Pieta Art

 

Pietà means pity, and in art Pietàs depict the dead Jesus lying on His mother’s lap after being taken down from the cross. The image was first popularized by Michealangelo’s 1499 sculpture, which was created for the Vatican and still resides in Saint Peter’s Basilica there.

That’s the photo at the top of this page, which I took during a visit to the Vatican in 2018. Unfortunately, it was behind bulletproof glass because it had been vandalized in 1972. The line running through the photo is in the glass, and I couldn’t get the Pietà from the right angle without the line.

There is nothing in the Bible to support the fact that Mary held her dead Son, although it isn’t impossible. Still, I like the image because it shows Jesus’ humanity by depicting His human mother as well as His death.

Here are a few other pieces of art that depict the Pietà, starting with a painting by Giovanni Bellini around 1505.

The next two are sculptures from the 16^th Century. The first is Spanish, but the actual artist is unknown. The second was created by Ippolito Scalza in 1579 and includes two additional characters. If you look beneath Mary’s raised arm, you can see Mary Magdaline caressing Jesus’ hand and foot, and the man is Nicodemus holding the hammer, rope, and ladder used to remove Jesus from the cross.

The final photo shows a later painting done by French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1876. In it, angels mourn with Mary.

As we look toward Good Friday, let us not forget that it was Jesus’ humanity that enabled Him to die for our sins.

For that, I will be forever grateful.

How the Old Masters Saw Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

 

Da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper” is well known. He painted it on the wall of a church in the 1490s, and it has deteriorated and been restored several times since. It’s possible that nobody has a full knowledge of the original details, especially around the edges. If you don’t know what I mean, compare the one above with this one.

Regardless of its accuracy, the painting shows Jesus celebrating the Passover with His disciples on the day we now call Maundy Thursday. If you want to be a fly on the wall and listen in to what Jesus said during the meal, read John Chapters 13–17. He clearly knew what was to come even if his disciples didn’t get it at the time.

Jesus’ heart was heavy, and after the meal He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46 all tell us that He asked His Father to take away the cup (the painful crucifixion) that God had planned for Him. Yet every time He prayed He ended with, “Yet not my will but thine be done.” In spite of His agony, He was willing to sacrifice Himself for us.

The next image is a 1465 painting by Giovanni Bellini titled “The Agony in the Garden.”

That agony didn’t last forever. The final piece of art showcased this week is by an apparently unknown painter from the Antwerp School in the early 17^th Century. I like this depiction of the crucifixion because the two thieves appear to be writhing in pain while Jesus is at peace. When He died, the battle was over and Satan had been defeated.

The evidence of that would come three days later, at Easter. That’s the subject of next week’s post to end this series.

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These works of art are all in the public domain because of their age.

From Celebrity to Criminal

 

This post is reprinted from March 19, 2018 and April 2, 2012. The references to celebrities with criminal records are dated, but the point is timeless.

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No, this post isn’t about Lindsay Lohan or Mike Tyson or Paris Hilton. A hundred years from now, they will have faded from the public memory.

That’s something they don’t share with the man who rode into town to cheering crowds on a Sunday, only to be mocked and executed as a criminal before the week was up. Events we are still talking about 2000 years later.

Talking about and celebrating. My father took this picture while my family was attending the Palm Sunday festivities in Jerusalem in 1958.

Lindsay and Mike and Paris didn’t lose their celebrity status when they were convicted of their crimes, and neither did Jesus of Nazareth.

But here is the crucial difference: Jesus was sinless. He had no guilt to convict him.

Well, that isn’t quite true.

He was guilty of love. A love so great that he paid the penalty for the sins of all humankind.

His heart was heavy and he died in anguish. But he did it by choice.

For me. For you.

And that’s something to remember not just during Holy Week but every day of the year.

Good Friday Sorrow

 

This is a busy week, so my next two blog posts will use two of my favorite hymns. This week I will concentrate on Good Friday, and next week I’ll do Easter.

“O Dearest Jesus, What Law Hast Thou Broken” reminds me that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, not His. It’s an act of love that I find hard to fathom, yet one for which I’ll be eternally grateful. Here are four of the many verses.

O dearest Jesus, what law hast Thou broken
That such sharp sentence should on Thee be spoken?
Of what great crime hast Thou to make confession,
What dark transgression?
 
Whence come these sorrows, whence this mortal anguish?
It is my sins for which Thou, Lord, must languish;
Yes, all the wrath, the woe, Thou dost inherit,
This I do merit.
 
What punishment so strange is suffered yonder!
The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander;
The Master pays the debt His servants owe Him,
Who would not know Him.
 
The sinless Son of God must die in sadness;
The sinful child of man may live in gladness;
Man forfeited his life and is acquitted;
God is committed.

Have a blessed Holy Week.

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 The picture at the top of this post is a 16^th century painting attributed to Frans Pourbus the Elder. It is in the public domain because of its age.

From Celebrity to Criminal

This post is reprinted from April 2, 2012.

__________

No, this post isn’t about Lindsay Lohan or Mike Tyson or Paris Hilton. A hundred years from now, they will have faded from the public memory.

