Faith Formation: Reflections on Art

Landscape with Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene by Claude Lorrain 1681 Stadel Museum Frankfort Germany

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other art the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Mary Magdalene went and announce to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:11-18

Claude Lorrain was a landscape painter. He painted this story for the Roman Cardinal Fabrizio Spada in 1681. The landscape dominates the scene. Though the figures seem small they depict the story of the resurrection as told by the Gospel of John. I saw this painting Stadelsches Kuntstinstitut in Frankfort Germany in October of 2023.

Reading the painting from right to left one can see the three crosses of Good Friday on the top of the hill, Mt. Calvary. At the base of the hill lies the open tomb with angels at the entrance. Two women stand one the right side of a fence. Though they were not mentioned in John's Gospel they were present in the other stories of the morning. The fence signifies a separation between the realm of death on which they still stand and the realm of life where Mary and Jesus are. They stand at a gate in the fence, a reminder of the barrier and entrance to paradise, the Garden of Eden from which humanity had been banished. The angels, cherubim with flaming swords, no longer guard the gate for the gates of death have been opened to access to the tree of life. The tree of life stands alone and tall just on the left side of the fence and gate. In the background is Jerusalem and another open gate. Perhaps, Lorrain was thinking about the separation of Judaism and Christianity by the open gate from the city to the rest of the world, perhaps.

A long distance lies between the scene on the right and the encounter between Mary Magdalene and Jesus on the left. They stand beneath a hill forested by trees, in contrast to the barren hill topped by crosses, trees of death. Paradise is a garden, lush and filled with every tree that bears fruit. Tellingly, Mary mistakes Jesus for "the gardener." Jesus was thought of as a "second Adam," based on Mary's mistaken reference and the way the Apostle Paul wrote about Adam and Christ. "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned - for sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam, who is the pattern of the one who was to come. ... If because of the one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. ..." Romans 5:12-21. "For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:21

The viewing note next to the painting at the museum concluded, "The biblical subject here above all provides a welcome occasion for a well-wrought and extensive ideal landscape." The ideal hope of the resurrection is the return to paradise, to Eden reopened and the tree of life freely available to all. The hymn, "In the Garden" often sung at funerals, expresses the scene, "I come to the garden alone. While the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses. And he walks with me, and he talks with me, And he tells me I am his own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other can ever know." Gardens are special places of beauty. Gardens are places of fruitfulness and life. To walk in a garden of flowers is paradise. To eat from a garden of tomatoes, herbs, and onions is life. I often go the garden to marvel at life and all kinds of life to come.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer