An Artistic Approach to the Cross

An Artistic Approach to the Cross                                                                   

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Here’s a surprise. Most incompetent people don’t know they are incompetent. Researcher Dr. David Dunning of Cornell University says, “Incompetent people are often more confident of their abilities than competent people. So not only do they reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.” Of course, Mark Twain knew this long before any Cornell doctor came along, and he was grateful. Twain put it like this: “Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.”

If we are honest, we are all a bit incompetent in looking at the cross and seeing the depth of our sin and the breadth of God’s love, no?! Sinners don’t always see their sin. And a lifetime, indeed an eternity, will be spent plumbing the depths of Christ’s love for us in dying to pay for our debt and credit his righteousness to us. How then might one view afresh Christ’s redeeming love for indolent sinners like us? Perhaps try an artistic approach to the cross. Many rooms of great art museums would be empty without paintings of the cross. Read Luke 23:26-43. Ask Jesus to “Open your eyes to wonderful things in his word.” Then google “paintings of the crucifixion” and think through what you have read and now see. Here are three to start with:

-Rembrandt Van Rijn’s “Raising of the Cross” - Rembrandt painted his own face on one of the soldiers lifting up the cross. One of so many lessons of love for the depraved in this painting of Christ’s cross. The Dutchman answers the hymn writer’s ancient question definitively: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

-Salvador Dali’s “Christ of St. John of The Cross” - Why did Dali avoid the traditional horizontal view of Christ on the cross and paint him from above? Dali paints a bloodless Christ. No crown of thorns. No nails. Many a preacher has suggested the nails were inconsequential as love held Jesus to the cross. From above is a heavenly perspective; on the cross - one could say - it is that of God the Father himself. “God so loved the world that he gave…” Have you considered this holy week the Father’s perspective on Calvary?

-Francisco Raibolini’s “Calvary with St. Job at the Foot of the Cross” - This Italian artist painted Job at the foot of the cross. All of Job’s sufferings, questions, even the blessings he received at the hand of God find their answer in a Christ that was crucified, died, and was raised again! “I myself will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me” (Job 19:27). What is the cross of Christ to you, ho-hum or holy? The hinge of history or just a hoax? Put yourself before it through the pages of Scripture and past paintings.