Look! It’s there in the expressions of the two rushing forward in the just-rising sun, in the cool spring morning to the tomb reported empty, over ground called holy.
See Peter’s hand over his heart, his other hand falling near his waist after gesturing toward something ahead. The folds of his weathered face are strained with emotional trauma and fatigue, and yet, his eyes shine alert, almost lamp-lit, as he hones something in front of him and raises his brow.
And the youthful John, the sun reflecting light off his white garment, clasps both hands together at his chest, perhaps exhaling a prayer from parted lips, his brow narrowing over searching eyes that pierce the dawn with the angst of not knowing what he will find.
What is so fluid and inspiring about the visual arts is the artist’s ability to invoke the imagination of its viewers.
The Swiss painter Eugène Burnand gives us a thought-provoking depiction of The Disciples Peter and John running to the sepulcher on the morning of the Resurrection.
What exactly do you see in Burnand’s painting?
In the context of the Biblical account (John 20:2), the woman disciple, Mary of Magdala, alerts Peter and John of the stone that has been rolled aside, the tomb opened, and the body of Jesus missing. “They have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don’t know where they put him.”
It is in this space of time for Peter and John, the period between hearing Mary’s words and their arrival at the tomb itself, that I choose to imagine.
Why? Because, there’s a universality about not having all the pieces to one’s understanding at some or many moments in a life journey. Sometimes things just don’t seem to add up, nor do they make sense.
And so, I look to Peter and John as everyman in the sense that they lacked answers and were compelled to find them. What urged them to press forward is what compels all of us at one time or another….the need to know.
I imagine the neurons flashing in Peter and John’s inner thoughts as they run to the tomb struggling to untangle what they did not understand and would not fully understand immediately.
Indignation. Despair. Fear. Confusion. Sorrow. Anger. Betrayal. Regret. Disappointment. Disillusionment. Disbelief. These may name a few.
But I also wonder if the glimmer of what was spoken to them by Jesus before his crucifixion gave some veiled inclination of hope in their core—his promise of risen and eternal life. Perhaps subconsciously, they felt an inkling, a spiritual nudge of deeper meaning amid the shadow of unknowing, while their hearts pumped wildly.
And to me this is where great beauty waits. In the search to know. In the search to investigate. In the search to ask. In the search to pray. In the search to risk.
Because truth prevails, as does love.
With wonder and rejoicing,
Happy Easter.
Thanks for stopping by. ♥