{"id":21341,"date":"2025-11-20T19:44:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21341"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:25:34","slug":"bachs-latest-hit-and-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21341","title":{"rendered":"Bach&#8217;s latest hit, and discipleship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NEW BACH PIECE (1 of 2) - Chaconne and Fugue in D minor BWV 1178 (1703) (sheet music)\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0X1xnYrP3Eo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, \u201cI praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from&nbsp;<em>the<\/em>&nbsp;wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/biblehub.com\/luke\/10-22.htm\"><\/a>\u201cAll things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal&nbsp;<em>Him.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;Turning to the disciples, He said privately, \u201cBlessed&nbsp;<em>are<\/em>&nbsp;the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see&nbsp;<em>them,<\/em>&nbsp;and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear&nbsp;<em>them.<\/em>\u201d (Luke 10:21-24, NASB 1995)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The music at the top <\/strong>is one of the recently discovered pieces that are thought to have been composed by Johan Sebastian Bach, whom I once heard Dr. Oswald C. J. Hoffman describe as \u201cthe second greatest Lutheran in history.\u201d I guess there\u2019s some dispute about authorship, but I\u2019ll give it the benefit of the doubt. Bach\u2019s whole <em>ouvre <\/em>could have been forged by Mendelssohn, and how would I know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My devotions this morning were on the passage printed at the top of this text. What struck me was how different this speech is from a lot of what the Lord says about discipleship. (Or at least how I perceive what He says.) I tend to go the same way as Jordan Peterson, who is a legalist and is always discussing it in a cautionary way. \u201cHave you really thought about what that means, \u2018taking up your cross\u2019?\u201d Peterson asks. \u201cIt means suffering. It means dying. Are we really prepared to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which is fair enough; He\u2019s quoting the Lord Himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Christ is in an entirely different mode in this passage. He\u2019s looking at these guys He\u2019s chosen \u2013 guys He\u2019s chosen for suffering and ostracism and death \u2013 and He\u2019s telling them how lucky they are. He\u2019s given (and is giving) them something that outweighs all that suffering and death to such a degree that they\u2019re not even worth considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I certainly believe we should talk about \u2013 even stress \u2013 the cost of discipleship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I\u2019m pretty sure I under-stress the joy of the knowledge of Christ. Which is not surprising, considering my personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I need to work on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, \u201cI praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from&nbsp;the&nbsp;wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.&nbsp;\u201cAll things have been handed over to Me &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21341\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Bach&#8217;s latest hit, and discipleship<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[316,5774,1455,1526],"class_list":["post-21341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-religion","tag-bible-study","tag-discipleship","tag-johan-sebastian-bach","tag-joy-davidman"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21342,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21341\/revisions\/21342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}