April 2: “Today You Shall Be With Me in Paradise”
♫ Music:
Day 45 - Friday, April 2
GOOD FRIDAY
Title: “TODAY YOU SHALL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE”
Scripture: LUKE 23:33-43
When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Poetry:
On the Fourth Day of Fires by El Centro
By Karen An-hwei Lee
Solo wild doves cry by the lake. A thousand acres,
and the flare-blanched scent not of camphorwood
nor fused lilies, not a million eyes of singed pansies,
not ginkgo-fans weeping on fluted bones of swans
from wreckage, not our human rubrics of despair
shattered by the wrath of hydrocarbon naphtha
liquidating our galleries of mute incense clocks
charred by the dark hunger of arson
and dying aspirations of a thousand orange trees,
the brazen fire-storm of midnight’s lost cathedral
of false piety as gold radii encircled torso on torso
of frozen pine. For we know that if the earthly tent
we live in is destroyed, we have a building from
God,
an eternal house in heaven,
not built by human hands.
JESUS, REMEMBER ME
I remember my first meaningful and shocking encounter with the reality of death when a family member unexpectedly died. I was a young teenager. Since then, I have often found myself encountering the mystery of death, especially through my work in the church: standing graveside with grieving families as they lowered their loved one into the earth; praying with a couple in the middle of the night in the maternity ward after the stillbirth of their child; and, in recent years, officiating funerals for some of my own family members. It’s something that pastors face regularly, but I’ve never grown used to it.
At times, we might prefer to ignore the reality of death. Our surrounding culture would certainly rather promote signs of youth, vitality, and success than reminders of our mortality. Lent isn’t easy to market. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, which has killed millions of people, we might be tempted to disregard the cold ruthlessness of death. Yet our walk through this season of Lent has been leading us here all along: we have reached the foot of the cross.
Helpfully, the Gospel writers will not allow us to ignore the death of Christ. Yes, their accounts of Jesus’ death differ. For example, of the seven final sayings of Jesus from the cross recorded in the New Testament, three of them are only found in Luke’s Gospel, and two of those are found in today’s text: Jesus’ prayer to God the Father asking for the forgiveness of those who crucify him; and his response to the thief who begs Jesus to remember him.
But the Gospel writers all proclaim with one voice the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross, an event that – along with his coming resurrection – stands at the heart of the Christian faith. Importantly, this is not an apparent (i.e., docetic) death or a momentary death that could be cured by resuscitation. He really suffered. He really died. It is right, then, that in the Apostles’ Creed, we affirm our belief in Jesus, “who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.”
This truth is reflected in the works of art selected for today: in the painting of Douglas Williamson, who plays on the reputation of the magpie as a thief; in “Kyrie Eleison” composed by Zbigniew Preisner, which culminates in an aching cry for mercy; and in the words of poet Karen An-hwei Lee, who reminds us of the finitude of our earthly temple.
What, then, should we do here at the foot of the cross?
Our response to the death of the author of life should not be that of the sneering rulers or the mocking soldiers or the disbelieving thief, but rather that of the thief who asked Jesus to remember him – or, if you like, the magpie who looks to the cross rather than the one who looks away. On this Good Friday, we affirm the difficult but important truth of the death of our Savior.
The mystery of death is real. But our hope in Christ, who overcomes death, is greater.
Prayer
Almighty and merciful God,
You sent your Son into the world to save his people.
But he was betrayed, denied, abandoned, mocked, and killed.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
You came to give us new life.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Jesus, remember me.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. David McNutt
Associate Lecturer at Wheaton College
Associate Editor at IVP Academic
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:
Between Two Thieves (diptych)
Douglas Williamson
2012
Oil on linen
32 x 48 in.
In his diptych painting entitled Between Two Thieves, artist Douglas Williamson represents the two common thieves crucified beside Jesus as two birds perched on the arms on either side of the cross. While the thief on the left continued to hurl insults and abuse at Christ, mocking him and telling him to save them if he really was the true Messiah, the second thief chose to turn towards Jesus and asked to be remembered and included in the kingdom that was to come. The cross, bisected by two separate panels, shows the repentant thief as he turns toward the cross, his panel filled with the promise of a bright new day, while the unrepentant thief looks away from the cross into the deep darkness of stormy clouds and certain torment. Williamson paints about hope, grace, and the promise that none of us are beyond the reach of the unconditional love of God.
