Fire-breathing vicar for Pentecost
I liked this story - this vicar certainly gave a fiery sermon!http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-18226394 See More
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The Christ of the Resurrection
No doubt you will have been exposed to popular images of Jesus Christ as seen by the popular press or on Easter cards?
If you have you will discern that artists flounder to express how this resurrection Christ should be portrayed. Some of course opt for the sickly epicene figure beloved of our Victorian relations graphic in representation, a kind of resucitated figure hovering over the earth neither spiritual nor human, in fact a transitional body neither in heaven nor on earth; not so far off the mark in fact, as Jesus asks Mary in the garden not to touch him as he has not returned to his Fatrher in heaven.
But way off the mark in the sense that this human Christ energized by the power of the spirit was still physically identifiable as the Christ they knew but waiting for Ascension Day to leave their earthly presence and retrurn to his Father.
The most successful images of Christ in his post resurrection guise are either the powerful male torsos of Michelangelo bristling with energy, yet transformed or the almost abtract images of colour and light of William Blake and Salvador Dali.
Our own idea of the risen Christ will depend upon our preconceived ideas of a cross between a first century Jewish peasant in long robes and comtemporary humanity in modern dress or naked as born.
We shall not agree over a satisfactory image as belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ carries a wide variety of interpretation. Some will be satisfied with stained glass images from our churches which allows the light to illuminate the figure and in one sense transform the vision; others will be deeply disatrisfied with this type of cenventional image lockec as it is in a stule of art dependent upon the period it was paintied in.
Some like me will be happier with an image which still carries the marks of the Passion reminding us that the victory over death was actually won on the cross and that the glory of the resurrection is the icing on the cake rather than the deep truth of what Christ has done for his world. All our views will be far short of the theological truth about Jesus Christ risen from the dead in that scripture tells us in a word picture about the reaction of his friends to what they saw but not actually what they saw. That is left to our imagination and to the discernment of the spirit.
A happy Easter to you. PAD
Tags: Christ, Resurrection, The
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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on -
"this human Christ energized by the power of the spirit was still physically identifiable as the Christ they knew "
But was He? Mary Magdalene initially thought He was the gardener and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus didn't recognise Him at first, either.
Some years ago, I had an experience of my closest friends not recognising me because I had been very ill while in Nigeria and from being a normal, healthy size had become like a Biafra victim, a skeletal version of my former self.
I had also gone through a very unhappy time so was not my usual optimistic, bouncy self but a pitiful near-hermit who had panic attacks if in the company of more than two people.
Did Jesus' horrific experience of crucifixion change His physical appearance so much that His closest friends didn't recognise Him?
When His friends had seen Him last, He had been under extreme stress, in the Garden of Gethsemane and during His trial and execution. Did overcoming death and returning to life change His demeanor so much that His friends didn't recognise the confident, radiant, newly victorious Jesus?
I think it's important that they didn't recognise Him because they didn't recognise what He had accomplished, either. As you so rightly say, the victory over death was won on the cross. But did His family and friends celebrate as they took Him down? I doubt it, even though He said, "It is finished" to let them know He'd accomplished what He'd promised them.
They thought He was dead and gone: they buried Him. The women didn't go looking for Him alive on the third day even though He'd told them He would rise again then: they took spices for His dead body. The men didn't believe the women when they said they'd seen Him alive; Thomas doubted right up to when he touched His wounds.
I think His appearances between the crucifixion and ascension were to drum the message home to his friends because they hadn't understood what happened on the cross.
This is one of the reasons I love the Caravaggio Supper at Emmaus so much. It shows a gentle yet dominant (thanks to your beloved Golden Mean triangles) post-resurrection Jesus unrecognisable because He didn't look like the conventional bearded Jesus. He is giving a blessing prior to sharing bread and wine, pointing back to the pre-crucixion last supper and the crucifxion itself and forward to holy communion.
The painting captures the moment when His friends finally recognise Him, the point at which they realise that He has overcome death and is alive and there for them and all the wonder and awe that that holds. -
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Lynda Keen posted a blog postFire-breathing vicar for Pentecost
I liked this story - this vicar certainly gave a fiery sermon!http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-18226394 See More
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