March 26: The Blood That Never Loses Its Power
♫ Music:
Day 42 - Tuesday, March 26
Title: THE BLOOD OF JESUS
Scripture: Hebrews 9:11-22 (NKJV)
But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
Poetry & Poet:
“The Agony”
by George Herbert
Philosophers have measured mountains,
Fathomed the depths of seas, of states and kings;
Walked with a staff to heav’n, and traced fountains:
But there are two vast, spacious things,
The which to measure it doth more behove;
Yet few there are that sound them—Sin and Love.
Who would know Sin, let him repair
Unto Mount Olivet; there shall he see
A Man so wrung with pains, that all His hair,
His skin, His garments bloody be.
Sin is that press and vice, which forceth pain
To hunt his cruel food through ev’ry vein.
Who knows not Love, let him assay
And taste that juice which, on the cross, a pike
Did set again abroach; then let him say
If ever he did taste the like,
Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as blood, but I as wine.
THE BLOOD THAT NEVER LOSES ITS POWER
During high school and into college I worked in the surgical ward of a community hospital near my home. On an upper floor, down two hallways were operating rooms where, as an orderly, my job was to scrub walls and floors and operating tables with disinfectant so strong it stung my sinuses. My job was also to go get patients from downstairs, help them onto a cart and wheel them into surgery. Fear in their eyes was something I tried to help with: friendly banter, a joke, a compliment about something, anything. I knew the procedure each would have: it was on their chart. For some it would be horrific. One man I went to get was having his leg removed. Children were the hardest; their fear, as I wheeled them upstairs, was somehow bigger, more difficult to cope with.
I learned that surgery was an entry into the body so shocking to the system that a specific type of doctor, an anesthesiologist, had to take the patient into a kind of sleep so deep that the patient would feel no pain as their body opened to the hands of surgeons.
Blood was a natural part of surgery. The ward had a hefty supply of it; a blood bank on a lower floor had more. The longer the surgery, often the more blood was needed. Too much loss of blood, I learned, could be the mark of desperation in a procedure.
The artwork we see today has stunning visual power. Color psychology would suggest that red has the ability to distract us into certain behaviors. If nothing else, it demands our attention. And the red in this artwork has all the more impact because it was made with actual blood: sangre, as the music says.
Blood is meant to stay inside the body. When we see it out in the open, it can traumatize us. We fear the pain, the suffering that comes when blood is part of any scene: real or fictional.
When The Passion of the Christ” was released in theaters in 2004, some criticized the violence and blood in the scenes showing soldiers beating Jesus—with gory close-ups of the nails in His hands. Yet there is about that film a reality that today’s Scripture reminds us of: Jesus, as our great high priest, brought His own blood as atonement for us in a sacrifice predicted thousands of years before His birth. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission,” we read. Jesus’ suffering for us is something we should reflect on. It hurt. The gashes on our Savior’s back, blood oozing around the thorns: such pain. When we contemplate that horrific separation from The Father as Jesus took upon Himself our sin—we want to turn away, recoil. But when we go to the cross, sitting in its shadow, we get fresh awareness of how beautiful, yet how costly our redemption really was.
Prayer
Jesus, why would you do it? How could you? You were innocent — spotless. It was me who deserved to be under those whips, on that cross. But thank you! Thank you for taking my sin onto you. I was helpless and you knew it. Thank you for your suffering on my behalf, for shedding your precious blood. You knew me, you saw me as you looked out over those mocking crowds. You forgave them, and me. And your love in that moment of agony was something I will never understand — until I see you face to face. Will I even grasp it then? Help me take up your cross today and follow you.
Amen
Dr. Michael A. Longinow
Chair, Department of Digital Journalism and Media
Adviser, Print Journalism; Adviser, The Chimes
Co-Adviser, Media Narrative Projects
Department of Digital Journalism and Media
School of Fine Arts and Communication
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 Art:
URTSBC3
Jordan Eagles
2012
Blood, copper, Plexiglas, UV resin
72 x 60 x 3 in.
Courtesy of and © Jordan Eagles
Exploring the visual power and cultural uses of blood is the central tenet of artist Jordan Eagles' practice, which includes painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and public programming. Created with animal blood from slaughterhouses, his work addresses themes of corporeality, spirituality, and regeneration. The preservation technique permanently retains the organic material’s natural colors, patterns, and textures. When lit, the works become translucent and luminous, reflecting the many layers suspended throughout the resin, revealing the blood’s visceral properties and energy. In a more politically motivated series rendered from donated human blood, the works are utilized to advocate for fair blood donation policies, anti-stigma, and equality.
