April 8: The Deposition & Burial of Christ
♫ Music:
Day 46 - Saturday, April 8
HOLY SATURDAY
Title: THE DEPOSITION & BURIAL OF CHRIST
Scripture: John 19:31–42
As it was the day of preparation for the Passover, the Jews wanted to avoid the bodies being left on the crosses over the Sabbath (for that was a particularly important Sabbath), and they requested Pilate to have the men’s legs broken and the bodies removed. So the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to him, they saw that he was already dead and they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there was an outrush of blood and water. And the man who saw this is our witness: his evidence is true. (He is certain that he is speaking the truth, so that you may believe as well.) For this happened to fulfill the scripture, ‘Not one of his bones shall be broken.’
And again another scripture says—‘They shall look on him whom they pierced.’
After it was all over, Joseph (who came from Arimathaea and was a disciple of Jesus, though secretly for fear of the Jews) requested Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took his body down. Nicodemus also, the man who had come to him at the beginning by night, arrived bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. So they took his body and wound it round with linen strips with the spices, according to the Jewish custom of preparing a body for burial. In the place where he was crucified, there was a garden containing a new tomb in which nobody had yet been laid. Because it was the preparation day and because the tomb was conveniently near, they laid Jesus in this tomb.
Poetry & Poet:
“All Creation Wept”
by Melissa Range
And not just those disciples
whom he loved, and not just
his mother; for all creation
was his mother, if he shared
his cells with worms and ferns
and whales, silt and spiderweb,
with the very walls of his crypt.
Of all creation, only he slept,
the rest awake and rapt with grief
when love’s captain leapt
onto the cross, into an abyss
the weather hadn’t dreamt.
Hero mine the beloved,
cried snowflakes, cried the moons
of unknown planets, cried the thorns
in his garland, the nails bashed
through his bones, the spikes of dry grass
on the hillside, dotted with water
and with blood—real tears,
and not a trick of rain-light
blinked and blurred onto a tree
so that the tree seems wound
in gold. It was not wound
in gold or rain but in a rapture
of salt, the wood splintering
as he splintered when he wept
over Lazarus, over Jerusalem,
until his sorrow became his action,
his grief his victory—
until his tears became a rupture
in nature, all creation
discipled to his suffering
on the gilded gallows-tree,
the wood which broke beneath the weight
of love, though it had no ears to hear
him cry out, and no eyes to see.
THE DEPOSITION & BURIAL OF CHRIST
It was finished. Where before there was conflict, now there is cooperation. The Jews and Pilate cooperate, the soldiers obeying. Jesus’ disciples and Pilate cooperate. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, cooperates. Everywhere, there is cooperation. And the body of Christ cooperates. Limp as a sleeping child, his flesh yields to those who take him down from the cross, performing the burial functions.
And all cooperate with the law. Everywhere, the law is fulfilled. The Passover is prepared. The bodies are removed from the crosses. Jesus’ body is buried properly. And the Sabbath is kept. Where before there had been so much conflict over the law, and its interpretation, over the Sabbath and how to keep it, now there is only quiet and faithful obedience. And here too the body of Christ cooperates. His flesh, in death, yields to the work of others in faithfulness to the law, his body rests, it does not work.
Everywhere there is cooperation, quiet agreement, quiet obedience. Jew and Gentile, cooperating. Ruler and ruled, cooperating. Soldier and oppressed, cooperating. Pharisees and disciples, cooperating. Everywhere we look in this passage, we see hints, images or vestiges of reconciliation, of parties working in harmony where before there was strife.
Because death brings its own peace. Death has its glimmer of salvation to reflect. The strife is abated, the anger has subsided, the feverish urgency has dissipated. And we are left with… with quiet, with cooperation, with the Sabbath and the Passover being observed. The death of Christ has brought all these things. And God saw that it was good.
But was it very good? No, for these are but the gifts of death—and meager gifts at that. These are the gifts that come with an ending, with cessation. They are merely the symptoms of relief, of closure, of finality. They have none of the joy of a new creation, of completion and fullness of life—only the merest taste of goodness offered by the end of suffering and strife. They are to joy what vinegar is to the quenching of thirst.
For something fuller than this, for God’s joyful affirmation that this is “very good,” we must await another day, another act. Now is the time of the quiet cooperation of grief, the collapse of creation’s groan into grief.
Prayer:
Father, we long for peace. And cooperation. And the following of the law. But not this way. For this is but a dim reflection of what you have to offer us. These are but the gifts of death. We long, Father, for something far greater. A cooperation much more joyful and lively. Help us, please, not to mistake the gifts of death for what you have to offer.
