Crucify Him!

Ecce Homo, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1606–1609. Oil on canvas. Private Collection, On loan to the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

Extreme Humility Icons, Artists unknown, Early 15th century. Tempera on wood. Byzantine Museum, Kastoria, Greece.

Christ the Bridegroom Icon, Artists unknown, 17th century. Andreadis Collection, Athens, Greece.

Crucify Him from the St. Luke Passion. Composed by Eriks Esenvalds. Performed by The Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Kjava (conductor) and the Sinfonietta Riga Orchestra with Janis Kursevs (tenor).

Poetry:

"Speculations on the Subject of Barabbas"
by Zbigniew Herbert translated by John Carpenter and Bogdana Carpenter

What happened to Barabbas. I ask no one knows
Released from the chain he walked out into a white street
he could turn right go straight ahead turn left
spin on his heels crow happily as a rooster
He Emperor of his own hands and head
He Governor of his own breath

I ask because in a sense I took part in the affair
Attracted by the crowd in front of Pilate’s palace I shouted
like the others Barabbas let Barabbas free
Everyone shouted if I alone had been silent
it still would have happened as it was supposed to happen

Perhaps Barabbas returned to his band
In the mountains he kills quickly robs with precision
Or he opened a pottery shop
And cleans hands soiled by crimes
in the clay of creation
He is a water carrier mule driver money lender
a ship owner—Paul sailed to the Corinthians on one of them

or—this can’t be ruled out—
became a prized spy paid by the Romans

Look and admire the stunning game of fate
for chances of power smiles of fortune.

While the Nazarene
remained alone
without an alternative
with a steep
path
of blood.

CRUCIFY HIM!

Mouth agape, Pontius Pilate gestures to Christ as they stand before a cold stone ledge. An attending Roman soldier, caught in mid-sentence, robes the Savior in bright crimson. Christ’s hands are folded and bound as he grips the reed used to force the crown of thorns onto his brow just moments before. This instrument of torture doubles as a scepter, mocking Christ as King of the Jews. Who is the intended audience of this painting? While the subject, Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”), implies the crowd gathered in Mark 15: 6-15 to adjudicate Christ’s fate, this reading of the picture is incomplete. Caravaggio, unsatisfied with merely depicting the past, forcefully insists that a decision be made, not then, but now. All who stand before the picture are implicated.

The subject of Ecce Homo in European painting springs from older iconographies in the Byzantine tradition that seek a broader theological horizon beyond the depictions of a single moment in time. The icon of the Extreme Humility, also called the King of Glory, is a prime example. This icon type compresses multiple moments from Christ’s Passion into a single image. Visual references to the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, the Lamentations, and the Entombment are present simultaneously, providing a rich visual context for the liturgical rite celebrated on Great and Holy Friday. The icon of Extreme Humility allows the eye to ponder the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the “Suffering Servant.”

Most closely related to the Ecce Homo in the Byzantine tradition, however, is the icon of Christ the Bridegroom. The title signals a profound theological insight that binds the visual subject with its true meaning for the faithful, all within the liturgical context of Great and Holy Lent. The Christ the Bridegroom icon is an essentialized version of the Ecce Homo. Only Christ is featured with the Instruments of the Passion. The term “Bridegroom” in the title suggests the anticipation of a relationship soon to be consummated. Biblical exegesis, liturgy, and iconography coalesce into a single vision of the Savior’s sacrifice for his people.

The Church Fathers perceived Christ in his suffering as the necessary sacrifice, according to the Father’s will, for the salvation of the cosmos whose final victory is accomplished in the Resurrection. The connection between the Christ the Bridegroom icon and its scriptural source of the “Parable of the Ten Virgins” (Matthew 25: 1-13) thus comes into view within a liturgical context. As the faithful prepare themselves by prayer, fasting, and alms-giving during Great and Holy Lent, repentance itself serves as a preparation to receive the Bridegroom in his Resurrection, lest we, like the foolish virgins, be caught unprepared.

Lent is a call to repentance that we might fully partake in Christ’s Resurrection. The trial of Lent is not an end in itself. It is a preparation to receive the Bridegroom with a humble and clean heart. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates: and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in” (Psalm 24:7). The mysterium tremendum of the Christian faith is how Jesus Christ, broken and humiliated when presented to the people by Pontius Pilate, is also the Bridegroom and King of Glory. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Prayer:
“I see thy bridal chamber adorned, O my Savior, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter there. Make the robe of my soul to shine, O Giver of Light, and save me.”

––Exapostilarion, Third Tone, Bridegroom Matins

Dr. James Anno
Associate Curator of European Art
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, Texas

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, please visit our website via the link in our bio.