head and upper body. In each etching, Rembrandt experimented with pose, point of view, and varying intensity of chiaroscuro to convey different psychological states of mind. The etching is a masterful depiction of mood, not only because of the elderly man’s reflective pose, but also because of the strong contrasts of light and shading.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/artwork/bust-of-a-bearded-old-man/
About the Artist:
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) was a Dutch master draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. Unlike most Dutch masters of the seventeenth century, Rembrandt’s works depict a wide range of style and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, and biblical and mythological themes. His contributions to art came in a period of such great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the era the “Dutch Golden Age.” Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt’s later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Rembrandt’s portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits, and illustrations of scenes from the Bible are regarded as his greatest creative triumphs. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate autobiography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity. Rembrandt’s foremost contribution in the history of printmaking was his transformation of the etching process from a relatively new reproductive technique into a true art form. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called one of the greatest storytellers in the history of art, possessing an exceptional ability to render people in their various moods and dramatic guises. Rembrandt is also known as a painter of light and as an artist who favored an uncompromising realism in his work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt
https://www.biography.com/artist/rembrandt
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/391518
About the Music:
“The Maker” from the album Spyboy
Lyrics:
Oh, oh deep water, black and cold like the night
I stand with arms wide open,
I've run a twisted line
I'm a stranger in the eyes of the Maker
I could not see for the fog in my eyes
I could not feel for the fear in my life
And from across the great divide, In the distance I
saw a light
Jean Baptiste's walking to me with the Maker
My body is bent and broken by long and dangerous
sleep
I can't work the fields of Abraham and turn my head
away
I'm not a stranger in the hands of the Maker
Brother John, have you seen the homeless
daughters
Standing there with broken wings
I have seen the flaming swords
There over east of Eden
Burning in the eyes of the Maker
Burning in the eyes of the Maker
Burning in the eyes of the Maker
Oh, river rise from your sleep
About the Performer:
Emmylou Harris (b. 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won fourteen Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Harris' work and recordings include work as a solo artist, a bandleader, an interpreter of other composers' works, a singer-songwriter, and a backing vocalist and duet partner. In 1987, Harris teamed up with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt for a long-anticipated Trio disc which produced several hits, including "To Know Him Is To Love Him." She became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1992. In 1995, Harris shifted from the more traditional country sounds she had built her career on, and released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the decade, Wrecking Ball. An experimental album for Harris, it received virtually no country airplay, but brought Harris to the attention of alternative rock listeners. Harris then took her Wrecking Ball material on the road, releasing the live album Spyboy in 1998. In 2000, Harris released her solo follow-up to Wrecking Ball, entitled Red Dirt Girl, which won Harris another of her thirteen Grammy awards in the category of Best Contemporary Folk Album. The past few decades have seen more honors for the artist, including an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music (2009), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2018), and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2019).
https://www.emmylouharris.com/
About the Composer/Lyricist:
Daniel Roland Lanois (b. 1951) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Brandon Flowers. He collaborated with Brian Eno to produce several albums for U2, including The Joshua Tree (1987) and Achtung Baby (1991). Three albums produced or co-produced by Lanois have won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Lanois has released several solo albums. He wrote and performed the music for the film Sling Blade (1996). Wrecking Ball, his collaboration with Emmylou Harris, won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. As well as being a producer, Lanois is a songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He has released several solo albums and film scores and a number of Lanois' songs have been covered by other artists including Dave Matthews, the Jerry Garcia Band, Willie Nelson, Tea Party, Isabelle Boulay, and Emmylou Harris. In 2014, Lanois played with Emmylou Harris as a sideman and opening act on a tour focused on the album Wrecking Ball.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lanois
https://www.daniellanois.com/
About the Poet:
Christopher Smart (1722–1771) was an English poet best known for A Song to David (1763), which praises the author of the Psalms as an archetype of the divine poet. Although in its own time the poem was greeted with confusion, later poets such as Robert Browning and Yeats would single out this poem for its affirmation of spirituality in an increasingly materialistic world. Smart’s poetry is notable for its visionary power, Christian ardor, and lyrical virtuosity. Poets, including Robert Browning, have long been the most perceptive admirers of Smart’s poetry, which is more nuanced than its reputation as simply a precursor to the Romantic tradition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Smart
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/christopher-smart
About the Devotion Author:
Jonathan Puls, MFA, MA
Chair of the Art Department
Associate Professor of Art History and Painting
Biola University
Jonathan Puls (M.F.A., M.A.) is a painter, writer, and family man. He teaches drawing, painting, and art history courses in Biola’s Department of Art and currently serves as its Chair. Puls enjoys encouraging artists of all ages and kinds, and he tries to take all seriousness seriously. Puls also loves supporting creative work in all the arts at Biola and in the larger community. He, his wife, and his two daughters are constantly engaged in various visual art, music, and theatre projects.