Happy and somber Good Friday! I have only changed my theme to black for today, and for obvious reasons. I realize it’s not easy to read, but it’s intended, of course, to capture the type of day this day represents for us Christians (and for the world, even though they don’t know it yet). It will go back to an easy to read white background tomorrow. I also see the new comments I have received, and look forward to responding to those hopefully tomorrow.
Hello Bobby, may this Good Friday find you penetrating even deeper into the wonder of what happened there β something far more than appearances suggest.
I donβt want to make a big thing out of this (maybe a little thing), but have you considered the biblical/theological appropriateness of showing paintings/pictures/images of Jesus? I read an essay by John Murray on this issue awhile ago and I liked his reasoning. His approach was that since Jesus is the Truth, all presentations of Him (in any form) must conform to the biblical presentation of who He is. Paintings, etc. canβt be βTruthβ because we donβt know what he looked like and, of course, most likely, he wasnβt a white European male from the 60s, since He was born a Jew and, per Isaiah 53, not an extraordinary one. This issue has, of course, been a βhotβ issue for hundreds of years with the βimagesβ crowd clearly coming out the winner; but I thought I would ask just to get your thoughts, and maybe others.
Thanks for continuing to share the good things from your mind and the mind of others.
Hi Steve,
Amen.
I’m neither an iconofile or iconoclast. For me Christian art, particularly of the ancient sort, is nothing different than reading a theology book or hearing a sermon preached. It represents an interpretation, but instead of using words, it is, of course, using paint, ink, or maybe even marble. I am a Protestant, of course, so I reject venerating or using icons etc. as a means of veneration or worship; for me it is more utilitarian than that. But we all do it anyway. When we read the Gospels we imagine what that must have all looked like. I see art produced in that vein, as imagination put to paint brush etc. I recognize it comes from someone’s imagination who just happens to be very talented in the realm of the arts. I don’t take it to be an actual picture of Jesus etc.; I don’t worship them; I seem them for what they are. All of theology, whether written or painted, can only be an interpretation and an attempt to be as proximate as possible via imagination and mining the depths and reality of the biblical text. But this is how I “use” such images. It is also a reminder to me of the continuity I share with the saints of old. That there is a history to the Church, and that it has stood, in spite of itself, because of its ground, in its reality, in Jesus Christ and the triune life. He is risen!
He is risen indeed! And the continuity of the story of Israel is now mine as well! And it is mine because its ground is the very reality of an enduring life, the reality of Christ’s own life given for us! And that enduring reality is now also mine, shared not in any iconic form, rather in the actual communion and through the genuine fellowship of unityβ in union with Jesus Christ, the very ground of the reality of an enduring life that is both human and eternal. Hallelujah!
Alleluia amen!
@Richard, amen, Jesus is indeed Israel.