About the Artist:
After receiving his B.F.A. from the University of Calgary, Douglas Williamson has devoted himself to painting. Utilizing various approaches of both old and new masters to formulate his mark, there is hardly a day that goes by where he can’t be found in his studio. His subjects range from still life to figurative—each painting a dimensional story told through the facet of an object, the face of a character. Douglas has participated in residencies at The Banff Centre, exhibiting these works at White Gallery in Red Deer, Alberta. He recently received a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts to attend The Nerdrum School in Norway, where he studied with the world-renowned figurative painter Odd Nerdrum. Selections of his most recent paintings are exhibiting at Trounce Alley Gallery, in Victoria, B.C.
https://douglaswilliamson.com/home.html
About the Music:
“Kyrie Eleison” from the album Requiem for My Friend
About the Lyrics:
Traditional (from the Mass)
The Kyrie Eleison, a transliteration from the Greek for “Lord, have mercy,” is one of the oldest and most common prayers of Christianity. Traced as far back as the Psalms, the phrase is also said several times by those crying out to Jesus for healing in the Gospels, as well as by the despised tax collector in the parable in Luke, who cries out, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.” The prayer is simultaneously a petition and a prayer of thanksgiving; an acknowledgment of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will continue to do. Musical settings of the prayer have been sung in churches throughout history and around the world, in styles ranging from Gregorian chant to folk.
About the Composer:
Zbigniew Preisner (b. 1955) is Poland’s leading film music composer and is considered to be one of the most outstanding film composers of his generation. For many years Preisner enjoyed a close collaboration with the director Krzysztof Kieslowski and his scriptwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz. His scores for Kieslowski’s film including Dekalog; The Double Life Of Veronique; Three Colours Blue; Three Colours White; and Three Colours Red have brought him international acclaim. Preisner has scored many feature films, including Hector Babenco’s At Play In The Fields Of The Lord; Louis Malle’s Damage; Luis Mandoki’s When A Man Loves A Woman; Agnieszka Holland’s The Secret Garden; and Charles Sturridge’s Fairytale: A True Story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Preisner
http://www.preisner.com/
About the Performers:
Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Roman Rewakowicz
The Sinfonia Varsovia is an orchestra based in Warsaw, Poland. It was founded in 1984 by Yehudi Menuhin, Waldemar Dabrowski, and Franciszek Wybranczyk, as a successor to the Polish Chamber Orchestra. Since 2003 the orchestra has been led by Krzysztof Penderecki as its artistic director. Other conductors to have worked with the orchestra include Claudio Abbado, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, and Lorin Maazel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinfonia_Varsovia
The Polish conductor Román Rewakowicz completed his musical education at the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. His conducting activity includes guest appearances with a number of symphonic orchestras in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, including the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Kyiv Camerata, the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Rostov Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a co-founder and has been co-organizer of the International Contemporary Music Festival Contrasts in Lviv, Ukraine, where he appeared as a conductor and gave premieres of a number of works by Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Part, and others in Ukraine. He is well known as a promoter of Polish and Ukrainian contemporary music.
https://www.naxos.com/person/Roman__Rewakowicz_/112367.htm
About the Poet:
Karen An-hwei Lee (b. 1973) is a Chinese American poet, translator, and critic. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Lee has received six Pushcart Prize nominations, the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, the Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry from Sarabande Books, and the July Open Award sponsored by Tupelo Press. Lee’s work appears in journals such as The American Poet, Poetry, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Journal of Feminist Studies & Religion, Iowa Review, and IMAGE: Art, Faith, & Mystery. A recipient of an NEA Fellowship, in 2020 she became a Professor of English and the Provost of Wheaton College in Illinois.
About the Devotion Author:
Rev. Dr. David McNutt
Associate Lecturer at Wheaton College
Associate Editor at IVP Academic
The Rev. Dr. David McNutt (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is Associate Lecturer in Core Studies at Wheaton College, where he teaches courses in systematic theology, theology and the arts, film, and philosophy. He is also an Associate Editor at IVP Academic, an imprint of InterVarsity Press, and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). His particular areas of interest and expertise include the theology of creativity, the doctrine of creation, and the theology of the Reformed tradition.