Resonance: Part III

One of the definitions of resonance that I shared in the first article was this: 

The power to evoke enduring images, memories and emotions.

A book I talked about was Ken Gire’s “Shaped by the Cross”.  This Easter week, I want to explore some of what resonated with me.  May it speak to you about what was accomplished at the cross and in our lives post resurrection Sunday.

‘Shaped by the Cross’ is a meditation on the sufferings of Jesus through the art of Michelangelo’s Pieta. That profound sculpture of Mary holding Jesus in her arms after the cross.  Michelangelo’s art does fit the definition of resonance, his images endure and have for generations.  We often think of his ‘David’, which resides in Florence, the ‘Finger of God’ on the Sistine Chapel in Rome and other pieces of his art.  Leonardo da Vinci, Buonarroti  Michelangelo along with others were part of what is called in art history, the Renaissance.  At a time when the Bible was not available to the average person, the Word was made alive in art through the creativity given by God to these men and shared with the world.

To help you track with me, take a moment and google the Pieta.  Sit with the photo for a moment and think of the scriptures that talk of how if we won’t praise God the rocks and stones will cry out.  Ponder how a 23 year old who spent years of his young life in Carrera marble quarries, found the perfect piece of stone.  From August of 1498  this artist would spend two years, releasing to life one of the most profound works of art, — a sculpture that would depict both abandonment to the will of the Father for the greater good of fallen man and the encompassing love of the Mother heart of God. 

How could a giant hunk of rock contain in it the life expressed in this sculpture if the Creator did not know when he made the world,  that life would speak throughout all of his creation?   And this piece does speak.  How can a rock depict the surrender of ‘one for all’?  How can rock be made to reflect the folds of garments and flow around the body of Mary?   And how can stone depict nurturing love more than this marvel of art?

With Easter week in mind, I want to discuss another masterpiece.  This piece of art was in movie form  and its title is “The Passion of the Christ”.  Mel Gibson wrote and directed the movie then released it to the public in the spring of 2004.  Any of you that have seen the film know the impact.

What Gibson used together with Michelangelo was the power of art to convey what before their time had never been done before.  The reality of the cross and its horror is encompassed by the enormity of nurturing, never abandoning love to withstand all that is set before us.  All of expressing the redemptive heart of the Trinity before creation. 

At the time of its showing in our area, my kindred, Denise Jordan was staying with us. Having heard of the harrowing bits, the scourging and crucifixion portrayed as never before and to help us be brave,  I asked our youngest son Josh to accompany us.  To this day, I remember how he sat between Denise and I.  We squeezed his hands as Jesus was flayed beyond recognition and we outright sobbed as Mary knelt and laid her ear to the ground below which her son was imprisoned. 

In the movie, we were stunned and awakened to something I don’t believe was ever captured quite this way before. That parallel path of Satan on one side and Mary on the other.  A mother, walking every step from the scourging to Golgatha with her son, made eye contact with Satan in a piece of cinematography that sends chills down one’s spine.  Mary knew from Simeon’s word that a sword would pierce her heart one day. This was now her reality.  And so, she would represent to the world the ever present comfort of the Mother heart of God and resolutely not abandon Him.  She knew this was not the end — despite how it looked.

In the Pieta, Mary cradles and releases the body of the Son of God and Son of Man to the profound plan of restoration.  Mary would surrender His body to the grave and with all of us on that resurrection morning be able to say with the Host of heaven, that day and for eternity, “He is risen!”  And we can reply with hearts of exaltation, “He is risen indeed!!”