April 2004
Dear friends
I was discussing going to the theatre with my daughters. One was quite excited about going - but also quite terrified. "But I'll have to watch the scene where Jesus is crucified, and I don't like that." She went on to say that she is always frightened when she thinks about Jesus dying on the cross. It's a good job that we were only talking about going to see "Jesus Christ Superstar" - and not Mel Gibson's "The Passion"!
This film has been awarded an 18 certification and shocked the critics with its graphic portrayal of the violence of Jesus' torture and execution. Perhaps it is easier not think about it, but may be it is a good thing to be reminded of the harsh reality Jesus endured.
I can remember the first time I heard a graphic account of the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. I was shocked to the core and deeply moved. To think that someone could endure all that ….for me!
Yet isn't this the truth of what we proclaim. That Jesus is 'the Son of God who loved me and died for me'? Its trips off the tongue so easily. Surely it can't do any harm to stop and think how much that cost - how much it hurt?
Each Good Friday we hear the account with a mixture of horror and amazing wonder. Our Good Friday hymns, with a tone of mournful celebration, express something of the enormity of the event. We cannot, somehow, be all happy-clappy that day. But we are not silenced by grief or horror so much as the stunning and amazing love.
As you probably know, I spent some time a few years ago studying the art and symbolism of the cross. In our reformed tradition, we have tended to limit our depictions to the empty cross. But when artists have come to make us 'Behold the man upon the cross' they have varied enormously in their approach.
The earliest Crucifixes were in fact signs of victory. Christ is depicted very alive, strong in body, arms extended rather than nailed to the cross, and with his Godhead manifest. Roman 4th century ivories compare Jesus, very much alive, with Judas, hanging dead, beside him. It was only in about the 9th century that portrayals of Christ on the cross became more realistic. Romanesque crucifixes showed the risen Lord, dressed and wearing a royal crown, but gothic crucifixes showed him naked, dying and wearing a crown of thorns. Typical of this would be the famous alterpieces by the artist Grunewald, in which the agony is clear, and the drips of blood are almost tangible.
The modern Brazilian artist, Rocha, carries this further with his 'Tortured Christ'. Tortured himself, and knowing many who were tortured to death, this picture is seen by the artist, not as a grotesque thing, but as a symbol of hope.
"When crying out in pain Rocha remembered the cry of Jesus on the Cross, and this cry of Golgotha became for him a great promise: Here was a man who passed through the deepest sufferings and nevertheless remained fully human, fulfilling his mission of love, being a man for others, until the ultimate hour of truth. There was no gap between his message and his life and death. Therefore the almost unbearable face of the dying Christ, - is not an image of abhorrence to the Brazilian artist - but an image of hope." (Hans Ruedi Weber 'On a Friday Noon' p 79)
In contrast, Salvador Dali (who's controversial painting 'Christ of St John of the cross' portrays quite a different perspective, in more ways than one) wrote:
"My aesthetic ambition in this picture was completely the opposite of all the Christ's painted by most modern painters, who have all interpreted him in the expressionistic and contortionistic sense, thus obtaining emotion through ugliness. My principal preoccupation was that my Christ would be beautiful as the God that He is"
Interestingly, the trend in the 20th century has been towards showing Christ the King (Christus Rex) robed and crowned, arms stretched out in blessing rather than nailed to the cross - a return to the original! That is until Mel Gibson came along!!
So how do we portray the crucifixion of Christ?
What does it mean to you to think about Jesus dying there?
Is it beautiful or ugly - or both?
And how can we ever thank him for his love?
God bless you all this Easter.
Nick
(Note: this letter is based on an address given at Christ Well on the evening of Passion Sunday - March 21st. I was able to show the pictures then! )