March 8: Come to Me & Drink
♫ Music:
Day 15 - Wednesday, March 8
Title: COME TO ME & DRINK
Scripture: John 7:1–44
After this, Jesus moved about in Galilee but decided not to do so in Judea since the Jews were planning to take his life. A Jewish festival, “The feast of the tabernacles”, was approaching and his brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see what you are doing, for nobody works in secret if he wants to be known publicly. If you are going to do things like this, let the world see what you are doing.” For not even his brothers had any faith in him. Jesus replied by saying, “It is not yet the right time for me, but any time is right for you. You see, it is impossible for you to arouse the world’s hatred, but I provoke hatred because I show the world how evil its deeds really are. No, you go up to the festival; I shall not go up now, for it is not yet time for me to go.” And after these remarks he remained where he was in Galilee.
Later, after his brothers had gone up to the festival, he went up himself, not openly but as though he did not want to be seen. Consequently, the Jews kept looking for him at the festival and asking “Where is that man?” And there was an undercurrent of discussion about him among the crowds. Some would say, “He is a good man”, others maintained that he was not, but that he was “misleading the people”. Nobody, however, spoke openly about him for fear of the Jews.
But at the very height of the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began teaching. The Jews were amazed and remarked, “How does this man know all this—he has never been taught?”
Jesus replied to them, “My teaching is not really mine but comes from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know whether my teaching is from God or whether I merely speak on my own authority. A man who speaks on his own authority has an eye for his own reputation. But the man who is considering the glory of God who sent him is a true man. There can be no dishonesty about him.
“Did not Moses give you the Law? Yet not a single one of you obeys the Law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
The crowd answered, “You must be mad! Who is trying to kill you?”
Jesus answered them, “I have done one thing and you are all amazed at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it came from Moses originally but from your forefathers), and you will circumcise a man even on the Sabbath. If a man receives the cutting of circumcision on the Sabbath to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, why should you be angry with me because I have made a man’s body perfectly whole on the Sabbath? You must not judge by the appearance of things but by reality!”
Some of the people of Jerusalem, hearing him talk like this, were saying, “Isn’t this the man whom they are trying to kill? It’s amazing—he talks quite openly and they haven’t a word to say to him. Surely our rulers haven’t decided that this really is Christ! But then, we know this man and where he comes from—when Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
Then Jesus, in the middle of his teaching, called out in the Temple, “So you know me and know where I have come from? But I have not come of my own accord; I am sent by one who is true and you do not know him! I do know him, because I come from him and he has sent me here.”
Then they attempted to arrest him, but actually no one laid a finger on him because the right moment had not yet come. Many of the crowd believed in him and kept on saying, “When Christ comes, is he going to show greater signs than this man?”
The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about him, and they and the chief priests (of the Temple) sent officers to arrest him. Then Jesus said, “I shall be with you only a little while longer and then I am going to him who sent me. You will look for me then but you will never find me. You cannot come where I shall be.”
This made the Jews say to each other, “Where is he going to hide himself so that we cannot find him? Surely he’s not going to our refugees among the Greeks to teach Greeks? What does he mean when he says, ‘You will look for me and you will never find me’ and ‘You cannot come where I shall be’?”
Then, on the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If any man is thirsty, he can come to me and drink! The man who believes in me, as the scripture says, will have rivers of living water flowing from his inmost heart.” (Here he was speaking about the Spirit which those who believe in him would receive. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.) When they heard these words, some of the people were saying, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is Christ!” But some said, “And does Christ come from Galilee? Don’t the scriptures say that Christ will be descended from David, and will come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So the people were in two minds about him—some of them wanted to arrest him, but so far no one laid hands on him.
Poetry & Poet:
“Primary Wonder”
by Denise Levertov
Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.
COME TO ME & DRINK
Ouch! I wasn’t expecting the hit. I didn’t have time to take cover as her condescending words, downward head tilt and half eye-roll bruised not just my heart but my belly like a fist to the stomach.
