Jesus bleeds into the hand of an angel in El Greco’s The Crucifixion Sourceīeauty, Anne M. An image intended to portray a spiritual truth instead belies the extent of Christ’s participation in our suffering. Every year I heard that talk, clean and beautiful crucifixes started to look-I’ll be honest-a little more ridiculous. My high school math teacher gathered us into the gym once a year, as Easter approached, to deliver a detailed forensic account of what this ancient method of execution actually does to people. Empty crucifixes signify Christ’s resurrection and conquering of death-but they also remove our need to face his dirt and sweat and screams on a Sunday morning.Įven when I was too young to see the film, I could appreciate Mel Gibson’s handling of crucifixion as a bloody reality in The Passion of the Christ. In cast-bronze statues, uniform metal further blends away the wounds. Only pin-pricks mar his hands, feet and head. Christ hangs from the wood, looking clean and unblemished. The “serenity” of the crucifix dates back to the middle ages and remains common in our own churches despite the oddity of the image. Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself (1627) We would either have a silent, a soft, a perfumed cross, sugared and honeyed with the consolations of Christ, or we faint and providence must either brew a cup of gall and wormwood, mastered in the mixing with joy and songs, else we cannot be disciples.
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