Lament & the Journey to Hope

Anguish & Art

van Gogh

Asylum

distressed state of mind

anguish

recognised in Jesus a pain that refelected his own reality

Painting draws us into the scene

barrenness

first hint of spring

dark tree in the centre

under the eaves - a view onto sunlit hills of green

figure in the shadows

van Gogh? Jesus? us?

turning our back on the trials to come, yet still knowing we have to go through it

Going on a bear hunt

another profound piece of art

tempted to go over it

tempted to go around it.

Jesus warns twice against temptation

tended by angels

anguish & sweat like drops of blood

finds the disciples sleeping

we have to go through it

Torn between this world and the next

Jesus was

We are too

1 Chronicles 29:15 NIV

We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.

Hebrews 11:13 NIV

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

Philippians 3:20–21 NIV

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Now & not yet

Through Death into Life

The worst still ahead, Jesus can see it coming

Comforting thought, isn’t it?

Losing ourselves

Kenosis

Philippians 2:5–8 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Jesus empties himself physically, emotionally and spiritually in Gethsemane

During the season of Lent, we are reminded that just as he turned his face to the way of the cross, we too are called to “go through it” with our eyes wide open to the love that it costs.

Finding ourselves in Him

If we lose ourselves in him, then we also find ourselves in him

After Gethsemane, Jesus is changed. He has the groundedness, the confidence to hold his own in the face of interogation, torture and death. All of this is done in a quiet dignity, tempered in assurance and love.

As we empty ourselves for the Lord, paradoxiacally, we find a deeper sense of self in him. Our deepest nature is revealed - we are children of God’s image and love.

My prayer for you, in this season of Lent, is that as you are bowed in the shadows, you may be drawn into knowing the incomparable hope and love that have been created for each of us in the self-emptying of Christ on the cross, and the fulfilment of life in the resurrection of Jesus.

Amen