April 2: "I Am the Man"
♫ Music:
WEEK SEVEN—HOLY WEEK
TITLE: THE PASSION OF CHRIST (JOHN 18 & 19)
April 2–April 8
John’s gospel, shining forth the deity of Christ, portrays a God who devised a plan of redemption for a fallen race by sending his treasured Son as an incredible gift of love. All Christ’s life and work, his signs and wonders, sacrifice on the cross and ultimate victory over death were choreographed to bring about the restoration of immortality for all who believe. John emphasized this divine plan of the Father in his account of Christ’s passion.
The evangelist’s imaginative approach in John 18 focuses on Christ’s trial. With high Christology, John depicts the various scenes from the unusual perspective that Christ is in complete control and that everyone else is on trial. Rev. Ron Rolheiser writes, “Pilate is on trial, the Jewish authorities are on trial, the crowds watching are on trial, and we who are hearing the story are on trial. Jesus alone is not on trial, even as his trial is judging everyone else.”
Christ continues to be in control even as he is crucified. John 19 depicts a Christ who is fearless as he carries his own cross, does not cry out in torment or desertion during his physical and spiritual ordeal, and dies in peace with the simple words, “It is finished.” There is an expansive sense of serenity in this narrative, as the work Christ set out to do at his Father’s behest is completed. Death is forever defeated by the Father and Son’s great love for the world.
The passion finale occurs when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus openly acknowledge their devotion to Christ by burying him like a king. Rev. Rolheiser continues, “Those who witnessed the death of Jesus immediately recognized that the kind of love which Jesus manifested in dying created a new energy and freedom in their own lives. . . . In essence, they felt a power flowing out of his death into their own lives that allowed them to live with less fear, with less guilt, with more joy, and with more meaning. This is still true for us today.”
Day 40 - Sunday, April 2
PALM SUNDAY
Title: THE ARREST
Scripture: John 18:1–11
When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Cedron Valley to a place where there was a garden, and they went into it together. Judas who betrayed him knew the place, for Jesus often met his disciples there.
So Judas fetched the guard and the officers which the chief priests and Pharisees had provided for him, and came to the place with torches and lanterns and weapons. Jesus, fully realizing all that was going to happen to him, went forward and said to them, “Who are you looking for?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “I am the man,” said Jesus. (Judas who was betraying him was standing there with the others.)
When he said to them, “I am the man”, they retreated and fell to the ground. So Jesus asked them again, “Who are you looking for?” And again they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
“I have told you that I am the man,” replied Jesus. “If I am the man you are looking for, let these others go.” (Thus fulfilling his previous words, “I have not lost one of those whom you gave me.”)
At this, Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and slashed at the High Priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?”
Poetry & Poet:
“Bereft”
by Robert Frost
Where had I heard this wind before
Change like this to a deeper roar?
What would it take my standing there for,
Holding open a restive door,
Looking down hill to a frothy shore?
Summer was past and the day was past.
Sombre clouds in the west were massed.
Out on the porch's sagging floor,
Leaves got up in a coil and hissed,
Blindly struck at my knee and missed.
Something sinister in the tone
Told me my secret must be known:
Word I was in the house alone
Somehow must have gotten abroad,
Word I was in my life alone,
Word I had no one left but God.
“I AM THE MAN”
From an intimate gathering with his friends, to a garden filled with his enemies, Jesus’ journey to the cross takes a dramatic turn. Yet, lest we forget the true identity of whom our story follows, JB Phillips’ translation of Jesus’ key utterances reminds us that we are not observing the arrest of any mere human being. Jesus Christ is not just a human, rather he is both a human being and the Almighty God of the universe. Jesus is God Incarnate, the God-Man, and Phillips reminds us of this in his translation of Jesus’ utterance, “I am the man.”
Four times in three verses do we read this phrase, which joins together the two components of God Incarnate. “I am” recalls God’s self-revelation in the Unburnt Bush to Moses, “tell them ‘I am’ has sent you” (Ex 3:14). While, “the man” reminds us that Christ is “the Man,” the image of God itself who became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14, 18). So very unlike anything else we come across in daily life, Jesus Christ is not one thing, but two. He is fully God and fully human, yet one person. The divinity of God and the humanity we all share joined together in one individual.
An implication of this reality that is somewhat hard to grasp is that Jesus often does things doubly, in a sense redundantly. At this point in John’s narrative, Jesus stands in the Garden. He stands there by means of his human nature, yet he was already always there by means of his divine nature’s omnipresence. Jesus causes sound waves to hit the ear drums of his captors by means of his human voice, yet he was already always acting on these ears as the divine omnipotent sustainer of the universe. With every utterance, with every breath, with every gesture, God and the Man act.
Yet this also means that the actions of Judas, the soldiers, and by extension even us, have a double effect as well. Judas looked upon “the Man” and looked upon “I am” in flesh made manifest. Judas kissed the human face of “the Man” and got closer to “I am” than even Moses was allowed when near the Unburnt Bush. Judas betrayed “the Man” into the hands of those who would arrest Jesus, and Judas committed treason against the “I am” who continued to hold Judas’ very existence in being.
The same is true for us in our interactions with Jesus. When we look upon the image of the man who once was arrested in a garden, we see God made visible. When we contemplate the beating and the bruising of Christ’s human body, we can understand that even God knew the pain of physical abuse. When we hear of the rejection, betrayal, and abandonment that might make Jesus say, “Word I was in my life alone,” we know that truly God has descended to the depths of human experience, for “I am” is “the man.”
Prayer:
Almighty God, we beseech you graciously to behold your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
–––Collect for Good Friday, Book of Common Prayer 2019
The Revd Dr. James M. Arcadi
Rector, All Souls Anglican Church
Wheaton, Illinois
Guest Professor
Wheaton College Graduate School
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 Translation of the Bible for the 2023 Lent Project:
J.B. Phillips New Testament Translation of the Bible
J.B. Phillips (1906-1982) was well-known within the Church of England for his commitment to making the message of truth relevant to today's world. Phillips' translation of the New Testament brings home the full force of the original message. The New Testament in Modern English was originally written for the benefit of Phillips' youth group; it was later published more widely in response to popular demand. The language is up-to-date and forceful, involving the reader in the dramatic events and powerful teaching of the New Testament. It brings home the message of Good News as it was first heard two thousand years ago.
https://www.biblegateway.com/
About Artwork:
Kiss of Judas
Ilya Glazunov
1989
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 176 cm
Judas Iscariot could have chosen a different signal to identify Jesus to soldiers that night in the Garden of Gethsemane, but a kiss on the cheek almost seems the most tragic. A kiss in the culture of Israel at that time was a common greeting, a simple expression of affection, honor, and respect between friends and companions. Jesus was betrayed not by enemies or outsiders, but by a companion, a friend, and a brother from his inner circle.
About the Artist:
llya Glazunov (1930–2017) was a Soviet and Russian artist from Saint Petersburg. Glazunov's paintings primarily feature historic or religious themes. In the 1960s, he traveled to Italy for the first time to paint the portraits of several famous actors and actresses, including Gina Lollobrigida and Anita Ekberg. He also painted portraits of many political leaders, including Indira Gandhi, Leonid Brezhnev, Urho Kekkonen, Yury Luzhkov, and Andrei Gromyko. In 1978, Glazunov started teaching in the Moscow University of Art, where he founded the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. During the 1970s, he stood against the general plan for a restoration of Moscow that threatened to ruin part of the historic center of Moscow. Together with prominent scientific and cultural figures Glazunov sent a letter of protest to the Politburo sparking wide criticism and eventually the cancellation of the project. Glazunov was one of the main advocates behind the restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and one of the co-founders of the All-Russian Society for Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Glazunov
The St. John Passion is a sacred oratorio by composer Johann Sebastian Bach. During the first winter that Bach was responsible for church music at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, and the St. Nicholas Church, he composed the St. John Passion for the Good Friday Vespers service of 1724. The work is a dramatic representation of the passion, as told in the gospel of John, constructed of dramatically presented recitatives and choruses; complemented by reflective chorales, ariosos, and arias; bookended by an opening chorus and a final one; and followed by a last chorale. Compared to the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion has been described as more extravagant, with an expressive immediacy.