I thought she knew me. I thought she understood. I expected she would join me in celebrating what God was doing. But instead, she doubted God’s work in my life, along with the miracles that confirmed it.
I haven’t recovered quickly from the blow.
How then did Jesus do it? Amid the resistance coming at him from all sides, how did Jesus show up to the Feast? (Tabernacles was the last of three great annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the only one in which the nations were invited to participate.)
With his brothers mocking him, and the Jewish leaders plotting his arrest, and the people whispering their judgments, he boldly took his place before them.
Undaunted by the contempt of a sated crowd, Jesus stood and cried out, seeking anyone who was thirsty for more than what the world was pouring.
To his people gathered there and those visiting from the nations, the one who held our cup of condemnation to his lips offered his bottomless cup of living water.
The one whose body was soon to receive our blows pleaded with any who believed in him to come and experience deep within their bellies his river of life.
Centuries later, the arid wilderness of this age supplies us with modern advances that promise communication and connection, like plastic water bottles on-the-go and rubber hose sprinklers carefully aimed to green up the dull brown of our existence. Yet, we thirst.
Today’s poet acknowledges that troubles distract us, and sometimes “days pass when [we] forget the mystery…” We forget to drink from his river.
The word for river in this scripture could have been translated torrent. It is the idea of a violent gushing or an overwhelming flood. There are no rations here. This water of life is not measured. It is an unceasing abundance. Our thirst can never drain God’s source. There is enough because he is enough, and much more.
His cry still echoes through the ages. His shout can be heard down the corridors of the centuries. Pause and listen.
Step away from the crowd. Shake off their doubt that hurts and hinders you. Look to Jesus and believe. Come and drink freely. It’s paid for. He covered it. And no polite sipping, please. Guzzle! Let his love flood in and quench the thirst that nothing else can ever satisfy.
Prayer
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we believe, we come, and we drink. Hour by hour you, and only you, sustain us. Thank you for drinking our cup of death so we can drink from your eternal river of life. Lead us in your grace and truth to extend to others a cup of cold water from the overflow of your Spirit deep within. Love and glory to your name, O Hallowed One!
Amen.
Kay Vinci, M.Div.
Writer and editor
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:
Sprinkler
Lynn Aldrich
2017
Garden hoses, brass hose ends, irrigation hoses, fuel hoses, aluminum, and steel
154.9 x 160.0 x 160.0 cm
Artist Lynn Aldrich creates sculptures, wall constructions, and installations using a variety of ordinary, mass-produced objects and materials. Signature works assembled from garden hoses, rain downspouts, and plastic sponges are clear references to the world of everyday consumption and utility, while other series explore the aesthetic possibilities of accumulated craft materials, fabrics, ink pads, office supplies, drywall, and plastic panels. Concerned with formal strategy, color choices, and shifts in scale, Aldrich is inspired by the simplicity and directness of minimalism but refocuses the tenets of formal reduction through a complex layering of metaphor. Metaphors associated with water are combined in this work by Aldrich with a reminder to conserve what we increasingly recognize as precious but precarious—the world’s freshwater supply and life-supporting oceans. Unlike ordinary water which only quenches our physical needs, God’s living water satisfies our spiritual thirst for him.
https://www.artspace.com/lynn-aldrich/sprinkler
About the Artist:
Lynn Aldrich (b. 1944) is a Los Angeles artist who employs meticulous craftsmanship to transform common consumer materials into artworks that reflect what she views as the “excess, spectacle and artificiality” of Los Angeles culture. Often filled with humor and playfulness, many pieces have an undeniable subtext of ecological concern, accompanied by a spiritual longing. Her sculptures usually mimic phenomena in nature through artificial means—water and waves, flora and fauna, skies and galaxies are all rendered in plastic, vinyl, fake fur, or foam. This visual and conceptual tension between the natural and synthetic reminds us of the precarious condition of the human-made world and our own temporality. Aldrich received a B.A. in English literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a B.A. in Fine Art from California State University, Northridge; and an M.F.A. from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Aldrich has exhibited widely and internationally. She has received the J. Paul Getty Individual Artist Fellowship (2000), a United States Artists Project Award (2013), and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2014). Her work is included in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Neiman Marcus, Inc. Dallas, TX; Neuberger Berman, Inc., New York, NY; and the New York Public Library.
