Holy
Week 2020: Remembering My Future
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| Wholly Spirit-drawn to Him - 2010 |
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| After the Sermon, 2017 |
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| Drawn Clothes to Him, 2013 |
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| Jonah Palimpsest, 2020 |
By
Tom Wachunas
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord
Jesus Christ… - Romans 13:14a
You
are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. –
Galatians 3: 26-27
For
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the
Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. – Matthew 12:40
“…For
I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon
me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find
me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the
Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity…”
- Jeremiah 29:11-14
For nearly 20
years, my modest home studio has not been merely a room where I act like an artist.
It is a place where worship happens. Not worship of the marks or objects I create, but worship of the One who
created me to make them. It is a place where I gratefully listen, meditate,
pray, and sing, so to speak, with my hands.
Additionally, ARTWACH has often
been a platform for addressing the
Christocentric motifs of my work. For those of you less familiar with what I
mean, I offer two examples, inviting you here to pause, click on and open these
two hyperlinks, and read my fervent comments on a work from 2017, “After the
Sermon,” and another from 2013, “Drawn
Clothes to Him,” both pictured at the top of this post.
Just a few
days ago I finished “Jonah Palimpsest.” Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines palimpsest as: (1) writing material
(such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing
has been erased; (2) something having usually diverse layers or aspects
apparent beneath the surface.
Lately I’ve
been experiencing a renewed fascination with the stylized iconography of
illustrated Gospel manuscripts, prayer books, hymnals, and portable devotional
images from the Middle Ages. To my mind and heart, that era’s art – replete
with signs and symbols so often saturated with luminous hues that bespeak an
inspiring and eternal presence - transcended worldly humanism to make the Divine
somehow accessible, the supernatural tangible.
My acrylic
painting was made on a wood panel supporting a layer of sheer wrinkled fabric
and crinkled translucent paper. The purplish Greek text that frames it comes
from the first words in the Gospel of John, equating the person of Jesus with
God and God’s word (logos) itself - In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God:
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ
ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ
θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
That tiny scroll held by Jonah as he emerges from the
belly of the beast bears the Greek words, from Luke 24:34, The Lord is risen indeed:
ὅτι
ὄντως ἠγέρθη ὁ κύριος
So why this picture of
Jonah? Call it one artist’s Holy Week meditation. The Biblical narrative of
Jonah is a distinct pre-figuring, or ‘type’ of the risen Christ. Victorious
over death, he is the fulfillment of a promise, the hope and rescue of an
afflicted, fallen-away world. My painting is nothing more, and nothing less,
than a prayer of gratitude for the infinite love of a Father-Creator who, in
Jesus, wants nothing more, and nothing less, than to raise us up to be with him forever.
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