About the Music #1: “Jesus Went with His Disciples” from the album St. John’s Passion, BWV 245/Part 1
Lyrics:
Evangelist:
Jesus went with his disciples over the brook Kidron
where there was a garden which Jesus
and his disciples entered.
But Judas, who betrayed him,
also knew the place,
for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
Now Judas had got
a band of soldiers and officers from
the chief priests and the Pharisees
and he came to the place with lanterns,
torches and weapons.
As Jesus knew everything that was
going to happen to him
he came forward and said unto them:
Jesus:
Who are you looking for?
Evangelist:
They answered him
Chorus
Jesus of Nazareth.
Evangelist:
Jesus said to them
Jesus:
I am he.
Evangelist:
But Judas, who betrayed him,
was standing with them.
When Jesus said to them, “I am he,”
they moved back and fell to the ground.
He asked them a second time:
Jesus:
Who are you looking for?
Evangelist:
And they said:
Chorus:
Jesus of Nazareth.
Evangelist:
Jesus replied:
Jesus:
I have told you that I am he.
If you are looking for me, then let these go!
About the Music #2: “O Generous Love” from the album St. John’s Passion, BWV 245/Part 1
Lyrics:
O generous love, great love,
o love without any limits,
that has brought you along
this way of martyrdom
I live with the world
in pleasure and delight,
and you must suffer.
About the Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque period. He established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Mass in B Minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than three hundred cantatas, of which nearly one hundred cantatas have been lost to posterity. His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach
About the Performers: English Chamber Orchestra and Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir
The English Chamber Orchestra is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world—its discography contains 860 recordings of over 1,500 works by more than four hundred composers. Benjamin Britten was the orchestra’s first patron and a significant musical influence. Recent tours have included the USA, Bermuda, China, Finland, France, Greece, Slovenia, and Austria, as well as concerts across the UK. The orchestra has recorded many successful film soundtracks, including Dario Marianelli’s prize-winning scores for Atonement, Pride and Prejudice, several James Bond soundtracks, and has taken part in a variety of other film and television projects. The ECO is proud of its outreach program, Close Encounters, which takes music education into many nontraditional settings within communities and schools around the UK and abroad.
http://www.englishchamberorchestra.co.uk/about/eco
Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir
Wandsworth School was a boy’s secondary school in Southfields, London, which closed in 1991. From the 1960s it became well-known for its choir. The two hundred strong Wandsworth School Boys' Choir was created and developed by Russell Burgess, director of music at the school from 1954 until 1979. The choir performed at a number of major music festivals, including the Proms and the Aldeburgh Festival, and undertook recordings alongside professional orchestras including the London Symphony, New Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, and the Dutch Concertgebouw. Burgess and the choir had a close association with the composer Benjamin Britten and performed several of his works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandsworth_School
About the Poetry and Poet:
Robert Lee Frost (1874–1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Frequently honored during his lifetime, Frost is the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. He became one of America's rare “public literary figures, almost an artistic institution.” He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. In 1961, Frost was named Poet Laureate of Vermont. In Contemporary Literary Criticism, the editors stated that "Frost's best work explores fundamental questions of existence, depicting with chilling starkness the loneliness of the individual in an indifferent universe."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-frost
About Devotion Author:
The Revd Dr. James M. Arcadi
Rector, All Souls Anglican Church
Wheaton, Illinois
Guest Professor
Wheaton College Graduate School
An Anglican priest and systematic theologian, James Arcadi, writes at the intersection of theology, philosophy, and biblical studies. He has served in parishes in Massachusetts, California, and Illinois and has taught at Gordon College, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of An Incarnational Model of the Eucharist and co-editor of Analyzing Prayer, The T&T Clark Handbook of Analytic Theology, and Love: Divine and Human.