https://www.edwardcella.com/artist/Lynn_Aldrich/biography/
http://www.denkgallery.com/artists/lynn-aldrich
https://lynnaldrich.com/home.html
About the Music: “Come to Me and Drink” from the album John: The Misunderstood Messiah
Lyrics: (from John 7:37–38 and Isaiah 12:3)
Violent men were lurking
In the midst the festive crowd
Who'd made a solemn vow to take His life
But Jesus stood up unafraid
Of all that they might do
Of angry fists and cruel stones, of sharp and bloody knives
The tabernacle feast had reached
Its last and greatest day
And there was dancing, singing songs of praise
They celebrated Moses and the rock that had been struck
The crowd that filled the temple court at last heard Jesus say:
If anyone is thirsty let him come to Me and drink
The living water comes from deep inside
To everyone who will believe an innerspring will flow
Welling up into eternal life
With joy you will draw water from salvation's well
You will trust and never be afraid
The Lord will be your strength and song
And you will proclaim
Shout out loud and sing for joy
The glory of His name
If you know that you are thirsty
If your heart and soul are dry
And deep within you're bearing as a stone
Hear His fearless promise
Spoken every day anew
For all who thirst, who are afraid, lost and all alone:
If anyone is thirsty let him come to Me and drink
The living water comes from deep inside
To everyone who will believe an innerspring will flow
Welling up into eternal life
If anyone is thirsty let him come to Me and drink
The living water comes from deep inside
To everyone who will believe an innerspring will flow
Welling up into eternal life
About the Composer/Performer:
In a career that spans over thirty years, Michael Card (b. 1957) has recorded over thirty-one music albums, authored or co-authored over twenty-four books, hosted a radio program, and written for a wide range of magazines. He has penned such favorite songs as “El Shaddai,” “Love Crucified Arose,” and “Immanuel.” He has sold over four million albums and written over nineteen number-one hits. Card’s original goal in life was to simply and quietly teach the Bible and proclaim Christ. Although music provided him the opportunity to share insight gained through his extensive scholarly research, he felt limited by having to condense the vast depth and richness of Scripture into three-minute songs. This prompted him to begin to write articles and books on topics that captured his imagination through conversations with Bible teachers, friends, and contemporaries in both Christian music and the academic community. Card travels frequently each year, teaching and sharing his music at Biblical Imagination Conferences, and facilitating the annual Life of Christ Tours to Israel.
https://www.michaelcard.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Denise Levertov (1923–1997) was educated entirely at home and claimed to have decided to become a writer at the age of five. When she was twelve, she sent some of her poetry to T. S. Eliot, who responded by encouraging her to continue writing. At age seventeen, she had her first poem published in Poetry Quarterly. Her poems of the 1950s won her widespread recognition and her book With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads (1959) established her as one of the great American poets. Levertov went on to publish more than twenty volumes of poetry, and was also the author of four books of prose. Levertov’s conversion to Christianity in 1984 was the impetus for her religious poetry. In 1997, she brought together thirty-eight poems from seven of her earlier volumes in The Stream & the Sapphire, a collection intended, as Levertov explains in the foreword to the collection, to "trace my slow movement from agnosticism to Christian faith, a movement incorporating much doubt and questioning as well as affirmation."
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/denise-levertov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Levertov
About Devotion Author:
Kay Vinci, M.Div.
Writer and editor
Over the years, Kay has enjoyed writing for both adults and children. She has written for a variety of publications including magazines, journals, and a self-published children’s story. Vinci graduated in 2011 with her M.Div. from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI. She enjoyed being part of the teaching team of her local church and developed a children's summer day camp curriculum. Retired now, her favorite role is being grandma to her three-year-old grandson Levi.