John 20.19-31: Proof

How do you know the current state of things? You ask for proof, right? The deposit has been made? Let me just check that. You've finished your homework? Let me take a look. It's cold enough for a sweater? I'll just step outside and see for myself. Thomas was no different. In fact, he might be excused for his desire for proof. You say Jesus, who died, came back to life and walked through a wall to get to the room where you were? Well, I'd like to see that for myself. (John 20:19-31) Sometimes you need to see for yourself how things are at the moment before you can move ahead.

Artists need that too, especially printmakers. While painters can step back from an easel and assess a painting in process, printmakers can't do that. The printmaker is developing the composition on some kind of plate (a slab of wood, a piece of linoleum, a metal plate). Once the plate is manipulated according to the artist's plan, ink is applied to the plate and the inked plate is pressed to paper. The paper is lifted from the plate to reveal a mirror image of the plate. So printmakers may pull a print while still in the development process to see the current state of the print and what it will look like on paper.

All photos from the Kirkland's Museum's online exhibit Process and Print, part of the museum's March 2020 Month of Printmaking. 

Those prints are called working proofs. They help a printmaker see the picture as it will be. It allows the printmaker to adjust, change things, modify elements and move ahead with the best possible information Perhaps this episode in John's gospel is Thomas' working proof. It's a chance to see in reality something that he has been working on in mirror image. It's a chance to move ahead having seen the end result.

John 20.19-31: Thank You, Thomas

The first Sunday after Easter uses the same gospel reading in all three years of the lectionary: John 20:19-31. This is the story of Christ's appearance to the disciples post-resurrection and Thomas' after-Easter moment in the spotlight. Thomas is often criticized for his desire to see for himself, but I would suggest that there is another way to consider this story and Thomas' actions.

Thomas was asking, essentially, for proof of life. And interestingly, he will recognize life by seeing, by touching, Jesus' wounds. That is how he will recognize Jesus, how he will know that the one standing before him is Jesus: by his wounds. He doesn't ask Jesus to come back and perform a miracle - strike down the officials who sought to squash the Jesus Movement, heal more paralytics, elevate Thomas to a position in the inner circle of disciples, make it snow in summer.

Instead, what Thomas wants is to know that this is the Jesus who suffered. In fact, Thomas seems to be the only one willing to remember the suffering of Jesus. The other disciples seem ready to move on - and so they should - and so should we. It is after Easter, after all. And yet, moving on doesn't mean forgetting. How quickly we want to forget that Jesus suffered (because of us!). It is sometimes a battle to have people dwell in the betrayal, crucifixion and death of Jesus for even the 48 hours between Maundy Thursday evening and an Easter vigil. Too often there is a quick move (Sunday's coming!) that, intended or not, minimizes the suffering of Jesus and the reminder of all those in our world who are suffering.

For Thomas and the disciples, Sunday had come, and Thomas alone seems to remember the cost of Jesus' act of love and sacrifice. Wounds as proof of life. Thank you, Thomas.

Illustration is Carl Bloch's "The Doubting Thomas". 1881. Ugerlose Kirke, Denmark. http://www.ugerloesekirke.dk/kirke-kirkegaard/kirkens-historie-og-inventar/

For additional thoughts about Thomas (John 20:19-31), click here or here.
For thoughts on Acts 4:32-35, click here.
On Art&Faith Matters' Facebook page this week: the disciples tell Thomas it's time to move on. Click on the link.

John 20.19-31: Thomas and the Bubonic Plague

...or "Napoleon is not Jesus". As if there was doubt. However...

The gospel reading for Easter 2C (John 20:19-31) is the familiar story of Thomas who wants to see for himself. And who could blame him? Wouldn't you rather see the risen Jesus yourself than just hear from friends about how great it was to see him when you weren't there?

Take a look at the two images here. Consider the similarities:Two men are at the center of the composition. One has his right arm raised while the other reaches out to touch under that raised arm. These two central figures are flanked by groups of people and the whole scene takes place within an architectural setting.

Those are the similarities. The differences are numerous, beginning with the people in the picture. At top is a mosaic interpretation of Thomas reaching out to touch Jesus' wounds and see for himself that it is indeed the risen Lord.

The bottom image is Antoine-Jean Gros' "current event" painting "Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken in Jaffa." Gros has echoed the arrangement of Thomas and Jesus, though he has swapped the power positions. In Gros' painting, Napoleon, at this point in his career First Consul, takes the position of Thomas. The place of Jesus is taken by the plague victim. The value of their clothing has changed as well. In the mosaic, Jesus wears the dark color and Thomas the light. Gros has put the plague victim in the lighter color and Napoleon in a dark jacket.

