March 16: Jesus Wept
♫ Music:
Day 23 - Thursday, March 16
Title: JESUS WEPT
Scripture: John 11:17–37
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the grave four days. Now Bethany is quite near Jerusalem, rather less than two miles away, and a good many of the Jews had come out to see Martha and Mary to offer them sympathy over their brother’s death. When Martha heard that Jesus was on his way, she went out and met him, while Mary stayed in the house.
“If only you had been here, Lord,” said Martha, “my brother would never have died. And I know that, even now, God will give you whatever you ask from him.”
“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus replied to her.
“I know,” said Martha, “that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
“I myself am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus told her. “The man who believes in me will live even though he dies, and anyone who is alive and believes in me will never die at all. Can you believe that?”
“Yes, Lord,” replied Martha. “I do believe that you are Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world.” Saying this she went away and called Mary her sister, whispering, “The master’s here and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this she sprang to her feet and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet arrived at the village itself, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who had been condoling with Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and go out, they followed her, imagining that she was going to the grave to weep there.
When Mary met Jesus, she looked at him, and then fell down at his feet. “If only you had been here, Lord,” she said, “my brother would never have died.”
When Jesus saw Mary weep and noticed the tears of the Jews who came with her, he was deeply moved and visibly distressed.
“Where have you put him?” he asked.
“Lord, come and see,” they replied, and at this Jesus himself wept.
“Look how much he loved him!” remarked the Jews, though some of them asked, “Could he not have kept this man from dying if he could open that blind man’s eyes?”
Poetry & Poet:
“Raven Days”
by Andrew Hudgins
These are what my father calls
our raven days. The phrase is new
to me. I’m not sure what it means.
If it means we’re hungry, it’s right.
If it means we live on carrion,
it’s right. It’s also true
that every time we raise a voice
to sing, we make a caw and screech,
a raucous keening for the dead,
of whom we have more than our share.
But the raven’s an ambiguous bird.
He forbodes death, and yet he fed
Elijah in the wilderness
and doing so fed all of us.
He knows his way around a desert
and a corpse, and these are useful skills.
JESUS WEPT
We enter the world crying. We take a breath, and we wail. We mourn our arrival into the world of air. And even though we are weeping, when those who love us hear this sound, they rejoice.
But when we leave the land of breath, those who love us cry. [JS1] They weep at our departure, at our airlessness. Yet we ourselves no longer weep as we go, for in Christ, we have entered the eternal world where all tears are wiped away. We have entered into joy.
But crying is a human activity and mourning is a human capacity. Even though our tears are often culturally regulated—when/where/over whom we cry is something our societies teach us—we all weep over our loved ones’ deaths. And as we live, we cry, we cry, we cry.
“Jesus wept.” The dual nature of our Lord Jesus Christ is so clearly shown here: He is fully human; He is fully God. Humanly, He is distressed by His friends’ grief and He cries over His friend’s death, and then, divinely…He raises Lazarus from the dead! I treasure John’s detail that tells us that Jesus was visibly moved by Mary and Martha’s grief. God cares when we cry: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Ps. 56:8 ESV[JS2] ). Our art today shows a river of bottles flowing through the cathedral and then stored carefully on the wall—God does not ignore your tears, He saves them.
We save things that are precious to us, things that matter to those we love. God saves your tears. You matter to God; He is for you (Ps. 56:9!).
Jesus’ tears matter to me. I am so moved that He cried over His friend’s death. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, took time to grieve, to mourn. Crying was a worthwhile use of His time on earth! That blows me away. Surely, He knew that He would raise Lazarus, that He Himself would be raised, yet He joined Mary and Martha and their friends in weeping. Mourning is godly behavior. It is human behavior. Jesus didn’t just share with them in their mourning, He joined them. He joins us; His essence is human essence, and He participates in our grief. We are not alone as we cry.
