March 27: Our Anchor of Hope in the Depths
♫ Music:
Day 43 - Wednesday, March 27
Title: CHRIST’S PASSION
Scripture: Hebrews 5:5-10 (NKJV)
So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Poetry & Poet:
“Gethsemane”
by Mary Oliver
The grass never sleeps.
Or the roses.
Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until
morning.
Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.
The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,
and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,
and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.
Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did,
maybe the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and
didn’t move, maybe
the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement,
lay still and waited, wild awake.
Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut,
that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be a part of the story.
OUR ANCHOR OF HOPE IN THE DEPTHS
On this Wednesday of Holy Week, we commemorate Jesus at Gethsemane. Hebrews 5:5-10 provides our starting point, and it’s a view from glory. Jesus is the exalted Melchizedekian High Priest. Out of his obedient, excruciating suffering he was perfected, becoming the author of our eternal salvation. Let’s allow this reality to serve as our fixed anchor, tethering us to hope as we now descend into the depths of Jesus’s anguish.
Composer Arvo Pärt’s choral arrangement is a fitting soundtrack for Gethsemane, the foreboding melody rising from the valley of despair, deep voices ringing out the pleas of Psalm 130, Out of the depths I cry… Lord, hear my voice. Jesus prays with “vehement cries and tears” to “Him who is able to save Him from death” (Heb 5:7). And when he pleads with the Father—Isn’t there any other way?!—we know that the answer will be No.
Artist Paolo Veronese depicts the height of Jesus’s agony as told by Luke. Prior to this moment, Jesus entreats his best friends to stay awake with him, declaring, I am overcome with sorrow to the point of death. What an alarming thing to say! How do they respond? In the painting, Jesus’ slumbering friends are darkened figures barely perceptible in the background. If that had been me, I would have liked it that way. No one likes to admit failure. As Mary Oliver so beautifully contrasts in her poem, all of nature stood vigil with Jesus, awake in his greatest hour of need, while the disciples, “the dear bodies,” were “slumped and eye-shut.” Have you ever failed so profoundly that it caused you to weep? Oliver imagines the disciples’ tears over how they deserted their friend in his distress, now “knowing this too must be a part of the story.” At Gethsemane we perceive how abandoned Jesus must have felt.
In the midst of this isolation an angel arrives, captured by Veronese in visionary light. Sometimes angels come on the back end of suffering, like those who honored Jesus’ obedience after his temptation. But this angel comes to Jesus while in anguish. Jesus’ plight has not changed one bit, and it’s about to get worse. He is divinely propped up so that he can persist in agony, his prayers now perspiring with drops of blood. Jesus accepts his cup of suffering, with just enough strength to carry him into the next moment.
Have you ever felt stripped of the internal fortitude needed for the season you were in? Like Jesus, have you ever felt abandoned, like no one had your back? Have you ever been so overwhelmed with sorrow that you thought you might die? Have you wondered if things would ever get better?
You must know that you’re not alone. Jesus was designated our Great High Priest because he said yes to God on that day. His obedience unto death overcame death itself! He lives today to tell us that all is not lost, that he is for us. By faith we can be tethered to Him, our anchor of hope.
Prayer
Jesus, Son of God, our Great High Priest, help us to hold firm to our faith. We are grateful that you empathize with our weaknesses and forgive our failures to be faithful. God, help us to approach your throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Amen.
––– Prayer inspired by Heb 4:14-16
Dr. Jeannine Hanger
Assistant Professor of New Testament
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 Art:
The Agony in the Garden
Veronese (Paolo Caliari)
1582–3
Oil on canvas
108 × 180 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera
Milan, Italy
The crucial part of the representation is located on one side of the canvas, with the figures in the foreground picked out from the darkness by the light of the Holy Spirit. Veronese focused on the human side of Jesus, depicting a time when, on becoming aware of the passion awaiting him, Jesus collapsed into the arms of an angel. The atmosphere is visionary––set in the deep shadow, the angel’s tunic reflects the glare of a shaft of light. The artist’s evocative handling of light, intensifying the scene’s dramatic tone, points to the influence of fellow Renaissance artist Tintoretto.
About the Artist:
Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), along with Titian and Tintoretto, was part of the “great trio that dominated Venetian painting” during the Italian Renaissance of the late sixteenth century. He was trained in the mannerist style, but later developed his own style with a brighter and more vibrant color palette, as can be seen in Christ and the Centurion. He painted numerous walls, ceilings, and altarpieces for churches, as well as portraits and scenes from mythology. His large-scale feast scenes painted for monasteries in Venice and Verona are his most famous works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Veronese
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/paolo-veronese
About the Music:
“De Profundis (Psalm 130)” from the album Ikon
De Profundis refers to Psalm 130, from its opening words in Latin. This is the setting that Arvo Pärt composed in 1980.
