March 13: Christ Gave Himself Up Voluntarily
♫ Music:
Wednesday, March 13
Christ Gave Himself Up Voluntarily
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:22-25
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Poetry:
Letters to a Stranger
by Thomas James
I
In April we will pierce his body.
It is March. Snow is dust over the branches.
A pony hunches in the orchard.
I stand at the frozen mouth of the river,
Thinking of you.
In the house where you live
Frost glitters on the windows
Like uncounted pieces of silver.
Already they are preparing the wine and the bread.
II
The field is banked with purple asters
And a spill of mustard flowers.
The earth has taken on terrible proportions.
Out in an unused meadow
The wildflowers have already covered
The delicate bones of an Indian.
Bees are flying across the meadow
To a hive under the rafters of the barn.
Someone is leading a horse with crippled bones
Into the spikes of clover.
III
Alexander died this morning,
Leaving his worldly possessions
To the strongest.
I watched an empire fade across his lips.
They propped him in the sun a while,
And then three women came to scour his body
Like a continent.
I am afraid of what the world will do.
Only this afternoon
I heard two worms conversing
In the shadow of his breastbone.
I slipped out of the palace
And entered a vein of gillyflowers
On the edge of potter’s field.
I will not be missed.
No one even noticed.
IV
I have been thinking of the son
I would like to have.
The leaves have all gone yellow
Overnight, wrinkling like hands
In the updraught.
I drove my car by the creek
Because I had nowhere else to go.
The milkweed’s delicate closet had been fractured,
Filling the air with rumors.
Despite all I could do, the sumac
Had taken on the color of a mouth.
Tonight, I perceive the young girls
In my mother’s blood
Letting their seed pass by unnoticed,
A red nativity.
V
Last night they dragged the canal
For an old man’s body.
Now he is singing for a hook
Just below water level.
A branch of ice is splitting open
Across each window,
And snow is dismantling the weeds
Like the breakable furniture of a boudoir.
I have been rereading your letters.
It is too cold for a virgin birth to occur
Even in the frosty suburbs
Of a wildflower.
VI
I have learned to camouflage myself in church,
Masking my body
With the body of a saint.
Last night frost glazed the face of Mary Magdalene,
And snow rode up to the altar windows.
Before morning, the sparrows came down
To the body of Saint Francis.
Now he is upholstered in oak leaves
Like a living room chair.
This morning we are preparing a crucifixion.
I am thinking of you now.
With the velvet at my knees
And the silverware shining on the altar
And the stained glass moving out of focus
And the cross veiled in black,
I am present for the news of an enormous death.
I take the bread on my tongue
Like one of Christ’s fingers,
And the wine rides through my breast
Like a dark hearse.
All the while I am thinking of you.
An avalanche of white carnations
Is drifting across your voice
As it drifts across the voices of confession.
But the snow keeps whispering of you over and over.
SETTING ASIDE STATUS: OFFERING A BLESSING FOR A CURSE
“Wall works, wall makes safe. You don’t have to be smart to understand that—in fact it’s even easier to understand if you’re not that smart!”
Actor Alex Baldwin impersonates the president and attacks his intellect and policies in front of a national audience. President Trump retaliates by tweeting against “fake news” and calls for “retribution” against liberals. Welcome to what Georgetown linguist, Deborah Tannen, calls the argument culture where Americans present our disagreements by demonizing and disrespecting those with whom we disagree.
Regardless of what you think of President Trump’s policies, it must be difficult to be a person of power and be openly mocked. In the face of such disrespect, it would be all too easy to use your platform and status to hit back from the Oval Office. Since most of us will never achieve such a level of status or criticism, it’s difficult to imagine how we’d respond.
Not so for Jesus.
We learn from the Scriptures that Jesus was not merely a messenger from God, but in fact, the “radiance of God’s glory” and the “exact representation” of the Almighty (Heb. 1:3). In short, status upon status. That’s what makes today’s reading so shocking. We learn that the opponents of Jesus “hurled insults” at him adding to his suffering (1 Pet. 2:23). Rather than merely being the butt of political jokes, we know Jesus also suffered physical abuse including being punched, whipped, and ultimately crucified. This form of indignity was so barbaric the Roman philosopher Cicero wrote: “To bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to kill him is an act of murder. To crucify him is—what? There is no fitting a word that can possibly describe such a horrible deed.”
This Lent season let us remember that Jesus had options when facing verbal taunts and a form of death so violent that it was deemed to be beneath a Roman citizen. On the night of his betrayal, armed soldiers came to arrest Jesus. With a sword pointed at him, Jesus remarks, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53). Military historians are quick to remind us the havoc twelve legions of trained Roman soldiers (roughly 80,000) could wreak on an enemy. Imagine what 80,000 angelic beings with supernatural powers could do against mere human soldiers?
Yet, he didn’t call for angelic help.
Peter remarks that he didn’t “retaliate” and made “no threats” (1 Pet. 2:23). But, why? Two reasons are given. First, we are reminded that Jesus’ suffering was for us. In his death he was taking on God’s righteous wrath for our collective sin (1 Jn. 4:10). Second, he was giving us an example of how to respond to persecution (1 Pet. 3:9).
