PIERCED HANDS

 

 

As the war in the Ukraine continues, we focus our meditation on the suffering Christ, who died that we may have life and peace not discord.

The famous Isenheim Christ certainly gives us the possibility of contemplation in front of the unbearable- we see a light which cannot live without its share of shadow. The artist had a gift of giving us a sense of our own pain as we partake visually in the suffering of Christ.

It is thought that Grunewald's intensely realistic imagery and iconography were no doubt inspired by the revelations of St Bridget of Sweden, published in a best-selling devotional book during the 14th and 15th centuries.

Grunewald is now seen as one of the best history painters, if not one of the best artists of all time. He was working about the same time that Raphael was decorating the Vatican in Rome. 

Jesus' arms appear elongated and stretched as they give in to the weight of His Body. In the tryptich we notice His hands and the straining fingers. Grunewald depicts the expired Jesus with hands frozen in writhing pain, as if they sum up His sufferings. They have been described as a “physical scream”.

In His open hands, He has given absolutely everything  despite the exhausted body. He is transfigured by suffering . We see Him as already in a place beyond our earth.

 The nailing of Jesus’ hands was a fulfillment to a Messianic Psalm. “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16).

“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zechariah 13:6).

 

The Grünewald Crucifixion is considered to be one of the most horrific and painful crucifixions ever painted.  Rarely has a scene of such graphic horror been used regularly as the central image of a worship space. Today, as we contemplate suffering beyond our imagination in the Ukraine, this work can jars us into meditation on  why our Savior suffered as He did for us.  And we pray in hope for that which lies ahead in glory for all.

After the resurrection, Jesus invited Thomas “the doubter” to see and touch His nail-pierced hands for himself. “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands… Do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27).