Th Gospel account of the Annunciation
Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
The Crucifixion
Mark's Gospel account
Mark 15:21-41
The Crucifixion of Jesus
21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the jews.
27 They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. [28] [a] 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!” 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
The Death of Jesus
33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).[b]35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died,[c] he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph,[d] and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
Notes on the Crucifixion
- John Calvin’s opinion on it: gospel account on good and evil – groups try to show Christian self-hood, divided, tension between natural inclination and natural obligations
- Not invented by the Romans, but a king between the Old and New Testament
- Seneca’s opinion: on death, describes the excruciating pain commanded to take his own life
- Considered a shameful way to die
- Cicero: ‘…should be far removed from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears…the very mention of them, is unworthy…'
- Mark’s narrative one of the first narratives of a hero’s way of death by crucifixion
- Mark had to demonstrate the crucifixion: by way of prophesy, not accidental, tells his disciples three times what will happen, fulfillment of prophesy, prophesied Peter will deny him three times, ironic. Shame of his humiliation is trumped by his confirmation of his prophecy, so not condemned as a sinner.
- Primary strategy used by Mark is use of his scriptures – the Old Testament. To understand the mind of God, one read the Scriptures. Realization of the sheer horror of the scriptures and God’s will – his own divine will – Mark creates his argument is that the reason for this horrific death is due to God’s will. When he gives no answer to Jesus’ prayer, this establishes God’s will. Apparently, Jesus knows this, and that his fate is sealed. ‘But let the scriptures be fulfilled’ clearly foretold.
- To answer to high priest, uses a quotation from Daniel, ‘I am…right hand of power…etc’ on the cross, he quotes Sam, 22.1, ‘my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me’ god’s will revealed through the scriptures
- Two contrasting forces: realistic but also need to scriptualise this in both a holy and glorified fashion
- Fate of Judas – choice already made for Judas
- Nature of what happens at the crucifixion
- Controversy – the nature of the trinity, whether it is right to think of a trinity. Christ addresses the unseen God as father, gives us a sense of the relationship, and refers to himself as the son, relationship translated as that in the gospels. When we say that word, it is formed from what we understand. Can it be the same thing as a son of deity? If we think of it in a literal way, it unravels, therefore, perhaps better to think of it in a metaphorical way.
- Son of God, son of Man, the latter more nebulous – son has a problematized idea attached to it
- Images of cross and crucifixion beginning to vanish – but that image of the crucified Christ was very common, one of the most familiar images of a most terrible death – something that is so commonly reflected on, sermons given of it, etc.
- Two moments: crucifixion and the resurrection, the latter the foundation of Christianity
- Growing straight out of a society familiar still with the importance of sacrifice. Adam, and Eve had two sons at the beginnings, and the first two made sacrifices – Cain’s was not pleasing to the Lord. Once we’re in the fallen condition, one of the first things we need to do is to make sacrifices – to appease. Appeasing has a sense of quieting the fury, satisfying.
- Expiation – someone has committed a sin. How can you atone for that? (to establish a moral equilibrium) Process of making actions and thinking and doing from the heart sincerely in such a way the sins are weighed up again with good deeds – wiped off the slate by your subsequent good conduct. Must come from a conviction that you’ve done wrong.
- Invention of time over which your sin can be expiated
- Indulgence – document the Church would sell you would let you get on the ‘fast track’ way to Heaven, speeding up their passage to Heaven in the afterlife. In terms of sacrifice, people sacrificed in order to appease.
- Christ symbolically understands himself as taking upon himself the sins of the world. By being slaughtered, by being sacrificed, he has expiated all of his sins. Mark speaks as a witness which the others don’t. In the gospel of Mark, (oldest of the four gospels) the link between Christ’s action and words and the Old Testament is made clear. At many points at Christ’s life and ministry, it’s made clear he is going to fulfill what occurs in the scriptures – conscious of this, and need to continue this until the end. Jesus has gone through this through his own choice and clearly doing it in the conviction that he is fulfilling the prophecy of the scriptures handed out among the Jewish people.
- Stations of the Christ – set of paintings used in the Church, depicting stages of the passion. 3 o’clock the time decided the hour that Christ died at.
- Monumental events that shaped life for society – how it happened, as seen in Brueghel, takes you a while to find Christ
- The conventional way of doing a crucifixion was by one of three crosses. Thieves were put on either side of Christ and he in the middle.
- Triptics - Size of left and right wing panels – each is exactly half the size of the middle panel, because they would be shut. The images would be closed. Couldn’t see the image of Christ until Easter Sunday. It is always painted to go on an altar – that is the place it was intended for.
- Most religious art was for the Church
- Mantegna – shows us Christ at an angle we would not expect. Humanness of the feet got a lot of attention. He’s central, and dominant, but this this worked around.
- Religious art for the churches was not simply done by an artist choosing the way they would paint – a committee would tell the artist what they wanted. Italians called it the dezenia – the design, what you are working from, a devotional object.
My poem based on this subject!
The Son of God
First came the gentle kiss
Father, did you see that?
Hands seized me, angry faces filled
my gaze.
Father, did you see their hate?
‘I am he’ I told them, my power only
that of words,
Father, I think you gave me the
strength to speak.
And they cost me. Spit traced my
skin, struck fists blossomed purple stains,
Father, did you feel my rage?
The mocking stung as hard as their
slaps that I felt in bound darkness.
Father, feel my humiliation.
The words rang later, rang on and on,
‘Let him be crucified.’
Father, where are you?
My robes stripped, my naked body
shrouded in scarlet,
Father, I am searching for you.
The crown of thorns pricked my skin;
warm blood ran down my face,
Father, aren’t you feeling my pain?
Vinegar chocked me once the contempt
passed.
Father, aren’t you coming?
I was raised.
Father, let me be saved.
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment