April 11: Please, Just a Drop of Water to Cool My Burning Tongue
♫ Music:
Day 38 - Friday, April 11
Title: Please, Just a Drop of Water to Cool My Burning Tongue
Scripture: Luke 16:24–26 (NKJV)
“Then [the rich man] cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’”
Poetry & Poet:
“Scenes of Hell”
by Billy Collins
We did not have the benefit of a guide,
no crone to lead us off the common path,
no ancient to point the way with a staff,
but there were badlands to cross,
rivers of fire and blackened peaks,
and eventually we could look down and see
the jeweler running around a gold ring,
the boss captured in an hourglass,
the baker buried up to his eyes in flour,
the banker plummeting on a coin,
the teacher disappearing into a blackboard,
and the grocer silent under a pyramid of vegetables.
We saw the pilot nose-diving
and the whore impaled on a bedpost,
the pharmacist wandering in a stupor
and the child with toy wheels for legs.
You pointed to the soldier
who was dancing with his empty uniform
and I remarked on the blind tourist.
But what truly caught our attention
was the scene in the long mirror of ice:
you lighting the wick on your head
me blowing on the final spark,
and our children trying to crawl away from their eggshells.
PLEASE, JUST A DROP OF WATER TO COOL MY BURNING TONGUE
In today’s passage, the one overcome with thirst is not for our Lord himself but one who lived a lifetime of lavish indifference to his spiritual thirst. In life, the Rich Man of artist James Tissot’s painting, ignored both Father Abraham and the opportunities for mercy sitting outside his gate. Now, he cries out, acknowledging both and begging for what he had previously ignored.
Many rich people seem so confident, so self-assured, so enviable...prior to death. We can find it all too easy to hurry past the beggar. After all, beggars are dirty, possibly dangerous, and we have small children in the jogging stroller. We send a Christmas check to the rescue mission and assure ourselves that we don’t share his thirst, his lack. But the jarring contrast of Tissot’s work, The Bad Rich Man in Hell (Le mauvais riche dans l'Enfer), depicts how the way of worldly success somehow ends with the shadowy, parched figure, sinking, arms outstretched to the watchful Father Abraham gazing across the gulf.
Our danger is that we turn away too quickly. Poet Billy Collins hauntingly captures the ways in which our pursuits can consume us––leading not to life but to unfilled desire in an endless hell. The afterlife has not, in his poem or in Luke 16, changed the basic postures of the individual seeking satisfaction on their own terms; they persist, and if anything, are now forever stuck in those hopeless pursuits.
Each one of us has been created by God to thirst for Him. Compared with Tissot’s Rich Man, we face far more opportunities to ignore our thirst than he could have ever imagined––indifference does not require wealth as distraction will suffice. Whatever the means, it has never been easier to neglect our true thirst through pursuits that will never bring lasting satisfaction.
In contrast, Tissot depicts Lazarus clothed, protected, and honored at Father Abraham’s side. The Rich Man still assumed that Lazarus was in a servant position and could thus be dispensed to a task and ordered about to carry water or send a message. Instead, the one who lived earnestly hoping for a mere crumb from the Rich Man’s table remains a gulf removed from him, yet this time in an eternity of satiated comfort. Lack in the present moment does not necessarily foretell eternal deprivation. If anything, thirst in this life prepares us well to seek the eternal living water that our souls crave.
For the Rich Man, hell strips away illusions. As musicians Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys conclude in their haunting refrain, “One drop of water is all that he will ever need.” But this need will persist, unsatiated, forever. The moment for redemption has passed.
Prayer:
Jesus, thank you for enduring unspeakable thirst so that you could bring living water to the thirsty. Help us, who have yet to enter the afterlife, thirst for righteousness so that we may be filled with living water in this life and in the life to come.
Amen.