Lyrics: (Latin)
De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine;
Domine, exaudi vocem meam.
Fiant aures tuae intendentes
in vocem deprecationis meae.
Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine,
Domine, quis sustinebit?
Quia apud te propitiatio est,
et propter legem tuam.
Sustinui te, Domine,
sustinuit anima mea in verbo eius;
speravit anima mea in Domino
a custodia matutina usque ad noctem
speret Israel in Domino,
quia apud Dominum misericordia,
et copiosa apud eum redemptio.
Et ipse redimet Israel
ex omnibus iniquitatibus eius.
Lyrics: (English translation)
From the depths of despair, O Lord,
I call for your help.
Hear my cry, O Lord.
Pay attention to my prayer.
Lord, if you kept a record of our sins,
who, O Lord, could ever survive?
But you offer forgiveness,
that we might learn to fear you.
I am counting on the Lord;
yes, I am counting on him.
I have put my hope in his word.
I long for the Lord
more than sentries long for the dawn,
yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.
O Israel, hope in the Lord;
for with the Lord there is unfailing love.
His redemption overflows.
He himself will redeem Israel
from every kind of sin.
About the Composer:
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt, an Orthodox Christian, has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. Since 2013, Pärt has had the distinction of being the most performed contemporary composer in the world. Although the recipient of numerous awards and honors from nations around the globe, the humble maestro strives to keep out of the limelight, endeavoring to give God credit for his many accomplishments. The newly established International Arvo Pärt Centre, located in the Estonian village of Laulasmaa, includes a research institute, an education and music center, a museum, a publishing facility, and an archive of Pärt's works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvo_P%C3%A4rt
https://www.universaledition.com/arvo-part-534
About the Performers:
The Sixteen with Harry Christophers, conductor
The Sixteen is a UK-based music ensemble, hallmarked by its tonal richness, expressive intensity, and compelling collective artistry. The Sixteen’s choir and period-instrument orchestra stands today among the world’s greatest ensembles; they are peerless interpreters of Renaissance, baroque, and modern choral music. The Sixteen arose from its founder/conductor Harry Christophers’ formative experience as a cathedral chorister and choral scholar. Since 2000, their annual Choral Pilgrimage has brought the ensemble to Britain’s great cathedrals and abbeys to perform sacred music in the spaces for which it was originally conceived. The Sixteen makes regular visits to major concert halls and festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.
https://thesixteen.com/about-us/
Harry Christophers (b. 1953) is an English conductor. He was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and later went to the King's School, Canterbury, where he played clarinet in the orchestra. He has cited his childhood musical influences as the Rolling Stones, Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky, and Jethro Tull. Christophers became an academic clerk at Magdalen College, Oxford, studying classics for two years before beginning his musical career. He spent six years as a lay vicar at Westminster Abbey. In 1979 Christophers founded the vocal ensemble The Sixteen, recognized for their work in Renaissance, baroque, and twentieth-century music. In 2008, he was named the artistic director of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, Massachusetts (2009–2016). Christophers has conducted numerous productions for Lisbon Opera and English National Opera.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Christophers
About the Poetry and Poet:
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) is an American poet who has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Oliver’s poetry is grounded in memories of Ohio and her adopted home of New England. Influenced by both Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, she is known for her clear and poignant observances of the natural world. Her poems are filled with imagery from her daily walks near her home: shore birds, water snakes, the phases of the moon, and humpback whales. Oliver has been compared to Emily Dickinson, with whom she shares an affinity for solitude and inner monologues. “Mary Oliver’s poetry is an excellent antidote for the excesses of civilization,” wrote one reviewer for the Harvard Review, “for too much flurry and inattention, and the Baroque conventions of our social and professional lives. She is a poet of wisdom and generosity whose vision allows us to look intimately at a world not of our making.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Oliver
About the Devotion Writer:
Dr. Jeannine Hanger
Assistant Professor of New Testament
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
Jeannine is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Biola University, teaching classes on NT history and literature, the Gospel of John, beginning Greek, biblical interpretation and spiritual formation. Her research interests focus on the Gospels, with a special interest in the sensory aspects of texts. She lives in Torrance, CA, with her husband Garrick, a pastor at Coastline Covenant Church, and with their three young adult children Bella, Emery, and Garrison. Some of Jeannine’s favorite things include long runs, strong coffee, rainy days, and good books.