The intention of the touch is different as well. This week's gospel lesson tells us why Thomas is reaching out (though it does not say that Thomas actually takes Jesus up on the offer to touch). Napoleon is visiting French soldiers who have been stricken with plague. The visit happened in 1799 when the French army was engaged in its Syrian campaign. The general has appeared as this temporary hospital and stands in a shaft of sunlight as he fearlessly reaches out to touch a bubo on a particular soldier. The bubo clearly indicates that the soldiers are suffering from bubonic plague, a disease whose horror is reflected in the gestures of Napoleon's entourage. Soldiers use handkerchiefs to cover noses and mouths; an officer tries to prevent Napoleon from touching this pestilential soldier. Napoleon, however, is confident as he reaches out toward the soldier.

Jesus offers Thomas the opportunity to touch his wounds so that Thomas would know for sure that it is indeed the risen Christ. Napoleon is touching the soldier in order to boost the morale of his troops among whom panic and hysteria were rising at the plague's outbreak. It's probably worth mentioning, though, why Napoleon was anxious to have this large-scale painting (209" x 280") shown at the Salon of 1804, shortly before his coronation. He was fighting anti-Napoleon propaganda. His visit to the hospital was in March 1799. In May of 1799, as the French army was withdrawing from Syria to return to Cairo, Napoleon was concerned that his army would be captured by the Turks. Though there remains controversy surrounding the events, Napoleon was known to have ordered that an overdose of opium be given to the soldiers in Jaffa who were suffering from the plague. According to reports, that was about 50 soldiers. Napoleon is not Jesus.

(Top) Thomas and Jesus. Mosaic. 12th century. Monreale Cathedral, Palermo, Sicily. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/monreale-cathedral. (Bottom) Gros. Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken in Jaffa. 1804. Paris: Louvre. http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/napoleon-bonaparte-visiting-plague-stricken-jaffa

Haven't gotten enough Napoleon for Easter 2C? See the Art&Faith Matters Facebook page for Napoleon and the Acts reading for this week. Just click on the link. Really. Napoleon...twice...
For additional thoughts about Thomas (John 20:19-31), click here or here.
For thoughts on Acts 4:32-35, click here.

John 20.19-31: Thomas...Without the Adjective

Leonadro da Vinci. The Last Supper. Wall painting/experimental techniques. 1498. Milan: Cenacolo Vinciano. http://www.turismo.milano.it/wps/portal/?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/en/situr/home/artecultura/musei/loc259

It is arguably the most recognized artistic interpretation of the Last Supper, and it remains the subject of theory and conjecture. Are there hidden meanings in the composition? Most recently Ross King has suggested that Leonardo included self-portraits among the disciples, making himself both James the Less and Thomas. The identification of figures is based on a drawing in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. The disciples are (from left): Bartholomew, James the Less, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Christ, Thomas, James the Greater, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus, Simon.

That makes Thomas the face closest to Jesus (though James' hand is closer to Jesus). Does it look like a face that should only be known as a doubter? Which exact moment is depicted is no more certain than the potential meanings of the painting, but whatever moment it is, there is much energy around the table. Disciples jump to their feet and gesture. They look at one another and at Jesus.

Thomas is, like the other disciples, astounded. He looks at Jesus with his right index finger pointing directly up. Perhaps he is objecting. Perhaps he is preparing to make a point or present a protest. One "restorer" along the way turned that raised finger into a loaf of bread(!). Whatever the statement, he is making it quite vigorously, and it is more effective to raise a finger than to wave a loaf of bread in the direction of our Lord and Savior.

Visually there is a link between that raised finger and the finger placed in the wound in Jesus' side in Caravaggio's The Incredutlity of St. Thomas (below). The paintings were created almost 100 years apart, with the Caravaggio a century later. If there is copying going on, it is Caravaggio copying Leonardo.

In Ross King's book, Leonardo and the Last Supper, he suggests that of all the disciples, Thomas might be the disciple who would appeal most to Leonardo the inventor, the experimenter, the scientist, the engineer. Leonardo was not content with other people's answers. He wanted to know things for himself. Though we mostly remember Thomas from the Easter 2B passage in John's gospel (20:19-31), he was a member of the band of disciples who were with Jesus throughout his ministry and as such he will be shown with them. Perhaps looking at those would help give us a fuller picture of the man so many people are content to identify by a single broad adjective.

(Above, detail. Leonardo. The Last Supper. Bottom, detail. Caravaggio. The Incredulity of St. Thomas. 1601-1602. Oil on canvas. Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany. http://www.spsg.de/schloesser-gaerten/objekt/schloss-sanssouci/


A copy of Leonardo's painting, created in 1545 and showing details that are no longer readily apparent on the original, can be seen at: http://www.tongerlo.org/da_vinci/davinci_home.htm 

See what happens to Thomas when Andy Warhol gets hold of Leonardo's painting. Click on the Art&Faith Matters Facebook link.
For additional thoughts about Thomas (John 20:19-31), click here or here.
For thoughts on Acts 4:32-35, click here.