Art Reading Scripture
- trinitymilaca
- Jun 6
- 4 min read
Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation. 2 Corinthians 1:7
On Wednesday June 4, 2025 20,000 people had to be evacuated from a neighborhood in Cologne, Germany to defuse three unexploded WWII bombs found at a construction site. The effects of war continue long after peace has been declared.
The painting of "The Blind Man and the Girl" was composed by Karl Hofer shortly after his studio was bombed in 1943. Already in 1937 the National Socialist party (Nazis) had banned him from continuing his profession because his art was considered "degenerate." He opposed the Nazi party, was accused of being Jewish, and wrote a series of articles against the rise of Nazism. When his studio was bombed in 1943 he looked on as over 1000 of his paintings went up in flames. Shortly afterwards he painted this scene. The plaque adjacent to the painting in the Stadel Museum describes the scene: "Hofer presents himself as a blind man in front of the debris of a destroyed city. The artist underlines his loss and helplessness, but at the same time includes a glimmer of hope: he finds refuge in the figure of a young woman who optimistically gazes ahead." The yellow armband the blind man wears is a reference to the antisemitism that pervaded Nazi Germany and touched him and his relationships, work, and life. You can see other paintings through an image search of Karl Hofer painter.
Part of the reason I am attracted to this painting is because its style and colors vaguely remind me of my Uncle Earl who painted Lake Superior landscapes. But it was the story told in the description of the painting in the museum that more deeply caught my attention. Issues of devastation and loss and searching for reasons for hope are issues of faith. Hofer experienced the loss of politics, country, home and art. Hofer expressed that loss in terms of becoming blind, losing a sense perception, and having to adjust to understanding, living in the world in a totally new way. His uses a walking stick and a seeing eye dog. The walking stick guide him through things close by, and the dog lies at his feet with eyes as closed as his own. Beside him is a young girl who he leans on for support, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. His head is turned away. His primary perception is touch and his ear turned towards her. But she looks out with eyes wide open, a pensive expression on her face and a bit of a hopeful smile. Destruction is behind them. Hope is before them. She shares with him the sufferings he has known. Together they share the consolation of hope.
Hope is a attitude we hold in times of loss, suffering or uncertainty. Hope is not something we rely on when the world is on our side, we are already winners, and life unfolds smoothy. Sometimes hope is quiet and patient as it seems in this painting. It is comforting in the sharing. The Apostle Paul took comfort and hope in knowing that he was not alone in the experience of suffering, and he assured the community of faith in Corinth that they also were not alone. The passage I associate with this painting opens the Funeral service. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we can console others with the consolation we have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation." 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Yet consolation and hope are not passive in quietness and patience. German Theologian Jurgen Moltmann claims that hope is an active verb that drives us to live a new life, rather than merely wait for it. "That is why faith, wherever it develops into hope, causes not rest but unrest, not patience but impatience. It does not calm the unquiet heart, but is itself this unquiet heart in man. Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present." As the young girl gazes optimistically, hopefully towards what can yet be, she both shares the blind man's loss and suffering and becomes his vision to bring about new life in a broken and fallen world.
Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.
Pastor Tim Bauer
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