March 21: Jesus, the Great Includer
♫ Music:
Day 28 - Tuesday, March 21
Title: JESUS SPEAKS TO THE CROWD THAT USHERED HIM INTO JERUSALEM
Scripture: John 12:20–36
Among those who had come up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They approached Philip with the request, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew went with Philip and told Jesus.
Jesus told them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you truly that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain of wheat; but if it does, it brings a good harvest. The man who loves his own life will destroy it, and the man who hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. If a man wants to enter my service, he must follow my way; and where I am, my servant will also be. And my Father will honor every man who enters my service.
“Now comes my hour of heart-break, and what can I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very purpose that I came to this hour. ‘Father, honor your own name!’” At this there came a voice from Heaven, “I have honored it and I will honor it again!”
When the crowd of bystanders heard this, they said it thundered, but some of them said, “An angel spoke to him.”
Then Jesus said, “That voice came for your sake, not for mine. Now is the time for the judgment of this world to begin, and now will the spirit that rules this world be driven out. As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to myself.” (He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.)
Then the crowd said, “We have heard from the Law that Christ lives forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be ‘lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
At this, Jesus said to them, “You have the light with you only a little while longer. Go on while the light is good, before the darkness come down upon you. For the man who walks in the dark has no idea where he is going. You must believe in the light while you have the light, that you may become the sons of light….”
Poetry & Poet:
“Unless A Grain of Wheat Falls Into the Ground and Dies”
by Malcolm Guite
Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth
And die away from all dry separation,
Die to my sole self, and find new birth
Within that very death, a dark fruition,
Deep in this crowded underground, to learn
The earthy otherness of every other,
To know that nothing is achieved alone
But only where these other fallen gather.
If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,
Then fall upon me with your freeing flail
To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear
As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall
May be more fruitful and my autumn still
A golden evening where your barns are full.
JESUS, THE GREAT INCLUDER
Sometimes God can feel inaccessible. My inability to see or hear from the Eternal One can cause me to feel cut off from His presence. And sometimes, those appointed to usher me into God’s presence can feel more like obstructive gatekeepers, blocking my ability to connect with God through their personal failures or their misrepresentation of what He is like.
In the wake of Jesus’ triumphal entry, the exclusive Pharisees bemoaned the fact that the “whole world” was running after Him. While their gaze may have simply taken in the masses of Jews crying out “Blessed is the King of Israel!”, John’s telling of the story sets their words up to help us notice a group of Greeks seeking connection with Jesus. Like the woman with the flow of blood, these “outsiders” did not approach Him directly, but rather brought their humble request to the disciple that seemed most approachable. Phillip’s Greek name and Galilean background profiled him as more likely to empathize with their situation. Apparently, they were right, because Philip in turn went to Andrew, uncertain whether to carry their request to Jesus or not. How would He respond to Greeks wanting to follow Him, too?
Jesus, the One who perpetually seeks to draw all men to Himself, responded to the Greeks directly, offering them a window into His inner world and an invitation to follow in His footsteps. Speaking as much to Himself as to His would-be Greek followers, Jesus reaffirmed that anyone seeking a life in communion with the Eternal One will first need to relinquish the temporal trappings that hold them back—to “die away from all dry separation,” to “die to my sole self” (Malcom Guite, Unless A Grain of Wheat Falls into the Ground and Dies). Though the moment of His heartbreak tempted Him to plead, “Save me from this hour!”, the eternity of his Oneness with the Father compelled Jesus to cry, “Father, honor Your own name!”
And in response, the Father once again voiced His approval from heaven.
What landed in Jewish ears like the sound of angels, reverberated in Greek ears like the thunder of “father” Zeus. The God Jesus called Father was speaking their language. Though these outsiders had only asked to see Jesus, they got a front-row seat on hearing from His Father. They may have missed out on the Father’s glorious affirmation at the Mount of Transfiguration and Jesus’ intimate struggle in Gethsemane, but they were included in this unique encounter, tailored by an all-inclusive God for their personal benefit.
Sitting in this story, my soul is once again lifted in hopeful pursuit of God. The roadblocks of disappointment and disillusionment shrink before a Love that comes looking for me where I am and invites me to join God where He is. As I walk the path of discipleship, I discover the greatest obstacle to communion with God is not the confusion others have erected, but rather the self-determination I have insisted upon. Without this death to “I,” a new “We” cannot be born. Jesus, the Great Includer, gathers me––along with those I have felt “outsider” to—into the self-giving, other-honoring family of God.