That’s something they don’t share with the man who rode into town to cheering crowds on a Sunday, only to be mocked and executed as a criminal before the week was up. Events we are still talking about 2000 years later.

Talking about and celebrating. My father took this picture while my family was attending the Palm Sunday festivities in Jerusalem in 1958.

Lindsay and Mike and Paris didn’t lose their celebrity status when they were convicted of their crimes, and neither did Jesus of Nazareth.

But here is the crucial difference: Jesus was sinless. He had no guilt to convict him.

Well, that isn’t quite true.

He was guilty of love. A love so great that he paid the penalty for the sins of all humankind.

His heart was heavy and he died in anguish. But he did it by choice.

For me. For you.

And that’s something to remember not just during Holy Week but every day of the year.

A Shadow of His Image

Sometimes my mind wanders while I’m in church, but it isn’t always a bad thing. This Lenten season I noticed the shadows cast by the altar cross during Wednesday evening services, and they preached their own sermon.  

If you look at the physical cross in the center of the picture, you will notice that it stands up straight and perfectly formed, while the images created by its shadows are bent and distorted. Here is a closer look.

Christ was born and died as perfect Man, while those originally created in His image have been bent and distorted by sin. You could argue that Christ became bent and distorted as well (temporarily) when He took on our sin and paid for it by His death, but He would not have been a worthy substitute if He had not been sinless in His own thoughts and actions.

That wasn’t the case for the two thieves who were crucified on either side. When one of them hurled insults at Christ, the other reminded him, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” (Luke 23:41, NIV) And yet, in the most important sense, only one of the thieves got what his deeds deserved. Both deserved hell, but one received heaven.

Sin has distorted my image, too. Even so, God sees me as straight and as perfectly formed as the Man on that middle cross. Because He took on my punishment, I won’t get what I deserve, either.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, NIV.)

Praise be to God.

From Celebrity to Criminal

No, this post isn't about Lindsay Lohan or Mike Tyson or Paris Hilton. A hundred years from now (or less), they will have faded from the public memory.

Something they don't share with the man who rode into town to cheering crowds on a Sunday, only to be mocked and executed as a criminal before the week was up. Events we are still talking about 2000 years later.

Talking about and celebrating. My father took this picture while my family was attending the Palm Sunday festivities in Jerusalem in 1958.

Lindsay and Mike and Paris didn't lose their celebrity status when they were convicted of their crimes, and neither did Jesus of Nazareth.

But here is the crucial difference: Jesus was sinless. He had no guilt to convict him.

Well, that isn't quite true.

He was guilty of love. A love so great that he paid the penalty for the sins of all humankind.

His heart was heavy and he died in anguish. But he did it by choice.

For me. For you.

And that's something to remember not just during Holy Week but every day of the year.

A Mountain-Top Experience

As Christians, we use the phrase "mountain-top experience" to refer to an emotional high: often one where we feel especially close to God.

The Bible is full of mountain-top experiences, literally as well as figuratively.

Imagine how Noah and his family felt when the flood waters began receding and the ark came to rest on a mountain. Think of the awe Moses experienced in his mountain-top encounters with God: on Mount Horeb as a voice came from a burning bush, on Mount Sinai as Moses received the Ten Commandments, and on Mount Pisgah as God showed him the lands the Israelites would possess. Or the adrenaline rushing through Elijah when God defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.*

The mountain-top experiences continued in the New Testament. Again, imagine the emotional high the disciples must have felt when they looked out at the crowd that filled nature's auditorium during the Sermon on the Mount. Picture the awe on Peter's face as he saw Jesus standing with Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration.**

But there are two mountain-top experiences that don't fit the pattern.***

After celebrating the Passover with his disciples on Thursday, Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives and pled with God to take away the agony Jesus knew was coming. He was still there when he was betrayed and arrested.

Then came Friday. We often picture Jesus dying on top of a rolling green hill, the central figure with a cross on each side. While the Bible says he was crucified at the place of the skull, called "Golgotha," we don't know exactly where that was. It probably wasn't the pastoral setting of the old hymn and children's drawings. Still, Jesus was crucified just outside the walls of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem itself was (and is) perched on a mountain. There Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" And there Jesus died.

Not my idea of a mountain-top experience.

But that doesn't change the fact that it was one.

If a mountain-top experience occurs when we are closest to Christ, how much closer can we get than these times when his humanity was at its height? On the Mount of Olives, his humanity made him want to escape the horror that lay ahead. As he hung on the cross, his humanity felt the separation from God that, to me, is the essence of hell.

So why did he do it? For me. And for you.

Or, as I recently heard in a radio sermon, he did it because God's divine nature demanded it. Because God is just, he must have justice. I'm grateful that he executed it on himself rather than on me.

And that's a true mountain-top experience.

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* See Genesis 8:1-5, Exodus 3:1-6, Exodus 19:1-20:21, Deuteronomy 34:1-6, 1 Kings 18:20-39.

** See Matthew 5:1-8:1, Matthew 17:1-8.

*** See Matthew 26:36-56 (the Garden of Gethsemane is on the Mount of Olives), Matthew 27:45-50.