April 9: Jesus’ Suffering & Rejection
♫ Music:
Day 39 - Saturday, April 9
Title: JESUS’ SUFFERING & REJECTION
Scripture: Psalm 31:9-16
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
My eye wastes away with grief,
Yes, my soul and my body!
For my life is spent with grief,
And my years with sighing;
My strength fails because of my iniquity,
And my bones waste away.
I am a reproach among all my enemies,
But especially among my neighbors,
And am repulsive to my acquaintances;
Those who see me outside flee from me.
I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
For I hear the slander of many;
Fear is on every side;
While they take counsel together against me,
They scheme to take away my life.
But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in Your hand;
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,
And from those who persecute me.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
Save me for Your mercies’ sake.
Poetry:
Skid Row
by Madeline DeFrees
Out of the depths have I cried, O Lord,
Where the lean heart preys on the hardened crust,
Where short wicks falter on candle-hopes
And winter whips at a patchwork trust.
From darkened doorways no welcome shines,
No promise waits up the broken stair,
And the coin that summons the night with wine
Buys a morning of sick despair.
Out of the depths have I cried in vain
And the still streets echo my lonely calls;
All the long night in the moaning wind
The bruised reed breaks and the sparrow falls.
SUFFERING IN A FALLEN WORLD
The writer of the Psalm 31 demonstrates that to cry out in anguish and despair, to confess the truth of our wretched estate, to grieve in desperate sorrow is all part of the Christian experience. For death is the result of the fall, as is pain, oppression, “trouble” (v. 9), “iniquity” (v. 10), “brokenness” (v. 12), and “persecution” (v. 15). And for these things it is right to lament.
The poet, like the psalmist, is bold enough to describe the “depths” for what they really are: hopeless despair. Like the psalmist, the subject in the poem feels forgotten. It may not be an accident that she notices the falling sparrow as a counter-story to Matthew 6:26 which reveals that if the Lord cares for the birds, he will also care for us. So what do we make of a lived experience where candles falter, promises fail, and birds fall from the air?
The psalm suggests that there is some hope in expressing the truth of the situation: “I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel” (v. 12). For these truths are not repulsive to the Lord. In fact, as Psalm 34 notes, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” But perhaps our greatest hope in despair is the knowledge that the Son of God lived in our flesh and empathizes with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). In fact, our Lord Jesus lived out the counter narrative of the sparrow. Unlike the “birds of the air” who were well cared-for, Jesus was “obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The art piece depicts this reality well.
This past summer I cared for my father in the last weeks of his life as his body was increasingly ravaged and eventually overtaken with cancer. In this time, I learned that enemies mentioned in Psalm 31:11 can take many forms, and whether it is human, spiritual, biological, or internal, the sense that our “bones waste away” under intense pressure of the enemies that exist in a fallen world is often not figurative.
So there is some paradoxical truth here illustrating the way the Lord cares for us and the way we experience the despair of life under the fall. The passage seems to give evidence for God’s providential care not necessarily being aligned with our lived reality.
That was certainly the case for Jesus.
Therefore, as the Psalm demonstrates, a willingness to confess trust in him regardless of our physical estate may also be an essential component of our Christian experience. For in some very real sense, we agree with Paul that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), and as we continue to be sanctified, we bend to his will. As my father said repeatedly in the last weeks of his life, “My times are in his hands.”
Prayer:
Oh Lord, be near to us when we are brokenhearted. Walk with us as we share in the sufferings of Christ. We struggle to see your sovereignty in suffering, in war, in oppression, but nonetheless, we confess our trust in you, oh God. To whom else shall we go?
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Dr. Christine Watson
Instructor, English Writing Program
English Department
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
The Judgment of the Sanhedrin - He is Guilty!
Nikolai Ge
1892
Oil on canvas
201.3 × 297.5 cm
Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia
Russian artist Nikolai Ge's technique of paintings on gospel subjects was innovative for his time and often provoked controversial reactions from his contemporaries. Some of Ge's works were even considered blasphemous, including today’s painting, The Judgment of the Sanhedrin - He is Guilty!, which was banned from being shown at exhibitions. During the time of Jesus, the occupying Roman government permitted the Jewish people some autonomy by allowing the Sanhedrin to function as a local court of law. The Sanhedrin plotted to have Jesus arrested and then subjected him to an illegal trial. During the trial of the Sanhedrin, Jesus generally remained quiet, did not mount a defense, rarely responded to the accusations leveled against him, and was ultimately found guilty of blasphemy. Ge paints Jesus pinned to the wall, surrounded by a hostile group of scribes and elders as he is rigorously questioned regarding his “transgressions.” On the other side of the composition, Ge indicates their hypocrisy as the sacred Torah is ceremoniously carried away from Christ by an indignant elder; unable to see beyond their desire to uphold the Law and their exasperation over the teachings of Christ, they failed to see that the One in their midst came not to abolish the Law but fulfill the Law.
