This image is from the Methodist Art Collection. It’s by Graham Sutherland, and was painted in 1947. Deeply touched by the atrocities and suffering of the Holocaust, Sutherland, formerly a landscape artist, painted this striking image.
We don’t like to linger too long at this moment in our story, preferring to rush ahead to the joys of Easter. Yet for many human lives, touched with grief, illness or abuse, this is the moment in which they remain.
So let us stay here for a while, with Mary and the other women who have traveled from Nazareth, or looking on from afar with the disciples who ran away in fear. Or with Judas and the guilt of betrayal.
This was a political death, an execution, planned by those in authority to silence a potential trouble-maker.
We still hear today stories of torture, oppression, betrayal and violence. Nigeria, Syria, Palestine.
We still hear today stories of torture, oppression, betrayal and violence. Nigeria, Syria, Palestine.
Jesus is dead. All Creation falls silent.
Silence
And yet…somehow…even at this moment… God is there.
Can we in this sad, lonely, confusing and scary moment sense a glimmer of hope?
Hope for those who grieve.
Hope for our violent and broken world.
Even… or perhaps especially…at this moment, He remains Emmanuel, God with us.
Silence
And yet…somehow…even at this moment… God is there.
Can we in this sad, lonely, confusing and scary moment sense a glimmer of hope?
Hope for those who grieve.
Hope for our violent and broken world.
Even… or perhaps especially…at this moment, He remains Emmanuel, God with us.