Prayer:
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
–––Book of Common Prayer
Tiffany Clark
Author and Spiritual Director
Assistant Lay Minister at Christ Church
Georgetown, Washington, DC
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:
Exodus
Marc Chagall
1952–1966
Oil on canvas
130 x 162 cm
Private collection
Jewish artist Marc Chagall often incorporated Christian themes and figures in his work. The Jewishness of Jesus has seldom been rendered more clearly in art than in the crucifixion scenes of Chagall. He saw Jesus’ crucifixion not only as the martyrdom of a Jew, but a Jew with whom he identified––“For me, Christ has always symbolized the true type of the Jewish martyr. That is how I understood him in 1908 when I used this figure for the first time.” Chagall renders Christian iconography in a modern style and personalizes the content––integrating elements of Catholicism and abstraction in his work. Raised in a Jewish shtetl before the Russian Revolution, the artist identified with Jesus’ upbringing—his ritual, biblical traditions, and his life under foreign occupiers hostile to Jews.
https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/child-martyr-everyman
About the Artist:
Marc Chagall (1887–1985) was a French Russian artist whose work anticipated the dreamlike imagery of surrealism. Born to a Hasidic Jewish family, Chagall was raised immersed in Jewish culture, folklore, and iconography. After studying art in St. Petersburg, the artist moved to Paris in 1910, where he quickly befriended members of the French artistic avant-garde. Over the course of Chagall's career, his poetic figurative style and deeply personal visual language made him one of the most popular modern artists. While many of his peers pursued abstraction, Chagall's distinction lies in his steady faith in the power of figurative art, one that he maintained while absorbing ideas from movements including fauvism and cubism. In addition to his paintings, Chagall was noted for his vibrant works in stained glass, theatre design, and lithography. Forced to flee Paris during World War II, Chagall lived in the United States for a short period and traveled to Israel before returning to France in 1948. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel, and the Albertina Museum in Vienna, among many others.
https://www.marcchagall.net/
About the Music: “Glorify Thy Name” from the album Acappella Praise
Lyrics:
Father
We love You
We worship and adore You
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
Glorify Thy Name
Glorify Thy Name
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
Jesus
We love You
We worship and adore You
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
In all the earth
Glorify Thy Name
Glorify Thy Name
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
In all the earth
Spirit
We love You
We worship and adore You
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
In all the earth
We will glorify Thy Name
Glorify Thy Name
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
Glorify Thy Name in all the earth
In all the earth
About the Composer:
The lyrics and music were composed by Donna Whobrey Adkins (b.1940), who was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Her mother and father were both church musicians and traveled as gospel singers. After attending Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, and the University of Louisville, she served on the music staff of several churches. This song was produced in 1975 after Adkins had read John 17 and begun to meditate on the prayer of Jesus. She wrote, “I saw in a new way that Jesus was not only praying for His disciples, but for all who would follow Him in years to come. He was actually praying for me! I was impressed that Jesus was placing great emphasis on the unity in the Godhead. I also saw that it was very important to Jesus that the Father’s name be glorified, and that there seemed to be a correlation between glorifying the Father’s name and achieving unity. In that same moment I was inspired to sit at the piano and write ‘Glorify Thy Name.’”
https://hymnstudiesblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/03/glorify-thy-name/
https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/d/donna-adkins
About the Performers: The Maranatha! Singers
Maranatha! Music is a Christian music record label which was founded as a nonprofit ministry of Calvary Chapel in 1971. In the early 1970s Calvary Chapel was home to more than fifteen musical groups that were representative of the Jesus movement. Maranatha! Music aimed to popularize and promote a new, folk-rock style of hymns and worship songs influenced by the Jesus People. The label's first release, in 1971, was a compilation of various artists entitled The Everlastin' Living Jesus Music Concert. The first release is also known as Maranatha! 1 as it became part of what would be called the Maranatha Series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maranatha!_Music
https://www.maranathamusic.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Malcolm Guite (b. 1957) is a poet, author, Anglican priest, teacher, and singer-songwriter based in Cambridge, England. He has published six collections of poetry: Saying the Names, The Magic Apple Tree, Sounding the Seasons: Poetry for the Christian Year, The Singing Bowl, Waiting on the Word, and the recently released Parable and Paradox: Sonnets on the Sayings of Jesus and Other Poems. Rowan Williams and Luci Shaw have both acclaimed his writing, and his Antiphons appeared in Penguin’s Best Spiritual Writing, 2013. Guite’s theological works include What Do Christians Believe? and Faith, Hope, and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination. Guite is a scholar of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and the British poets, and serves as the Bye-Fellow and chaplain at Girton College at the University of Cambridge, while supervising students in English and theology. He lectures widely in England and the USA, and in 2015 he was the CCCA visionary-in-residence at Biola University. Guite plays in the Cambridge rock band Mystery Train and his albums include The Green Man and Dancing Through the Fire.
https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Guite
About Devotion Author:
Tiffany Clark, M.A., I.C.S
Author and Spiritual Director
Assistant Lay Minister at Christ Church
Georgetown, Washington, DC
Tiffany Clark serves as Assistant Lay Minister at Christ Church, Georgetown in Washington, DC. She is also a spiritual director and a former teacher of spiritual formation with DAI. Tiffany completed her MAICS through Biola’s Chiang Mai Extension Center during the twenty years she and her husband served overseas, primarily in South Asia