And I am also encouraged by the fact that busy Martha got it right this time in her exchange with Jesus. Even in her deep grief, Martha is a woman of faith: she believes that her friend is God, the Messiah, and she tells Him so. And it is to Martha that He says these blessed words that our music sings to us: “I myself am the resurrection and the life, the man who believes in me will live even though he dies.” Yet it is after this conversation that Jesus weeps over Lazarus’ death—“precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” Psalm 116 assures us (ESV).
The watching crowd, who had come to support the sisters, turned to criticizing Jesus. While they grudgingly granted Him the power to heal, they couldn’t lift up their heads high enough to imagine resurrection. They did not have Martha’s faith. I’m left wondering where you and I fall on this spectrum. [JS3] What can’t I lift up my head high enough to see, what are you unable to hope for that Jesus has promised? What do we do with our as-yet-unanswered prayers? (The sisters had called for Jesus while Lazarus was still alive, after all! They waited past the point of hope for His answer.) What do we do when loved ones die? Be like Jesus: weep.
So here, in this vale of tears, we cry. Our tears overtake us. But our tears are temporary, they belong to this Earth, for joy comes in the morning. Tears here, joy there.
“He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Is. 25:8 ESV). “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4 ESV).
Prayer:
Be so near us, Lord Jesus, as we grieve, and open the eyes of our hearts so we discern Your [JS4] presence and Your care. Help us to not sin as we suffer. May we know You better, even as we weep. We look forward to the day when all tears are wiped away, when we see You face-to-face, and when we understand how dear we are to You. We do love You, Lord.
Amen.
Dr. Betsy Barber
Associate Director of the Institute for Spiritual Formation
Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation and Psychology
Talbot School of Theology
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 Art #1:
A Thousand Bottles of Tears
Deborah Tompsett
2015
1,000 unique hand-thrown clay bottles
Chichester Cathedral
Chichester, West Sussex, England
In 2015 artist Deborah Tompsett created a unique installation at Chichester Cathedral using one thousand unique hand-thrown clay vessels. Each pot was formed from a heart-sized lump of clay which represents individuals from infants to adults. Each pot was then filled with handwritten messages and refired. The vessels are meant to recall the ancient tradition of tear bottles which served as reminders of grief and love—“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (Psalm 56:8, New Living Translation). Tompsett’s installation received wide acclaim from both the local community and visitors from across the world. Her work was judged overall winner in the 2018 Chaiya Art Awards, the UK’s biggest art awards, exploring spirituality through the visual arts.
https://deborahtompsett.co.uk/tear-bottles/chichester-cathedral
https://www.annclifford.co.uk/blog/a-thousand-bottles-of-tears
About the Artist #1:
Deborah Tompsett is a Sussex-based artist whose work encompasses ceramics, sculpture, and painting. She is strongly committed to working within her community, and collaborating with schools, care homes, and intergenerational groups to create works that reflect the uniqueness of each setting and its participants. Her personal artwork continues this engagement with the world and the people around her—their contribution often extends and enriches the narrative of each piece. Tompsett embraces the accidental and experimental in the process of making art and uses the visual and tactile language of texture, color, and light to explore the idea of “the poetry of living space” (Mary Abbott).
https://deborahtompsett.co.uk/about
About the Artwork #2:
Valley of Tears
Heidi Petersen
Unknown date
17 x 22 in.
Composed of a vintage wood cabinet and glass bottles of differing sizes and shapes
About the Artist #2:
Heidi Petersen (b. 1971) is an assemblage artist who currently works in Oregon City, Oregon. In 1993 she received a B.A. in drawing and painting from Biola University. Petersen finds inspiration for her art through new juxtapositions of objects after they’re removed from their original settings. “A piece of art often comes about from the surprise of a striking image,” she says. “The sort of ‘A-ha!’ moment you get when you see that relationship emerge.” Her assemblage pieces in particular combine a nuanced sense of the “visibility” of things and their ability to shed conventional associations, creating new meanings and associations.