https://clever-geek.imtqy.com/articles/1631197/index.html
About the Artist:
Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (1831–1894) was a Russian realist painter and an early Russian symbolist. He was famous for his works on historical and religious subjects. In 1850, Ge gave up his career in science and enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg and visited Germany, Switzerland, and France to study art. In 1860 he settled in Italy, where he met Russian neoclassical artist Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov in Rome. Ivanov became a strong influence on Ge's future work. In 1861, Ge painted The Last Supper using a photograph of writer Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen as an image for his central figure of Christ. This was the first known occasion where photography was used as the main source for a central character in a painting and it foreshadowed the deep influences that photography would later have on art. In 1870, Ge again returned to Saint Petersburg, where he turned to Russian history for subject matter. He bought a small farm in Ukraine and became acquainted with Russian author Leo Tolstoy. In the early 1880s, Ge returned to religious subjects and portraits. His later paintings on New Testament subjects were praised by liberal critics but criticized by conservatives for illustrating a more philosophical approach and less accurate biblical representation of the gospel, and therefore were banned by authorities for blasphemy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Ge
About the Music:
“In You Lord I Refuge Take” from the album Come To Me
Lyrics:
In you, Lord, I refuge take;
let me not be put to shame.
Turn your ear and quickly make
safety for my trembling frame.
You’re a rock and fortress strong;
I am lost and cannot see.
For your name’s sake, lead me on;
in your hands, my soul redeem.
My eyes weak with sorrow grow,
and my body fills with grief.
All my years pass with a groan;
my strength fails, my bones are weak.
Those who see me turn to flee;
my friends’ eyes are filled with dread.
Like a potter’s broken dream:
in their gaze, a shade of death.
But I trust you are my God;
all my days are in your hands.
Let your face upon me shine;
make me in your love to stand.
Great the steadfast love you’ve stored
for the poor, who refuge seek.
In your presence, gracious Lord,
in your dwelling they find peace.
When I cried in my alarm,
“I am cut off from your sight!”
Praise the Lord, whose saving arm
was my rescue and my light.
Love the Lord, all you his saints!
You, who in him refuge take.
Though in darkness you may wait,
all who hope in God are saved!
About the Performer/Composer:
Wendell Kimbrough is a songwriter and performer who is reimagining the Psalms for emotionally honest modern worship. His music makes space for the whole range of human experience, from lament, grief, and anger to playful, joyful celebration. With singable melodies, steeped in the sounds of folk, gospel, and soul music, Wendell's songs are sung in hundreds of churches around the world. His music has been featured in Worship Leader Magazine and World Magazine; and Under the Radar Media podcast selected his 2016 album, Psalms We Sing Together, as an honorable mention for albums of the year. In 2020, he was invited to serve on American Songwriter Magazine's prestigious panel of lyric judges. Wendell lives with his wife and daughter in Fairhope, Alabama, where he serves as worship leader and artist-in-residence at Church of the Apostles. In 2020, Wendell began an ambitious new journey: recording and releasing a new song every month to supporters on Patreon.
https://www.wendellk.com/
About the Poet:
Madeline DeFrees (1919–2015) was an American poet. She joined the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in 1936, and was subsequently known as Sister Mary Gilbert until she was dispensed of her religious vows in 1973. She received her B.A. in English from Marylhurst College and her M.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon. She taught at the Holy Names College, the University of Montana, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. After her retirement from teaching in 1985, DeFrees held residencies at Bucknell University, Eastern Washington University, and Wichita State University. She was the author of two chapbooks, two nonfiction books, and eight poetry collections, including Blue Dusk, which won both the 2002 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and a Washington Book Award. She received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her final collection of poetry was Spectral Waves, which won the 2007 Washington State Book Award for Poetry.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/madeline-defrees
About the Devotion Author:
Christine Watson
Instructor
English Department
Biola University
Christi Watson teaches core writing classes for Biola’s English department and writing program. Her research explores problems faced by historically underserved student populations, as well as writer identity, perceived academic control, and attribution theory. Christi has also served as assistant co-director of the writing program and coordinates its Celebration of Student Writing. In addition to her work as scholar-practitioner, Christi enjoys “homebodying,” anything to do with summertime adventures, and spending time with her husband, Phil, and her two kids, Ally and Micah.