This Lent season, let us follow Jesus’ example by rejecting today’s argument culture. When we are insulted and even hated for our seemingly intolerant Christian beliefs, let us not give an insult for insult, but rather, a blessing. Perhaps such actions won’t make the nightly news, but it just may help engage in perspective taking with the One who rejected his status to offer us an alternative to the argument culture.
Prayer:
Jesus, thank you for suffering for us and giving us an example to follow. Rather than clinging to your status, you loved the very people who sought to harm you. Rather than reviling, you uttered not threats but entrusted yourself to God. Let us—as we move through the argument culture—offer blessings for curses.
Amen
Tim Muehlhoff
Professor of Communication
Director of Resources at the Center for Marriage and Relationships
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Sheep Behind a Fence, c. 1940
Chaim Soutine
Oil on canvas
27 cm x 41 cm
Private Collection
Artist Chaim Soutine is well-known for his paintings of butchered animals, which he used in the same symbolic way that many Eastern and Central European Jewish writers did at that time, making butcher’s blood a coded symbol for violence against the Jewish people. Soutine always worked from life studies. His studies of farm animals were painted at the end of his career during the Nazi invasion of France. Before this he had usually depicted dying animals and their suffering, but during the German occupation Soutine painted working farm animals seeking to capture them with a lyrical and expressive sensitivity.
About the Artist:
Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) was Russian-French painter of Jewish origin that lived and worked in Paris at the height of the modern era. Soutine made major contributions to the Expressionist movement while living in Paris. Inspired by classic paintings in the European tradition, Soutine maintained a connection to recognizable subject matter while developing an individual style more concerned with shape, color, and texture over representation, which served as a bridge between more traditional approaches and the developing art movement known as Abstract Expressionism. His innovation was in the way he chose to represent his subjects: with a thick impasto of paint covering the surface of the canvas, the palette, visible brushwork, and forms translated the artist's inner torment. A prototypical “wild artist,” Soutine's temper and depression are both well documented and were poured into the paint he layered on the canvas. Soutine's body of work transcends the artistic movements that dominated the avant-garde during his lifetime by expressing a clear personal and artistic vision that both looks back at historic themes and toward future modernist styles. Soutine influenced generations of artists, including Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Frank Auerbach, Cecily Brown, and Damien Hirst.
About the Music:
“There is A Fountain” from the album Talk About a Soul
Lyrics:
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in His day;
And there have I, though vile as he,
Washed all my sins away:
Washed all my sins away,
Washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he,
Washed all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Are safe, to sin no more:
Are safe, to sin no more,
Are safe, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God
Are safe, to sin no more.
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
When this poor, lisping, stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.
About the Composer:
Lowell Mason (1792-1872) was a leading figure in American church music, the composer of over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His best-known work includes an arrangement of “Joy to the World” and the tune "Bethany," which sets the hymn text “Nearer, My God, to Thee." He is largely credited with introducing music into American public schools and is considered the first important U.S. music educator. But he has also been criticized for helping to largely eliminate the robust tradition of participatory sacred music that flourished in America before his time. Worship services became mainly organ-led and hymn tunes were mostly adapted from European tunes and composers. It is interesting that Mason selected the early American melody, “Cleansing Fountain,” to use for William Cowper’s text “There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood.”
About the Lyricist:
William Cowper (1731-1800) was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century poetry by writing about everyday life and scenes in the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet." It was during a time of deep depression that Cowper wrote one of his most beloved hymns, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” which is based on Zechariah 13:1, “On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” The hymn is a meditation on the saving power of the blood of Christ.
About the Performers:
The Biola Bluegrass Trio originated in 2010 as a part of a larger surge of interest in folk music within the Biola Conservatory of Music. Different iterations of folk bands met for coaching and performances over several semesters, primarily transcribing or arranging their own pieces from the traditional repertoire. This bluegrass trio was comprised of music majors Phil Glenn on fiddle, Caleb Parker on guitar, and Patrick Grafton-Cardwell on bass. The ensemble recorded tracks included in the 2012 album Talk About A Soul by Biola’s a cappella group The King’s Men.
About the Poet:
Thomas James (1946-1974) was a Roethke Prizewinning American poet. His poems, which demonstrate technical skill and the influence of poet Sylvia Plath, appeared in magazines and anthologies including, North American Review, Poetry, and Poetry Northwest, which awarded him the Theodore Roethke Prize in 1969. He died in obscurity in 1974 by his own hand, shortly after the first publication of his only book, Letters to a Stranger. Since its publication it has become one of the underground classics of contemporary American poetry. Writing in The Washington Post, author and poet Edward Hirsch describes Letters to a Stranger as “a book of dark intensities and deeply felt connections, both haunted and haunting, at once brooding, sensual and lucid. ... The voice in these poems—painfully lonely and filled with longing, estranged and religious—has stayed with me for more than 20 years. It deserves to be remembered.”
About the Devotional Writer:
Tim Muehlhoff
Professor of Communication
Biola University
Tim Muehlhoff is a professor of communication at Biola University where he teaches classes on family communication, gender, persuasion, and apologetics. In addition to teaching, Muehlhoff is an author whose newest release is Defending Your Marriage: The Reality of Spiritual Battle (IVP). He currently serves as an author/speaker with Biola’s Center for Marriage and Relationships.