ARTIST NOTES
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Week 41 2/26/2017
Title of drawing: "Hope Versus Expectation" (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19) Artist Thoughts: Understanding the resurrection is paramount to understanding the hope that we have in Christ, to understanding our purpose, and to understanding our expectations in this life. When Jesus appeared to those after the resurrection he also explained the Scriptures so that a proper understanding and living proof of his victory over death would lead to a proper outworking of loving God and loving people. Without this understanding disappointment seemed to shroud the presence of a resurrected Christ. With the death and burial of Jesus his followers were racked with disappointment. The expectations they held Jesus to were not properly aligned with the hope Jesus was offering. Veiled by disappointment the perceived reality of the moment was distorted and this distortion invited doubt in the hope they had. Writer and Theologian, Jill Carattini puts it this way when describing Jesus's heart broken followers, "Their hope in him was accurate; it was their expectation of that hope that blurred their vision and left them in the murky waters of an incoherent mess." Much like a work of art requires you to stand still and spend time with it in order to perceive all that it can give, we must view the life, death, and resurrection of Christ with an even greater purposeful study so that we do not miss the good news. It's easy to glance and walk past many works of art and never truly see them or the questions they ask along with the heart they portray. Art demands you to slow down and to look. I would expect God, who is the ultimate artist, to masterfully author a story and create a world that requires someone's full surrender of themselves when seeking to understand life's meaning and purpose. In perceiving Jesus as our hope we can give our full attention to God's redemptive craftsmanship and then follow him trusting his love to have the power to prevail in every circumstance. We can read that Jesus died for our sins hundreds of times, see it in movies, on t-shirts, stickers, and billboards or even be told this and hear it growing up and still never truly understand what it means, or we can truly take it to heart and find ourselves surprised by the beauty of it's bloom within us and the sweet aroma that continues to linger the older we get. Listen to the sermon here: https://youtu.be/17Mnwvk13Ow View the time lapse video here: https://youtu.be/BSHjLaRV0B0 |
