March 11: They Do Not Know What They are Doing
♫ Music:
Day 7 - Tuesday, March 11
Title: They Do Not Know What They are Doing
Scripture #1: 1 Corinthians 2:7–8 (NKJV)
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Scripture #2: Acts 3:17–19 (NKJV)
“Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
Scripture #3: Acts 7:59–60 (NKJV)
And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Poetry & Poet:
“St. Stephen”
by Malcolm Guite
Witness for Jesus, man of fruitful blood,
Your martyrdom begins and stands for all.
They saw the stones, you saw the face of God,
And sowed a seed that blossomed in St. Paul.
When Saul departed breathing threats and slaughter
He had to pass through that Damascus gate
Where he had held the coats and heard the laughter
As Christ, alive in you, forgave his hate,
And showed him the same light you saw from heaven
And taught him, through his blindness, how to see;
Christ did not ask ‘Why were you stoning Stephen?’
But ‘Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
Each martyr after you adds to his story,
As clouds of witness shine through clouds of glory.
FINDING THE EYES OF CHRIST
Martyr is not a good word anymore. It conjures not valiant saints, but self-absorbed virtue signalers—people looking less like Jesus and more like me.
When I give up my resources, I quietly praise my own generosity. When I serve, some part of me expects gratitude, admiration, or approval. When I refrain from recounting a wrong, I stroke my pride.
Worse? Sometimes, what I call “self-sacrifice”—usually ignoring my needs—is thinly disguised victimhood. It’s a failure of self-advocacy, more symptomatic of codependency than sanctification. It doesn’t draw me deeper into love. So, what makes sacrifice, to use Malcom Guite’s word, “fruitful”?
Stephen teaches us. There are obvious parallels in the deaths of Jesus and Stephen. “Father, forgive them,” and “Into your hands I commit my spirit,” says Jesus. “Receive my spirit,” and “Do not hold this sin against them,” says Stephen.
Receive me. Forgive them. What does being received by God have to do with selflessness in the face of death? Everything.
Here’s my working theory: Only when we relax into the love of God can we truly love our neighbors in a way that’s costly. Only when we trust that our needs will be met by his constant, attentive care can we look wholeheartedly to the needs of others.
Until the crushing moment of forsakenness, Jesus lived from that place—confident in his Father’s present provision and love. How do we get there?
Stephen shows us the way if we follow his eyes. In his final moments, he “saw the face of God.” He sees his rabbi. He sees the living promise of resurrection. He sees his gaze returned with eyes of compassionate love.
The gaze of God is not for the faint of heart. It is utterly exposing, stripping us as naked as our Savior. Gone are the pretenses, performances, illusions. Our failures stand in sharp relief. Our inability to heal ourselves becomes undeniable. But more undeniable is his love.
Here’s a reality evil desperately wants you to forget: God overflows with affection for you. His love is not begrudging or dutiful. His love for you is eager. It’s pursuing. It’s a love that says, You’re worth dying for. Just the chance to call you mine transfigures my pain into joy.
What could beholding such tender love make possible? Could it cut through chaos and fear in the midst of your worst nightmare? Could it move you to bless your accusers and murderers? Could it cause you to sow seeds of forgiveness?
And what could beholding such self-surrender spark in another? Could it reveal the crucified peasant rabbi as the Son of God? Could it become “light from heaven,” piercing blindness?
The revealing question: What do we hope others will see? False sacrifice says, in a hidden way, “See me.” True sacrifice pleads, “See Christ.” Death bears fruit when we who were once blind—now swaddled in the care of Christ—seek to say, by our dying:
Beloved, here is Life. Come and see.
In our ordinary days, may we be martyrs like that. Martyrs like Stephen. Martyrs like Christ.
Prayer:
Dear Jesus,
Amidst pain and confusion, help us to find your eyes. Humble us gently. Secure us in the certainty of your love. And help us to die to self in a way that leads to true life—for ourselves and others. Multiply our meager sacrifices into a bountiful harvest.
Amen
Hannah Williamson
Content Architect | Full Focus
Alumna of Biola University
Torrey Honors College (“18)
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 Stoning of Stephen
Grace Carol Bomer
2001
Oil on canvas
32 x 56 in.
Private Collection
St. Stephen is traditionally recognized as the first martyr of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem who angered members of the synagogue with his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment of him and was subsequently found guilty and stoned to death. After Stephen’s death, the followers of Christ began to leave Jerusalem to escape persecution, which resulted in the spreading of the gospel wherever they traveled. Stephen's invocation of Jesus as "Lord" affirms a belief in the divinity of Christ and demonstrates his faith and hope in eternal life.
