The Death of a Nazarene

[This paper was for my Jesus Through the Ages class at Capital University, where I'm seeking a minor degree in religion.]

Jesse Harmon

RELIG 210

March 19, 2012

The Death of a Nazarene

Crucifixion: the worst and cruelest form of torture according to Cicero, who lived from 106-43 B.C.E.  Notice how he said torture and not death.  This paper will describe two pieces of art.  One is a digital piece, and the other is a sculpture made of metal.

Since this is Year B in the Lutheran lectionary, I have chose the Gospel of St. Mark, the fifteenth chapter, and beginning at the twenty-first verse.  Various verses have been removed.

A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”)… And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS…

I can’t seem to find what the name of this, when it was created, or who created it.  I like this piece because it will show a stark contrast to the statue that is to follow.  This maybe a fairly new picture, either digital art, or pen and ink.   In this picture, Jesus is a very handsome man with a masculine jaw, trimmed beard, toned arms, chest, and legs.  He even has six pack abs.  I think the artist is trying to portray Jesus as a handsome man.  To me, it looks like the artist is trying to make Jesus sexy.  It looks like he’s Jersey Shore’s “Situation” of the early part of the previous millennium. 

            One of the more interesting things about this piece is the beauty of the women.  They are all very young.  Mary Magdalene, assumed to be the woman on the left, looks just as young as Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is probably next to her.  If you notice, Mary, the mother of Jesus, looks just as young, maybe even younger, than Jesus himself. 

Notice also that the pierce wound is on the left side of the body.  Why would the artist put it there?  I’ve noticed that many pictures of Jesus on the cross show the spear wound on the right side of his body.  I wonder if this has any significance.  There is a statue at my church where Jesus has his hands opened toward the altar, with the wounds in his hands and feet, and the spear wound on his right side.  There is also a stained glass window of Jesus on the cross with the spear wound on his right side.  Could this signify the “right hand of God?”

This picture shows the three characteristics of Beauty, Love, and Goodness.  The beauty of this piece is the faces and bodies of each person.  The love is the fact that the women are surrounding Jesus as he dies.  The goodness is the fact that Jesus actually died on the cross to save us from our sins.  The cross itself is also beautiful.  It’s not as rugged as expected.

            I don’t know what I would think of this picture if I wasn’t Christian and I had not heard about the story of Jesus.  It would be difficult for me to imagine someone being held onto a wooden T with nails through his hands and feet.  Why would he do such a thing?  Is this punishment?  Is this an act?  

The following comes from the Gospel of St. Mark, the fifteenth chapter, and beginning at the thirty-third verse.

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

This image is actually a statue that comes from Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.  The first thing that you may notice about this statue is that Jesus only has one hand nailed to the cross, (I’ll go in depth on how crucifixion actually was).  Why would the artist do such a thing?  Well, it was probably created to give the sense that people weren’t always crucified in the same way.  I’ve seen many pictures of Jesus with nails in his wrists and heels, and I’ve seen many pictures of Jesus with nails in his hands and through his feet.

This statue is impossible.   If Jesus were really hung from the cross with a single nail through the palm, he would have fallen off.  If you take your finger, and press down in the center of your palm, and bring your finger upward, you’ll notice that there are two bones to the left and to the right of your finger, but your finger is unobstructed as you move toward the area between your fingers.  Now imagine the skin ripping itself apart as you do that.  You can see it wouldn’t be possible for someone to be held up on the cross with a nail in just one hand, let alone both hands.

The nails were most likely driven into his feet, as it would be nearly impossible to drive the nail into the ankle or leg bone of someone, although I saw a documentary once that had a heel fragment of someone with a nail still in the bone.  Although nailing someone’s wrists or forearms to the cross was not uncommon, people were usually hung with ropes around their wrists or forearms. 

Death usually came from suffocation, instead of blood loss.  Imagine you’re doing pull-ups in the Capital Center.  Instead of pulling yourself up, just hang there with your feet off of the ground.  Try breathing normally.  Now imagine what happens to your lungs when you do that.  They will get compressed inward because your ribcage is getting squashed.  This will cause great pain, and restrict the lungs from breathing properly.

This statue seems to be made of maybe aluminum or some sort of softer metal than can easily be hammered or molded into shape.  Jesus doesn’t look healthy at all.  His ribcage may have been exaggerated, but you can still almost feel the pain that he’s in.  His legs are bent at an extreme angle to prevent him from hoisting himself up on his feet, increasing the pain in his hand.  One can probably guess where Jesus is trying to reach his right hand to…I think he’s trying to reach out to God in Heaven to save him.  

In this picture, you can see how big the statue actually is.  From what I can guess it’s about 12 feet tall.  For comparison, if you look on the bottom right of the picture, you can see a man on the ground.  (From what I understand, he’s using a hair dryer to pull up wax off of the ground).  It looks as if the actual metal statue of Jesus is the size of an average man.

This statue, I think, shows evil, ugliness, and lies.  The evilness is the fact that Jesus was crucified.  The ugliness is the actual body of Jesus, being contorted and with a ribcage being shown.  The lies about this statue is the fact that Jesus is being held onto the cross with only one hand. 

This image is also difficult to comprehend if I did not know about the story of Jesus.  I think I would see a man being held onto this wooden T by two nails as punishment instead of execution.  What did he do to deserve this?  Did he murder someone?  Did he steal?  When in history did this happen?  He appears to have a towel around him.  Is this humiliation?

Both images show the same scene, but in very different ways.  The first picture shows Jesus as a sexy man, with three women surrounding him.  The second picture shows Jesus all alone and pleading to be saved.

Remember that Jesus was not only fully God, but he was fully human as well.  He felt emotion and he felt pain.  In fact, he actually prayed that God would spare him the death that was imminent.  The second image, even though it’s incorrect, shows the crucifixion as it actually was.  Jesus was in pain, and he was crying out to his father to save him. 

Works Cited

"Jesus Was Nailed to the Cross." The Jesus Police. The Jesus Police, 10 03 2006. Web. 4 Mar 2012.