CenterPoints

  "Note then the kindness and the severity of God . . ." -Romans 11:22 The first thing you probably notice as you look at this 1500 year old painting of Jesus, is the odd, asymmetrical quality of his face.  The difference is especially evident when you look at the eyes--it is almost as though two drastically different people are staring at us from different sides of the same face!  You might be tempted to think that this is the shoddy work of an unskilled artist, but the asymmetrical quality of this piece is actually very intentional and the product of incredible skill.    The anonymous artist was attempting to communicate to us two distinct qualities of Jesus' singular nature--He is both God and human .  He is both Savior  of the world and Judge of the world.  Jesus embodies both the kindness and severity of God--qualities that Paul encourages us to consider side by side in Romans 11:22.  Cover up the right half of the painting and you ...

  "Now Thomas, one of the Twelve was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord!' But he said to them, 'Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.' . . . Jesus came and stood among them and said . . . "Put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.' Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!'" John 20:24-29 In "The Incredulity of St. Thomas," Caravaggio captures the moment when  the Apostle Thomas, ever the rational skeptic, finally sees and believes in the risen Lord.  Jesus gently guides Thomas' trembling hand to probe the wound in his side as Thomas stares in dumbstruck, bug-eyed astonishment and wonder at the irrefutable proof of Jesus' resurrection and Lordship.  This is no ghost or figment of wishful thinking--this is the flesh and blood risen Lo...

"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, 'Sit here, while I go over there and pray.' . . . he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.'  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.'” -Matthew 26:36-39      This 1901 painting by Russian Impressionist Arkhip Kuindzhi portrays Jesus entering the depths of the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion.  Impressionist painters like Kuindzhi were less interested in capturing the photo-realistic details of the world and more concerned with capturing the feeling of a moment or a place using light and color.  In this painting, the artist bathes the solitary figure of Jesus in a patch of pale moonlight surrounded by a dark archway, emphasizi...