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And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Crucifixion of Christ, Isenheim Altarpiece (detail), Matthias Grünewald, 1510-15

Depictions of the Crucifiction of Christ typically end in darkness and silence. The heavens grow dark, the distant Father is seemingly silent in the face of the murder of His Only Begotten Son, life fades from the Incarnate Body of the Son, He is taken down, He is laid in a grave not His own. There is weeping, of no small amount, and people return to their homes.

This depiction is a sort of mental balm of the type that seeks to safeguard the human mind when it […]

Behold, But a Man

Pontius Pilate is altogether human, perhaps too human. He is a man of some knowledge, but not a man of conviction or ideals. Pilate knows that truth and justice are important but, likely due to being assigned to the provincial backwater of Roman Judaea, decidedly not Roman and filled with a plethora of competing political and religious worldviews, took a subjective stance on the issue. What mattered at the end of the day was not truth, but who wielded power. This was truth that could be known; because it was tangible; because it provided security and purpose.

What is truth?, Nikolai Ge, 1890

The tussle of wills between […]

For Our Sins

There is nothing particularly necessary about the maltreatment that Jesus suffers as part of His Passion. None of the animal sacrificial victims of the Old Law were abused prior to their sacrifice, and their slaughter was as humane as a sacrifice could be.  Even the goat of Yom Kippur, upon which the sins of the Nation were placed, was simply let free. The abuse that Christ suffered prior to His death is a result of human choice, of human acrimony, having to be done because Christ chose to subject Himself to whatever man wished to do to Him. It is a reflection and manifestation of the malice that lies in the heart of man, the movement of pride […]