(Adapted from an essay by artist artist Duncan Simcoe, 2004)
http://www.heidipetersen.com/
Music #1: “I Am the Resurrection” from the album William Croft: Burial Service & Anthems
Lyrics #1:
I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord:
he that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live:
and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die.
I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shalt stand
at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God:
whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
We brought nothing into this world,
and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Composer #1:
William Croft (1678–1727) was an English composer and organist. He was educated at the Chapel Royal under the instruction of English Baroque composer John Blow, and remained there until 1698. Two years after his departure, he became organist of St. Anne's Church, Soho, and he became an organist at the Chapel Royal. In 1708, Croft succeeded Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey. Croft composed works for the funeral of Queen Anne (1714) and for the coronation of King George I (1715). In 1724, Croft published Musica Sacra, a collection of church music, the first such collection to be printed in the form of a score. It contains a Burial Service, which may have been written for Queen Anne or for the Duke of Marlborough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Croft
Performers #1:
The Sidney Sussex College Choir are the inheritors of an illustrious musical tradition dating back to the foundation of Sidney Sussex College in 1596. Since the appointment of Dr. David Skinner as the Osborn Director of Music, the choir has developed a specialism in Renaissance music, creating a niche in making professional recordings for specialist markets, including museums, art galleries, and national libraries. Recent tour destinations include Malaysia, Singapore, Rome, and the United States.
https://www.sid.cam.ac.uk/choir
Music #2: “I Am the Resurrection” from the album Songs of Worship 1 & 2
Lyrics #2:
I am the Resurrection,
I am Eternal Life
All who believe in me
will never die.
I am the Resurrection,
Eternal Life
All who believe in me
will live forever.
I am the Resurrection
And the life
And I ask you now
Do you believe in me?
I am the Son of God
The living Christ
Who lays down his life
For the world.
I am the Resurrection,
I am Eternal Life
All who believe in me
will never die. (2x)
You should not be surprised
When all the world despises you
For the world despises the Son of God
And he has been raised up
I am the Resurrection,
I am Eternal Life
All who believe in me
will never die. (3x)
I am the Resurrection,
Eternal Life
All who believe in me
will live forever.
I am the Resurrection,
I am Eternal Life
All who believe in me
will never die.
I am the Resurrection,
Eternal Life
All who believe in me will live forever.
All who believe in me will live forever.
Composer/Performers #2:
John Michael Talbot and Choir
John Michael Talbot (b. 1954) is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, author, and founder of a monastic community known as the Brothers and Sisters of Charity. His songs were the first by a Catholic artist to cross well-defined boundaries and gain acceptance by Protestant listeners. Talbot won the Dove Award for Worship Album of the Year for his album Light Eternal with producer and longtime friend Phil Perkins. Today, Talbot is one of the most active monk/ministers alive, traveling over nine months per year throughout the world inspiring and renewing the faith of Christians of all denominations through sacred music, teaching, and motivational speaking.
https://johnmichaeltalbot.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Andrew Hudgins (b. 1951) is an American poet raised in Alabama. He earned a B.A. at Huntingdon College, an M.A. at the University of Alabama, and an M.F.A. at the University of Iowa. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry and essays, many of which have received high critical praise, such as The Never-Ending: New Poems (1991), which was a finalist for the National Book Awards; After the Lost War: A Narrative (1988), which received the Poets' Prize; and Saints and Strangers (1985), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is currently the humanities distinguished professor of English at Ohio State University. He previously taught at Baylor University and the University of Cincinnati.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Hudgins
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/andrew-hudgins
About Devotion Author:
Dr. Betsy Barber
Associate Director of the Institute for Spiritual Formation
Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation and Psychology
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
Betsy Barber has a clinical practice with specialization in the soul care and mental health of Christian workers. She teaches courses in spiritual formation, soul care, missions, maturity, and marital relationships. She has particular interest in spiritual formation and supervision of students in spiritual direction and mentoring. She worked with her husband as a missionary in Bible translation and counseling ministries for twenty-four years. In addition to being a licensed clinical psychologist, she has background and training in spiritual direction.