Amen
Dr. Adam Johnson
Associate Professor of Theology
Torrey Honors College
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 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 the Artwork #1:
The Deposition (also called the Bandini Pietà or The Lamentation over the Dead Christ)
Michelangelo
c. 1547–1555
Marble
277 cm
Museo dell’Opera Duomo
Florence, Italy
The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ by Italian high Renaissance artist Michelangelo depicts Jesus being carefully lowered from the cross. The marble sculpture depicts four figures: the body of Jesus, newly taken down from the cross; Nicodemus (or possibly Joseph of Arimathea); Mary Magdalene; and Mary, the mother of Jesus. According to Roman historian Vasari, Michelangelo originally made the sculpture to decorate his own tomb in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Vasari noted that Michelangelo began to work on the sculpture around the age of seventy-two. After eight years of working on it, Michelangelo attempted to destroy the work in a fit of frustration and later it was partially restored to its current composition and condition. Since its inception, the sculpture was plagued by ambiguities and never-ending interpretations, with no apparent straightforward answers available. The face of Nicodemus (or Joseph of Arimathea) under the hood is considered to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deposition_(Michelangelo)
About the Artist #1:
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564), known simply as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the high Renaissance. His work had a major influence on the development of Western art, particularly in relation to the Renaissance notions of humanism and naturalism. He is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the sixteenth century. He sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. Despite holding a low opinion of painting, he also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of art—the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. At the age of seventy-one, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. He transformed the plan of the basilica so that the western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modifications, after his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo
About the Artwork #2:
Jesus in the Sepulcher
James Tissot
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
1886–1894
25.4 x 20.8 cm
Brooklyn Museum
Artist James Tissot’s painting is a unique view of Jesus resting after his death in an unused sepulcher donated by Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the Sanhedrin and a secret follower of Christ. Joseph of Arimathea ensured Jesus received a proper burial by boldly asking Pilate for custody of Jesus' body. Joseph risked his reputation among the religious leaders to give his Lord a proper burial. According to Jewish custom, Jesus' body was anointed with spiced oils of myrrh and aloes—about one hundred Roman pounds (33 kg)—brought by another Sanhedrin member, Nicodemus. In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, the late Pope Benedict XVI observes that "the quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial.” Indeed it was.
About the Artist #2:
James Tissot (1836–1902) was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of fashionable, modern scenes and society life in Paris before moving to London in 1871. A friend and mentor of the impressionist painter Edgar Degas, Tissot also painted scenes and figures from the Bible. In 1885, Tissot had a revival of his Catholic faith, which led him to spend the rest of his life making paintings about biblical events. Moving away from impressionism and postimpressionism, Tissot returned to traditional, representational styles and narratives in his watercolors. To assist in his completion of biblical illustrations, Tissot traveled to the Middle East to make studies of the landscape and people. His series of 365 gouache illustrations showing the life of Christ were shown to critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences in Paris, London, and New York, before being bought by the Brooklyn Museum in 1900. Tissot spent the last years of his life working on paintings of subjects from the Old Testament, which he unfortunately never completed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tissot
https://www.artbible.info/art/biography/james-tissot
About the Music:
“Procession into Hades” from Lamentations and Praises
Lyrics:
Give me this stranger
whom his mother saw dead,
and cried out: “O my Son and God.”
Give me this stranger.
I trust in Your Resurrection.
Even if I am bruised and wounded
and my heart stricken as
I see You as a corpse.
Give me this stranger.
My Son and my God.
Show Your Resurrection.
O my Son and God.
Show Your Resurrection.
About the Composer:
Sir John Tavener (1944–2013) was a British composer known for his extensive output of religious works, including The Whale, The Protecting Veil, Song for Athene, and The Lamb, a choral composition that was included in the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino's film The Great Beauty. Song for Athene, arguably his most well-known work, was sung by the Westminster Abbey Choir at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997. “Procession into Hades” was written specifically for the vocal ensemble Chanticleer, and is one song taken from Tavener's larger work Lamentations and Praises. Tavener’s piece takes its inspiration from the ancient sounds of Greek and Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical music. Its scoring calls for the familiar—timpani, strings, and bass trombone—as well as the exotic, including the Byzantine monastery bell, Tibetan temple bowl, and simantron, a large wooden sounding board struck with a hammer.
About the Performers:
Chanticleer is a full-time all-male classical vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, California. Over the last three decades, they have developed a major reputation for their interpretations of Renaissance music, but they also perform a wide repertoire of jazz, gospel, and other venturesome new music and are widely known as an "Orchestra of Voices.” Chanticleer was named for the "clear singing rooster" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
www.chanticleer.org
About the Poetry and Poet:
Melissa Range is an American poet. She received her B.A. from the University of Tennessee–Knoxville in 1995, an M.F.A. from Old Dominion University in 1998, and an M.T.S. from Emory University in 2005. She is the author of Scriptorium, selected for the National Poetry Series, and Horse and Rider. She has received awards and fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Rona Jaffe Foundation, among others. She currently teaches at Lawrence University and lives in Wisconsin.
https://poets.org/poet/melissa-range
About Devotion Author:
Dr. Adam Johnson
Associate Professor of Theology
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Adam Johnson is a theologian and a professor for the Torrey Honors College who focuses on the doctrine of the atonement, exploring the many ways in which the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ affect the reconciliation of all things to God. His most recent book is The Reconciling Wisdom of God: Reframing the Doctrine of the Atonement. He and his wife, Katrina, have been married nineteen years and have three sons. They love camping and exploring America’s national parks.