Jesus as the Good Shepherd John ch 10 : jesusmafa, Camerounian painting

good !  It took me some time, but I did manage to access my photos again today & Ive found another “good shepherd” painting... and for anyone who finds it confusing that this is a very ‘white’/European style after the African painting above... does it really matter whether Jesus is portrayed as an African or Indian, Chinese or European ?   well... I think the answer is both ‘yes’ and  ‘no’... even more confused ?

Well... we really have no idea at all what Jesus looked like... oh there have been various legends, but they only go back to about the 14th or 15th century... not back to the first  century AD...the Gospel writers never mention what he looked like, and although its strange for us to realise, there were no phones or cameras around then, and so no first century photos !  So all we know is that he probably looked like any other first century Jew living in Palestine...often outdoors & travelling the length & breadth of the country, probably on foot & sometimes on a donkey, so he would most likely have been very brown and quite rugged.

Why then do we have so many paintings of Jesus showing him as a pinkish-white’ European-looking person ?

Maybe that has more to do with the history of art and both the artists and those who commissioned them than anything else...

For the first 200 years or so Jesus was depicted through symbols eg the first letter of the alphabet elongated into the shape of a fish, or an anchor drawn with the cross-bars as a reminder of the crucifixion and resurrection... were these perhaps hidden, secret symbols ? as Christians were persecuted and put to death for their faith... ?  By the third or fourth century paintings on the walls of the Roman Catacombs [burial chambers ] were portraying Jesus as the Good Shepherd, in a Greek or Roman style of painting

Then we have the great artists of the Rennaisancelike Leonardo &Michaelangelo...both Italians...commissioned by Italian Popes... so naturally they would have chosen an Italian model when painting their pictures or creating sculptures ...including those of Jesus... and so we have tended to follow these artists, and have somehow come to think of Jesus as a ‘white’ person, without really thinking about it...Fortunately there are several artists from different cultures & countries around the world who are now seeing Jesus through their own eyes and painting him in many different ways...Over this next week or two I will try to find you some examples of paintings of Jesus from Indian, Chinese & African  artists & more...

G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936) The Donkey When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born; With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil's walking parody On all four-footed things. The tattered outlaw of the earth, Of ancient crooked will; Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb, I keep my secret still. Fools! For I also had my hour; One far fierce hour and sweet: There was a shout about my ears, And palms before my feet. Chesterton captures Palm Sunday from the perspective of the donkey that Jesus rode. can't you just imagine it ?!

Sunday

Annie Vallotton

Holy Week, Monday : Anointing at Bethany: John 12

 
“

...the fragrance of the perfume filled the whole house...”

Palm Sunday

Annie Vallotten: Good News Bible

crab-apple blossom in bud, back garden

cherry blossom: out of the window

Lynn Unger

Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

Lynn Ungar serves as a minister for the Church of the Larger Fellowship, an online congregation for Unitarian Universalists and other religious liberals.  Her first book of poetry is entitled, Blessing the Bread.  Unger lives in San Francisco, CA.            

from     journeywithjesus.net

Sunday : St John 11 v 1-45

 Why did Jesus wait so long before setting out to visit Martha, Mary & Lazarus in Bethany when he heard that Lazarus was ill ? 

It is worth realising that it was highly dangerous for Jesus and his followers to go to Bethany because it was so near Jerusalem, his life would then be in danger... 

...but you would only realise that by reading of the growing opposition he had been facing throughout the previous chapters in John’s Gospel [from about ch 7 onwards]... 

When he does decide to make the journey to Bethany, his disciples immediately point out how dangerous it would be. Thomas then says they should all go with him, and die with him, if necessary. 

Follow the narrative right through, and you will see that some of the mourners go and report what has happened to the Jewish Leaders who promptly decide they must arrest and kill Jesus...maybe Lazarus as well... if they are to save their nation from being destroyed by their Roman overlords. 

This is the background setting for this dramatic event.

You might be interested in “Jesus Wept” by Debie Thomas www.journeywithjesus.net