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Death of the First Born
This painting comes from a series based on the Ten Plagues and represents the Death of the First Born. The 10 plagues are to a large extent challenges related to the basic plights of man, challenges to our flawed and susceptible bodies (e.g. boils, lice), to our relationship with harsh natural forces (e.g. dying livestock, hail), to our common fears (e.g. darkness). The last plague represents perhaps the greatest fear and most difficult cross to bear: the death of our innocent children.
When I was age 5-9, we lived in a funeral home where my father was an undertaker. One image etched in my memory was the sight of a very small casket that was being used to bury an infant. This was the moment I really began to realize that an innocent child could die. So many of the crosses we carry relate to our sense of our own mortality, our brokenness, our vulnerable flesh.
What cross in our life are we asked to bear?
artist: Timothy Vermeulen
13 ¾" x 17 ¾"
Gouache on panel
1 comment:
Mark 15:16-20
The soldiers took him into their headquarters and called out the entire battalion. They dressed him in a purple robe and made a crown of long, sharp thorns and put it on his head.
Then they saluted, yelling, "Hail! King of the Jews!" And they beat him on the head with a stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship.
When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
John 19: 16-17
Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
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