image in the public domain, downloaded from
commons.wikimedia.org
Gerard van Honthorst was a Dutch painter in the style of
Caravaggio, who popularised the technique of “chiaroscuro” that draws on the
contrast between light and darkness. Van
Honthorst used this to great effect in this painting from 1620, entitled, “The
Childhood of Christ”. It depicts Jesus
as a boy, apprenticed to the vocation of his human father, a carpenter. But the brightness of the candle he is
holding points towards the vocation conferred on him by his Father in heaven – to
be the light of the world.
The painting inspired this Easter meditation….
Jesus worked with wood all his life. Apprenticed to his father Joseph, he learned
about the properties of different trees, and the ways to prepare and season
timber. He discovered especially how to
work with the grain of the wood, in order to add to the strength and beauty of
what he was fashioning. He was a master
carpenter.
From creating with wood, Jesus spent three years working on
the hearts and minds of his disciples.
Then on his darkest day, the first Good Friday, it was wood which
‘mastered’ him. With hammer and nails
Roman soldiers hung the carpenter-Saviour on a rough wooden cross.
From this great reversal came the undoing of sin and the
dethroning of darkness and the reconciliation of all creatures to their
creator-God.
And now by the grace which flows from Easter, may our lives be
fashioned again according to the grain of the universe – adding strength and
beauty to our relationships and our work, to our churches and our communities.
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