About the Artist:
Jordan Eagles (b. 1977) is an artist who has been exploring the aesthetics and ethics of blood as an artistic medium since the late 1990s. He lives and works in New York City. Eagles' works are held in numerous private and public collections including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Everson Museum of Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Princeton University Art Museum, the Rose Art Museum, University of Michigan Museum of Art, and Wellcome Collection. Recent exhibitions, installations, and public programs include the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, PA), Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (New York, NY), Museum of the City of New York, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Alabama), the High Line (New York, NY), and Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, CA). Eagles recently collaborated with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on NYC Blood Sure and—in partnership with GMHC and FCB Health—is a co-founder of Blood Equality.
https://jordaneagles.com/about
About the Music in Spanish:
“Melodías De Comunión: Oh La Sangre De Jesús, Lávame En Tu Sangre, Solo De Jesús La Sangre” from the album Sólo a Él
La Lirica: (Spanish)
Qué me puede dar perdón?
Solo de Jesús la sangre;
Y un nuevo corazón?
Solo de Jesús la sangre;
Precioso es el raudal
Que limpia todo mal;
No hay otro manantial,
Solo de Jesús la sangre.
Fue el rescate eficaz,
Solo de Jesús la sangre;
Trajo santidad y paz,
Solo de Jesús la sangre.
Precioso es el raudal
Que limpia todo mal;
No hay otro manantial,
Solo de Jesús la sangre.
Veo para mí salud,
Solo de Jesús la sangre;
Tiene de sanar virtud,
Solo de Jesús la sangre.
Precioso es el raudal
Que limpia todo mal;
No hay otro manantial,
Solo de Jesús la sangre.
Cantaré junto a Sus pies,
Solo de Jesús la sangre;
El Cordero digno es,
Solo de Jesús la sangre.
Precioso es el raudal
Que limpia todo mal;
No hay otro manantial,
Solo de Jesús la sangre.
About the Music in English:
“Communion Medley: Oh the Blood / Wash Me / Nothing but the Blood of Jesus” from the album Only to Him
Lyrics: (English)
Oh the Blood of Jesus
Oh the Blood of Jesus
Oh the Blood of Jesus
It washes white as snow
Oh the Blood of Jesus
Oh the Blood of Jesus
Oh the Blood of Jesus
It washes white as snow
Wash me in the fountain of Your Blood
Nothing else can save me but Your love
Jesus, Savior, Lamb of God art Thou
You may wash me in the fountain of Your blood
Wash me in the fountain of Your blood
Nothing else can save me but Your love
Jesus, Savior, Lamb of God art Thou
Come and wash me in the fountain of Your blood
Oh precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow
No other fount I know
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus
Jesus…
Today’s music is a combination of several well-known hymns that celebrate the sacrament of holy communion and saving grace found through the blood shed by our Savior on the cross. Arranged by Carol Cymbala, Director of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, it most notably features the hymn “Nothing But the Blood” by American preacher Robert T. Lowry (1826–1899).
About the Performers:
The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir is directed by Carol Cymbala, the wife of pastor Jim Cymbala. The 280-voice choir, which for the most part is composed of vocally untrained church members, has recorded three videos, three DVDs, and numerous albums, winning five Dove Awards and six Grammy Awards. Their concert venues in New York City have included Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and the Madison Square Garden Theater. They also had the honor of singing at the Billy Graham Crusades that were held in New York City’s Central Park and Flushing Meadows Park. The recognition that the choir has received has provided them with a wide-open door for ministry in presenting the gospel message through music to people all over the world.
https://www.brooklyntabernacle.org/the-choir
About the Poetry and Poet:
George Herbert (1593–1633) was a Welsh-born English poet, orator, and Anglican priest. Herbert’s poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets and he is recognized as “a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skillful and important British devotional lyricist.” He was born into an artistic and wealthy family and was primarily raised in England. He received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609. He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the university’s public orator and attracted the attention of King James I. Herbert subsequently served in the parliament of England in 1624 and briefly in 1625. After the death of King James I, Herbert gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as the rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Salisbury. Throughout his life, Herbert wrote Christian poetry with a precision of language and a masterful use of imagery. Some of Herbert’s poems have been turned into hymns and are still in use today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert
About the Devotion Writer:
Dr. Michael A. Longinow
Chair, Department of Digital Journalism and Media
Adviser, Print Journalism; Adviser, The Chimes
Co-Adviser, Media Narrative Projects
Department of Digital Journalism and Media
School of Fine Arts and Communication
Biola University
Michael Longinow worked as a general assignment reporter in Morris, Illinois, near Joliet; then he was a political reporter in Carrollton, Georgia, outside Atlanta. His reporting on Taliban refugees in Georgia won him an award for feature-writing. He met his wife during graduate studies in news-editorial journalism at the University of Illinois in Urbana. (She holds a B.A. in journalism from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.) His doctoral dissertation at the University of Kentucky traced the Christian roots of American journalism and the role of media in the development of Christian higher education in the United States between the 1880s and the 1940s. He taught English and Journalism previously at Asbury University and served as adviser to their student newspaper. Michael teaches journalism and media in Biola’s School of Fine Arts & Communication and advises The Chimes, a student-run daily digital news organization and periodic magazine.