Jeremy Labosier
University Librarian
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 Bad Rich Man in Hell (Le mauvais riche dans l'Enfer)
James Tissot
1886–1894
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
22.4 x 13.2 cm
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn, New York
In this parable, a rich man upon his death is sent to hell for ignoring the needs of a beggar named Lazarus (distinct from the man Jesus raised from the dead), who had pleaded for scraps of food from the rich man and subsequently died. Now, as the rich man beseeches Abraham for relief from his sufferings, the Old Testament patriarch castigates him for his greed and his lack of charity during his lifetime. Here artist James Tissot imaginatively creates a powerful image of the rich man’s descent into a smoky and shadowy netherworld, while the beggar Lazarus, now protected by the Old Testament patriarch, sits next to Abraham.
About the Artist:
James Tissot (1836–1902) was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of fashionable, modern scenes, and society life in Paris before moving to London in 1871. A friend and mentor of the impressionist painter Edgar Degas, Tissot also painted scenes and figures from the Bible. In 1885, Tissot had a revival of his Catholic faith, which led him to spend the rest of his life making paintings about biblical events. Moving away from Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Tissot returned to traditional, representational styles and narratives in his watercolors. To assist in his completion of biblical illustrations, Tissot traveled to the Middle East to make studies of the landscape and people. His series of 365 gouache illustrations showing the life of Christ were shown to critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences in Paris, London, and New York, before being bought by the Brooklyn Museum in 1900. Tissot spent the last years of his life working on paintings of subjects from the Old Testament, which he unfortunately never completed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tissot
https://www.artbible.info/art/biography/james-tissot
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/james_tissot
About the Music: “Just One Drop of Water” from the album While the Ages Roll On
Lyrics:
The Rich Man lived in luxury
Surrounded by his door,
He’d always had the very best
That money could afford
He left this world not caring
About his resting place.
He laid his eyes toward Heaven
but it was too late.
Give me one drop of water.
The Rich Man cried from hell.
One drop of water,
But still no water fell.
He always was a selfish man.
His heart was filled with greed
Now a little drop of water
Is all he'll ever need.
You can't love gold and silver,
And love the Savior too.
Like the eye of a needle
Your chance of getting through.
So make your reservations
Before another day.
For all your gold and silver
Will surely pass away.
Give me one drop of water
The Rich Man cried from Hell.
One drop of water
but still no water fell.
He always was a selfish man.
His heart was filled with greed
Now a little drop of water
is all he’ll ever need.
There's one way to heaven
It's by mercy and grace.
Where everyone is equal
No matter creed or race.
So have no other Bible.
And always put God first
We’ll live on milk and honey,
and we'll never thirst.
Give me one drop of water
A Rich Man cried from Hell.
One drop of water
But still no water fell.
He always was a selfish man.
His heart was filled with greed
Now little drop of water
Is all he'll ever need.
Now little drop of water
Is all he'll ever need.
About the Composers/Performers: Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys
Dr. Ralph Edmund Stanley (1927–2016) was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. He began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of the Stanley Brothers, and most often as the leader of his band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. He was part of the first generation of bluegrass musicians and was inducted into both the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor and the Grand Ole Opry. Stanley's work was featured in the very popular 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which he sings the Appalachian dirge "O Death.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Stanley
About the Poetry and Poet:
William James Collins (b. 1941) is an American poet who served as the poet laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He was a distinguished professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, retiring in 2016. Collins was selected as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. As of 2020, Collins is a teacher in the M.F.A. program at Stony Brook Southampton. Dubbed “the most popular poet in America” by Bruce Weber in the New York Times, Collins is famous for conversational, witty poems that welcome readers with humor but often slip into quirky, tender, or profound observations on the everyday, reading and writing, and poetry itself. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Guggenheim Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and has taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence, Lehman College, and the City University of New York.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Collins
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/billy-collins
About the Devotion Writer:
Jeremy Labosier
University Librarian
Biola University
Jeremy Labosier oversees library operations at Biola University and currently holds leadership roles in the Association of Christian Librarians as well as the Council for Christian Colleges and University’s Council for Library Leadership and Snezek Library Leadership Institute. He has published articles on spiritual formation and library leadership.