About the Artist:
Grace Carol Bomer received a degree in secondary education in English and history from Dordt University in Iowa and returned to Alberta to teach sixth grade, high school art, and French for six years. Her art career began after she moved to Kansas, where she worked professionally as a painter from 1976 to 1981. She studied art in Kansas and continued to study at UNC Asheville after moving to North Carolina in 1981. She also studied art in Amsterdam, Italy, and Ukraine, and teaches workshops, traveling as far as Luxan Fine Art Academy in Shenyang, China. Grace continues to maintain a studio in Asheville’s popular River Arts District. Bomer says of her work, “I am inspired by words, especially God’s Word, which is powerful and relevant to my work. Good poetry and the classics are also essential. In my work I attempt to bring together the word/image dichotomy, which was truly brought together by Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God and the image of God. The antithetical battle between the Word and the words of his created ones who have committed ‘cosmic treason’ is referenced in my Babel Series.” The juxtaposition of image and text creates connections and metaphors that may not be predictable or seen immediately. Her aesthetic language of parable, storytelling, and analogy stirs the imagination to consider the story, the eternal drama of God’s grace and love for a broken and fallen world. She calls her work metaphorical abstraction, as she paints to make visible the invisible. She views her work as “a form of play rejoicing before the face of God” (Rookmaaker). This is reflected in the name of her Asheville studio, Soli Deo Gloria Studio.
https://gracecarolbomer.com/about/
About the Music: “O Thou with Hate Surrounded Chorale (BWV 44, No. 63)” from St. Matthew’s Passion
Lyrics:
O Thou, with hate surrounded,
Enduring shame and scorn,
Whose sacred head is wounded,
And crowned with cruel thorn.
Though praise and adoration,
Be now denied to Thee,
And Thine but execration,
Accept them, Lord from me.
O calm, majestic features,
From which will shrink in fear.
The world of sinful creatures,
Defiled ye now appear.
How pale and wan Thy seeming,
Thine eyes that once were bright,
With power transcendent beaming,
Ah, what hath dulled their light?
About the Composer:
Johannes Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque period. He established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Mass in B Minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than three hundred cantatas, of which nearly one hundred cantatas have been lost to posterity. His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach
About the Performers: Leonard Bernstein (conductor) and the Collegiate Chorale and Boys' Choir of the Church of the Transfiguration
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and sixteen Grammy Awards, as well as an Academy Award nomination. As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music; ballet, film and theatre music; choral works; opera; chamber music; and pieces for the piano. Bernstein's works include the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two feature films; three symphonies; Serenade after Plato's "Symposium;” Chichester Psalms; the original score for the Elia Kazan film On the Waterfront (1954); and theater works including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and his Mass. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a legacy of audio and video recordings. He shared and explored classical music on television with a mass audience in national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein
MasterVoices (formerly the Collegiate Chorale), founded in 1941 by Robert Shaw, is a symphonic choir based in New York City. MasterVoices continues to give several performances annually in Carnegie Hall, New York City Center, Lincoln Center, and other venues. The group performed at the opening of the United Nations and has sung and recorded with such conductors as Serge Koussevitzky, Arturo Toscanini, and Leonard Bernstein. The organization's current artistic director is Ted Sperling. Notable singers who performed with the choir include Kathleen Battle, David Daniels, Lauren Flanigan, Hei-Kyung Hong, Alessandra Marc, and Bryn Terfel. In 2021, MasterVoices received nominations for a Drama League Award and a New York Emmy Award for its digital concert production, Myths and Hymns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterVoices
The Boys' Choir of the Church of the Transfiguration is one of many choral groups at the church. The church has long been associated with a program of free music performances. The Anglican tradition of a men's and boys' choir has been maintained with special music for concerts and summer services provided by a choir of mixed voices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Transfiguration,_Episcopal_(Manhattan)
https://www.littlechurch.org/
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 the Devotion Writer:
Hannah Williamson
Content Architect | Full Focus
Alumna of Biola University
Torrey Honors College (‘18)
Hannah Williamson is an anchored friend, curious explorer, and Velveteen Rabbit. She seeks to foster sanctuaries of belonging, delight in goodness, and cultivate gritty hope. She is grateful to the brothers and sisters who have taught her to practice trustworthy, tender presence, write and speak life, and cling stubbornly to the strength of Love.
hannahewilliamson.substack.com